James Jones (documentary maker)

James Jones is a two-time Emmy Award-winning and five-time BAFTA-nominated director. His films are broadcast around the world, primarily on the BBC, Channel 4 and PBS Frontline.[1][2][3]

Jones has tackled difficult subjects like suicide in the military and homelessness. He has also made films in some of the most difficult places in the world, like North Korea and Saudi Arabia. His film Children of the Gaza War was broadcast on the BBC in July 2015 on the first anniversary of the 2014 Gaza war.[4] In 2016 he made the critically acclaimed feature-length documentary Unarmed Black Male about the murder trial of a police officer in Portsmouth, Virginia. Recently, he co-directed the Emmy-winning Mosul with Olivier Sarbil.

In 2019 he released a feature documentary on the drug war in the Philippines – On The President’s Orders - for FRONTLINE PBS, Arte France, BBC Storyville and Bertha Doc Society. The film has received rave reviews in Variety and other publications after playing at Hot Docs festival in Toronto. It is scheduled to play at Sheffield Doc/Fest and Human Rights Watch Film Festival in New York.

His films have won two Emmys, two DuPonts, a Grierson, a Rory Peck, a Royal Television Society, a Broadcast Award, two Overseas Press Club of America, two Golden Nymphs, and have been nominated five times at the BAFTAs.