{"id":22594,"date":"2025-02-14T09:35:23","date_gmt":"2025-02-14T14:35:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/sam-mendes-directing-first-documentary\/"},"modified":"2025-02-14T12:46:12","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T17:46:12","slug":"sam-mendes-directing-first-documentary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/sam-mendes-directing-first-documentary\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Mendes Directing First Documentary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA winner Sam Mendes (American Beauty<\/em>, Road to Perdition<\/em>, Skyfall<\/em>) is directing his first documentary,\u202fWhat They Found<\/em>,\u202ffor BBC Two and iPlayer.<\/p>\n

The doc uses archive footage and firsthand testimonies\u202fto tell the story of\u202ftwo members of the British Army\u2019s Film and Photographic Unit who accompanied the troops liberating Bergen-Belsen at the end of World War II.\u202fThe film is due to air in April to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation.<\/p>\n

What They Found<\/em> is being produced by U.S.-U.K. documentary production company Lightbox, co-founded by Simon Chinn and Jonathan Chinn, in association with Mendes and Pippa Harris\u2019s Neal Street Productions\u202fand Imperial War Museums.<\/p>\n

All3Media International is the worldwide distribution partner.<\/p>\n

Mendes\u202fsaid:\u202f\u201cUsing only the voices and footage shot by two British army cameramen during the latter stages of the Second World War, I hope this documentary gives a unique perspective on the discovery of the horrors of Belsen and the reality of the Holocaust.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simon Young, head of commissioning for history at the BBC, said: \u201cIn April 1945, BBC Radio broadcast a horrifying eyewitness report from Bergen-Belsen. There could be no more fitting way to mark the anniversary of the liberation than by working with Sam Mendes and his team to create a chilling vision of what the liberators found. It has been an honor to collaborate with the Imperial War Museum, Lightbox and Neal Street on this unique project.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lightbox’s Simon Chinn and Jonathan Chinn,\u202fproducers on the film, added: \u201cThe last survivors and witnesses to the Nazi atrocities at Bergen-Belsen and elsewhere\u202fsadly\u202fwon\u2019t\u202fbe with us for much longer. Through making What They Found<\/em>, Sam\u202fMendes\u202fhas created a\u202fpowerful and\u202fundeniable record of these events at a time when surveys show that\u202fmore and more young people aren\u2019t aware of\u202fthe Holocaust and\u202fits\u202fveracity is being debated\u202for\u202fdenied in ever-increasing numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. James Bulgin, Imperial War Museums\u2019 head of public history and curatorial expert on the Holocaust, said: \u201cThe sights captured by the AFPU cameramen who were present at the liberation of Bergen-Belsen have left an indelible mark on the world. What They Found<\/em> uses IWM\u2019s collections to give those scenes critical context, describing them from the unique perspective of those who witnessed them firsthand. The film is a searing and timely reminder that each person caught up in this terrible history experienced it as an individual.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA winner Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Skyfall) is directing his first documentary,\u202fWhat They Found,\u202ffor BBC Two and iPlayer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":350,"featured_media":22596,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[699,196,197,10538,199,10539],"class_list":["post-22594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-top-stories","tag-bbc-two","tag-jonathan-chinn","tag-lightbox","tag-sam-mendes","tag-simon-chinn","tag-what-they-found","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nSam Mendes Directing First Documentary - TVREAL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvreal\/sam-mendes-directing-first-documentary\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sam Mendes Directing First Documentary - 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