Back2back is an independent production company creating challenging and thought-provoking television programmes. The company has earned a reputation for quality, factual film-making with creative vision. Their documentaries have been sold to broadcasters in the UK and across the world, and new projects and commissions are in constant development.

Back2back specialise in high quality factual programming, covering a wide range of issues, but not afraid to explore the more unusual and shocking sides of life. Drawing on an impressive list of contributing talent, back2back is a busy film-making house making highly visual, thought-provoking TV. It is based in Brighton's famous 'Lanes' - occupying an 18th century cottage that boasts a colourful history - acting as a fisherman's warehouse before becoming one of the country's oldest stamp shops.

The company was set up in 2000 by director/cameraman David Notman-Watt. David started his career freelancing - covering worldwide breaking news stories as both field producer and cameraman. In the late 90's he began making documentaries - and has since travelled the world filming and directing for national and international broadcasters.

In 2006 back2back won a Grierson Award for their documentary “Take That: For the Record” – winning ‘Best Documentary on the Arts’ and in 2005 back2back was BAFTA nominated for Leo and Ze, a harrowing documentary made in the heart of the drug trafficking gangs of Rio de Janeiro as part of Ch4’s ‘Cocaine’ series.

Back2back also founded the documentary film festival SEE which is in its fourth year. SEE provides an unprecedented opportunity for knowledge-transfer between industry pundits and up-and-coming film-makers in Brighton. Have a look at last years website to see what to expect from SEE Festival 2009! http://www.seefestival.org


The Team:

Currently working at back2back alongside Director David Notman-Watt there is editors Hal Watmough and Callum Reid, editing assistant Jim, producer Rebecca Coleman and production assistant Lauren Simpson.


Currently in production:


Responsible Business TV

Responsible Business is a new television series by Singapore-based Global Initiatives (http://www.globalinitiatives.com) that will showcase leading global corporations that, in partnership with government, NGOs and other international organizations, are developing business-driven solutions to some of the greatest challenges facing our world today, not only to improve corporate reputation or increase profits, but because it’s the right thing to do.

The series highlights the issues – poverty, climate change, human rights, corruption, education and healthcare among others – and explore innovative strategies and partnerships that place corporate citizenship at the very centre of international business. Each episode will showcase companies that are setting new benchmarks for measuring business, social and environmental success.

The series will be broadcast in on CNBC Asia, CNBC Europe, CNBC World in the USA and on many other cable and television networks across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and the USA.

http://www.responsiblebusiness.com/


Boyzone: The Boyz are Back in Town

Directed by David Notman-Watt

This exclusive documentary commissioned from The Last Word (http://www.thelastword.tv) for Sky One will tell, for the first time, the unexpurgated story behind one of the biggest pop bands in history.

As Boyzone prepare for their first tour in over seven years, sold out across 25 UK arena dates, we will learn how this boy band became so huge, with record sales in excess of 15 million, yet so suddenly and so dramatically split and what life has been like for each of them in the intervening years.

The Boyz Are Back in Town explores the politics, the dramas, the passions and the lifestyles of five lads thrown into a world of celebrity adoration. But now older, wiser, entertainment-business-sharper, these boys have become men and pulling no punches, each have a compelling, revealing, story to tell.
Chris Ryan’s Elite Police – Brazil,The Worlds Oldest Boy Band
An October Films production for Discovery UK and Bravo Television. Produced and Directed by David Notman-Watt

Having fought for his country in some of the world’s deadliest places Chris Ryan has seen his fair share of bloodshed and violence. But 15 years after leaving the SAS, Chris is facing a new challenge. He’s going in search of the world’s elite police forces; getting up-close and hands-on with the toughest cops on the planet.
In this episode we Chris travel to Brazil to see if he can cut it with the battle-hardened police at the forefront of Rio’s bloody fight against organised crime, drugs and racketeering


Some recent productions:


Grounds for Hope (2007)

Broadcast on BBC World as part of its Earth Report series
Since the 1990s there’s been a pressing urgency to address Guatemala and Mexico’s deteriorating water systems. There have been some improvement but recently the demand for certified and organically grown coffee has boomed creating a knock-on effect on an area that produces half the world’s coffee. Earth Report travels to Central America to investigate the impact of a more commercial involvement in the improvement of watershed systems on the Mexican/Guatemala border.

http://www.tve.org/news/doc.cfm?aid=1888


Cocaine: Alex James in Colombia (2008)

In this production for Panorama Alex James confessed to spending a million pounds on champagne and cocaine during the Britpop years with Blur. Now with the drug more popular in the UK than ever before and celebrities in the firing line for promoting it he travels to Colombia at the invitation of it's government. He meets the farmers, the sellers and the enforcers and hears the message that every gram is tainted in blood.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/default.stm


Alex James: The Cocaine Diaries (2008)

Alex James confessed to spending a million pounds on champagne and cocaine during the Britpop years with Blur. Now with the drug more popular in the UK than ever before and celebrities in the firing line for promoting it he travels to Colombia at the invitation of it's government. He meets the farmers, the sellers and the enforcers and hears the message that every gram is tainted in blood.


Paul Potts: By Royal Command (2007)

The winner of the biggest talent show of the year, Britain's Got Talent, was catapulted into an Opera career that has sent him touring around the world and made him the biggest selling classical star of the year.

In 2007, over 13 million viewers tuned into watch Paul Potts win the biggest television talent show of the year, Britain's Got Talent. What happened next was the stuff of dreams. He was launched into stardom like never seen before and all because of one little clip on YouTube. Over 50 million people have watched his sensational performance that moved the world to tears as he blew the judges away, including the notoriously tough, Simon Cowell. Back2back join him as he jets around the world, performing for sold out stadiums, prime ministers and royalty and ends this breahtaking journey with performance in front of the Queen and a climax that not even he could have dreamed of.

http://www.itv.com/Entertainment/Music/PaulPottsSpecial/default.html


Sink or Swim (2007)

Over the past 30 years, disasters - storms, floods and droughts - have increased threefold, according to the UN’s International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. When extreme weather strikes, the poor are usually hit hardest. Tropical storms, floods and droughts account for 75 percent of all disasters. Disaster relief agencies try to pick up the pieces. But increasingly, governments and UN agencies are going one step further, aiming to reduce damage before it strikes. In this 30 minute film back2back investigates how poor farmers in Honduras and fishing communities in Vietnam are working with disaster risk managers to strengthen nature’s defences against the violent effects of climate change. This film was made for TVE's (Television Trust for the Environment) 'Earth Report,' a long running environmental series for BBC World.

http://www.tve.org/earthreport/archive/doc.cfm?aid=1838


The Model Prisoners (2007)

Exclusive and unprecedented access to the Talavera Bruce prison in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's largest female prison.

We follow prisoners taking part in a beauty pageant to find Brazil's most beautiful prisoner, and uncover the tragic stories that have led to their imprisonment.

See http://www.back2back.tv for more details.