Katharine English
Katharine is a BAFTA and RTS award-winning director of premium and authored documentaries. She makes bold and critically acclaimed films with captivating story-telling and emotion at their heart. She is skilled at crafting retrospective narrative, directing drama – including bigger projects with full-scale crews and acting talent - and brings visual flair to the documentaries she films herself.
Katharine filmed and directed KYLE: THE GUNMAN WHO DIVIDED AMERICA for BBC, described as a “startling film” by The Guardian. She won unprecedented access to teen-shooter Kyle Rittenhouse to explore how a deadly vigilante became a far-right role model, igniting a national debate over the right to self-defence. “This documentary offers a bleak insight into the state of the States through the lens of the Kyle Rittenhouse case.” - The Times.
Tonally completely different, and reviewed as “exceptionally entertaining”, by The Sunday Times, Netflix series UNTOLD: SWAMP KINGS tells the story of how a legendarily ruthless coach turned a rag-tag 2000s era football team – The Florida Gators - into a ferocious winning machine. As Series Director, Katharine brought a high-end cinematic ascetic to this four-part premium series, filmed on anamorphic lenses. Featuring newly discovered locker-room archive and a cast of stand-out personalities, the series is illuminating for the human stories at the heart of the narrative.
OUR WAR, INTO THE HORNET’S NEST for BBC, is painstakingly crafted from helmet-cam footage filmed by young soldiers on a daring three-day mission deep into enemy territory, during Afghanistan’s bloodiest summer on record. Reviewed by The Guardian as “anti-war propaganda on a par with anything made by Scorsese” and having “as much power and poignancy as an epic war movie” by The Sunday Times, this film won Katharine a BAFTA Best Factual Director nomination. The series won a BAFTA Best Documentary Series.
BLAIR & BROWN: THE NEW LABOUR REVOLUTION features candid interviews with two prime ministers and a cast of veteran insiders. From the ashes of the 1983 election, two young MPs Tony Blair and Gordon Brown dare to dream of making Labour electable again. “The retrospective is so brilliantly constructed …beyond the now iconic images of the New Labour years” - The Tribune. The series won Best Documentary Series, Broadcasting Press Guild Awards.
Katharine has always sought to make compelling, nuanced films that engage with their key audience. In MURDER GAMES, emotional testimony from Breck Bednar’s gaming friends and family was the starting point for a compelling factual drama charting how the 14 year old was groomed online and lured to his death. This film is regularly screened in British schools as part of the PSHE curriculum. “Murder Games is a hard programme to watch, harrowing beyond belief, but probably essential viewing for all teenagers and teenage boys in particular.” The Guardian.
Clips and full films are available at www.katharineenglish.com
Awards
BAFTA Award - Best Documentary Series
Winner - Our WarBAFTA Award - Best Director, Factual
Nominee - Our WarGrierson Award - Best Documentary Series
Nominee - Our WarRTS Award - Best Documentary Series
Nominee - Our WarBroadcast Awards - Best Documentary Series
Nominee - Our WarRegional RTS Award - Best Independent Programme
Winner - One Life: Male, 33 Seeks PubertyEmmy Award - Best Single Documentary
Nominee - Black Box: The Death of TWA800