Brian Winston

Brian Winston has been involved with documentaries since he joined Granada UK’s weekly series World In Action in 1963. In 1985, he won a US prime-time Emmy for documentary scriptwriting (for WNET, New York); and in 2012, a feature-length documentary which he wrote and co-produced on Robert Flaherty, A Boatload of Wild Irishmen, won a Special Jury prize from the British University Council for Film and Video.

He has written extensively about documentaries (e.g. Lies, Damn Lies & Documentaries, 2000 and Claiming the Real II – Documentary: Grierson and Beyond, 2009) with a focus on both film history and ethical and legal concerns. Winston has been a Grierson Trustee, a member of the advisory board of the Sheffield (UK) International Documentary Film Festival and a governor of the British Film Institute. (The BFI Documentary Film Book which he edited was published in September 2013.) Currently he is developing a book and film project on documentaries in the 21st century.

Winston has served on juries at the International Documentary Festival in Amsterdam, It’s All True documentary festival in Brazil, and the Jerusalem Film Festival. He has taught at, among other places, New York University’s Film School, the UK National Film School and is currently the Lincoln Professor at the University of Lincoln, UK. Winston is also a guest professor at Beijing Normal University and has held an array of academic administrative positions from Research Director at the University Media Group (Glasgow, UK); to Dean at the University of Lincoln and Penn State University (U.S); to Pro-Vice Chancellor at the University of Lincoln.