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Shortlist - Best Historical Documentary
The films below were shortlisted for Grierson 2008 in the Best Historical Documentary category.
Winner
Production Cº: Flashback Television
Channel 4
Director Henry Chancellor
Series Producers Taylor Downing, Sam Organ
1983 – The Brink of Apocalypse follows events of November 1983 when the Third World War nearly erupted …by accident. “We may have been at the brink of nuclear war and not even known it,” declares Robert Gates, a key interviewee for the programme. Gates was deputy director of intelligence of the CIA at the time. He is now US Secretary of Defense.
Nominated
Production Cº: Dox Productions
BFI Southbank
Director David Sington
Producer Duncan Copp
Executive Producer John Battsek
Between 1968 and 1972, nine American spacecraft voyaged to the Moon, and 12 men walked upon its surface. They remain the only human beings to have stood on another world. In the Shadow of the Moon brings together for the first, and very possibly the last, time surviving crew members from every single Apollo mission which flew to the Moon, and allows them to tell their story in their own words.
Nominated
Production Cº: Blakeway Productions
BBC Two
Director/Producer Ashley Gething
Executive Producers Denys Blakeway, Eamon Hardy
Writer Denys Blakeway
Forty years ago a speech of immense inflammatory power wrenched British society apart. Known as “Rivers of Blood”, it was delivered by maverick Conservative MP Enoch Powell. While his immediate popularity soared, the racist tone of the speech shut down all debate on immigration and ultimately ended Powell’s career. This film assesses the impact of the speech and traces its effect on immigration policy and the rise of multiculturalism
Nominated
Production Cº: Testimony Films
BBC Four
Director/Producer Steve Humphries
When the nation was called to arms in a spirit of patriotic fervour in August 1914, it was difficult to imagine that just four years later almost half a million British children would have lost their fathers in battle. To boys and girls brought up on the heroism and invincibility of the British army it was a profound shock that lasted a lifetime. In this film men and women now in their nineties revisit the experience and emotion of loss and reflect on the way in which these childhood experiences shaped their lives.
shortlisted
Production Cº: BBC Factual Birmigham
BBC Two
Director/Producer Ricardo Pollack
Executive Producers Gurdip Bhangoo, Sam Organ
shortlisted
Production Cº: Darlow Smithson
Channel 4
Director/Producer Peter Nicholson
Senior Producer Julian Ware
shortlisted
Production Cº: Takeaway Media
BBC Four
Director/Producer Deborah Lee
Series Producer Archie Baron
Executive Producers Archie Baron, Martin Davidson
shortlisted
Production Cº: Windfall Films Ltd
BBC Two
Director Ian Duncan
Producers Leesa Rumley, Ian Duncan
Senior Producer David Dugan