Callum Macrae Explained

Callum Macrae
Known For:Documentary filmmaking and print journalism
Occupation:Journalist, filmmaker and writer

Callum Macrae is a Scottish filmmaker, writer and journalist currently with Outsider Television, which he had co-founded with Alex Sutherland in 1993.

An Emmy,[1] BAFTA and Grierson nominee,[2] he has been making films for 20 years in the UK and around the world, including Iraq,[3] Sri Lanka, Japan, Haiti and several in Africa, covering wars and conflicts in Côte d'Ivoire, Uganda, Mali, and Sudan.[4]

Biography

Callum Macrae grew up in Nigeria and Scotland. He studied painting at Edinburgh College of Art for five years, was a dustman for two years, ran a pirate radio station for six months and was a teacher for seven years. He was a member of the Official Edinburgh Festival's governing Council and President of Edinburgh and District Trades Council.

Writing

For two years he produced a weekly satirical cartoon strip for the Times Educational Supplement. He then became a full-time writer working initially for a variety of newspapers and magazines including The Scotsman, The Herald and The Guardian. He joined The Observer as Scottish correspondent, where he stayed for three years winning the Campaigning Journalist of the Year award in 1992.[5]

Filmmaker

In 1992, he moved into television, presenting and reporting on Channel 4's weekly magazine programs Hard News, and investigative legal series The Brief.

With Alex Sutherland, he co-founded Outsider Television in 1993. For six years he was an on-screen reporter on Channel 4 Dispatches before becoming a director. Films he reported included the award-winning documentary Secrets of the Gaul, which first revealed the whereabouts of the missing trawler Gaul lost with 38 men on board amid accusations that it had been used for spying.[6]

The first film he directed was an observational documentary about the famous London toyshop Hamleys,[7] which won the Howard Wincott Award for best film of the year 2000.[8]

His films include three major investigations into allegations of coalition crimes in Iraq.[9]

He has made many films for the BBC, Channel 4, ITV, Al Jazeera English and PBS.[10] His first television documentary on Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka's Killing Fields, won the Current Affairs - International category of the Royal Television Society's Television Journalism Awards 2010–11, won two One World Media Awards and earned a BAFTA TV Award nomination.[3][4]

His most recent project is the feature documentary, No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka, which has won several awards, including The Audience Awards at the Nuremberg Film Festival and Watch Docs in Poland, as well as the Human Rights award at the Festival des Liberties in Brussels.

He and his team were also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2012.[11]

His other recent television work includes an exposé of Khartoum's war on the Nuba people of South Kordofan for Al Jazeera.[12]

He has won a large number of awards, including two Royal Television Society awards, two One World awards,[13] an Indie award, an Amnesty award and in the US the Columbia DuPont Broadcast journalism award for his work in Japan after the tsunami[14] and a Peabody Award for his work on Sri Lanka.[15]

In 2012, he was presented with a Scottish Bafta Special Achievement Award.[16]

In 2010 and 2011, he was named by Broadcast magazine as one of the top three television directors across all genres in the UK.[17] ].[18] Sri Lanka's Killing Fields won the Current Affairs - International category of the Royal Television Society's Television Journalism Awards 2010/2011, won two One World Media Awards and earned a BAFTA TV Award nomination.[19] [20]

In August 2018 his documentary film was released, The Ballymurphy Incident, about the Ballymurphy massacre, a shooting by the British Army in Belfast in August 1971.[21] For background there is a lengthy report by 'The Guardian' [22] and he has written an article on the film [23]

Major film works

Several of his documentaries were investigations on war crimes.

His films include:

Apart from war documentaries, he has directed documentaries on other subjects, such as on sex workers and child wedding practice among Romani people in Romania.

Written works

Macrae has written extensively for a number of journals and magazines. Articles include:

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Home - Colombo Mirror.
  2. http://www.britdocimpactaward.org/files/nofirezone.pdf No fire zone
  3. Web site: US troops seize award-winning Iraqi journalist. 9 January 2006. the Guardian.
  4. Web site: Past productions . 8 December 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20141107142510/http://www.outsidertv.co.uk/pastproductions.html . 7 November 2014 . dead .
  5. Web site: Callum Macrae. Outsider Television. 7 April 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20120407110932/http://www.outsidertv.co.uk/callummacrae.html. 7 April 2012. dead.
  6. Web site: The Loss of FV Gaul - Britishseafishing.co.uk. britishseafishing.co.uk. 28 May 2014.
  7. Web site: Hamleys: A Real Toy Story. www.wtps.co.uk.
  8. Web site: The Wincott Foundation Awards. www.wincott.co.uk.
  9. Web site: Callum Macrae . The Guardian . 31 Jan 2018 . 21 Jan 2024.
  10. News: Callum Macrae: Biography. 17 September 2008. news.bbc.co.uk.
  11. Web site: ITN team nominated for Nobel Peace Prize.
  12. Web site: Sudan: War and independence. www.aljazeera.com.
  13. Web site: "Sri Lanka's Killing Fields" takes One World Media Awards.
  14. Web site: 2012 Winners - Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism . www.journalism.columbia.edu . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20140716060631/http://www.journalism.columbia.edu/page/788-the-alfred-i-dupont-columbia-university-award-winners . 2014-07-16.
  15. Web site: Peabody Award for Sri Lanka's Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpunished - Channel 4 - Info - Press. www.channel4.com.
  16. Web site: British Academy Scotland Awards Winners Announced. www.bafta.org. 18 November 2012.
  17. Web site: Broadcast Hot 100 lr. 5 December 2013 .
  18. News: Callum Macrae: Biography. 13 March 2012. BBC News. 17 September 2008.
  19. Web site: Television Journalism Awards 2010/2011. Royal Television Society. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20120228001101/http://www.rts.org.uk/rts-television-journalism-awards-2010-2011. 28 February 2012.
  20. News: RTS television awards hat-trick for Channel 4 News. Channel 4 News. 23 February 2012.
  21. News: Clarke . Cath . The Ballymurphy Precedent review – touching personal accounts of the Troubles . 15 May 2019 . The Guardian . 20 August 2018.
  22. Web site: Ballymurphy shootings: 36 hours in Belfast that left 10 dead. Ian. Cobain. 26 June 2014. the Guardian.
  23. Web site: Before Bloody Sunday there was Ballymurphy. Its story must be told - Callum Macrae. Callum. Macrae. 28 August 2018. the Guardian.
  24. Web site: The oldest profession Guardian daily comment guardian.co.uk . 2023-12-08 . www.theguardian.com.
  25. Web site: Why the Humiliation of Jason Russell is Such a Tragedy. 18 March 2012.
  26. Web site: Callum Macrae and Ali Fadhil on financial scandal in Iraq. Callum. Macrae. Ali. Fadhil. 20 March 2006. the Guardian.
  27. Web site: The atrocities of Uganda's child soldiers. Callum. Macrae. 29 February 2004. the Guardian.

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