Filmography
Selected Filmography
To download a complete filmography in PDF format, click here.
1961-1962: Researched and directed scores of short films including the first film of The Beatles in the Liverpool Cavern Club and a film about the painter L.S. Lowry in 1963, Mr Lowry.
1961 -1989: Leslie Woodhead was a staff Director/Producer with Granada TV of Manchester, England. All his films during this period were made for Granada. Woodhead directed and produced more than 100 films for Granada’s “World in Action” current affairs series. He was also Series Editor from 1967 to 1969. From 1968 and 1984, Woodhead also made a dozen Documentary Specials, including “The Stones in the Park” (1969) about the Rolling Stones celebrated Free concert in Hyde Park. He also directed filmed Dramas by Arthur Hopcraft and Jim Allen. Woodhead’s major work at Granada in the 1970s and 1980s was in pioneering Dramatised Documentaries, and in Anthropological Films for the Disappearing World series.
Since 1989, Leslie Woodhead has worked as a freelance writer, producer and director on films such as The Hunt for Bin Laden (ITV/Smithsonian 2012) 9/11 The Day that Changed the World (ITV/Smithsonian 2012), and How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin (BBC Storyville, 2010)
GRANADA DRAMATISED DOCUMENTARIES
1970 THE MAN WHO WOULDN’T KEEP QUIET (Soviet Dissident) 52 mins
1972 A SUBJECT OF STRUGGLE (Chinese Red Guard Trial) 65 mins
1976 3 DAYS IN SZCZECIN ( Polish Dock strike) 75mins
1978 COLLISION COURSE ( World’s worst air collision) 75 mins
1980 INVASION (Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia)113min
1981 STRIKE (Birth of “Solidarity” in Poland) 100 mins
1991 WHY LOCKERBIE? ( Investigation of Air Disaster) 80 mins
ANTHROPOLOGICAL FILMS:
1974 – 2001 THE MURSI ( 6 films following the lives of Ethiopian nomads) 6x 52/76 mins
1976 THE SHERPAS ( Nepali mountain people) 52 mins
1983 CHILDREN OF REVOLUTION ( Chinese Peasants ) 52 mins
THE NEWEST REVOLUTION ( China’s new economics) 52 mins
1986 THE LAU ( Fishermen in the South Pacific) 52 min
1987 THE BASQUES (Shepherds in the Pyrenees) 52 mins
1988 THE WODAABE ( Nomads in Nigeria) 52 mins
Since 1989 ( as a freelance Producer/Director)
- 1991 WHY LOCKERBIE? (Dramadoc – as above) 80 mins
- 1992 THE INCREDIBLE CASE OF COMRADE ROCKSTAR BBC 2 90 mins
- 1993 THE LAST SOVIET CITIZEN ( Arts and Soviet Space travel)BBC 2 78 mins
- 1994 RANDY NEWMAN”S AMERICA (The Music & myths of Newman)ITV 60 mins
- 1994 CHILDREN OF WOODSTOCK (25th anniversary of Festival)-ITV 60 mins
- 1995 WHO IS VLADIMIR POZNER? ( Soviet journalist)- BBC 2 60 min
- 1997 TONY BENNETT’S NEW YORK ( Profile of the Singer)-BBC2 80 mins
- 1998 444 DAYS ( US Hostages and their Iranian captors)-BBC2 104 mins
- 1999 MISSILEERS (US ICBM Squadron ) BBC2 50mins
- 1999 ENDURANCE (Ethiopian Olympic Runner)Pressman/ Disney/C4 80 mins
- 1999 A CRY FROM THE GRAVE (Srebrenica Massacre) – BBC2/PBS 104 mins
- 2000 THE HOLOCAUST ON TRIAL (Holocaust denier in court) BBC2/PBS 90 mins
- 2001 ROCKETCHIKI (Russian Missileers) BBC2 /PBS 50mins
- 2001 FIRE WILL EAT US (Mursi Film 6) C4 76mins
- 2002 MILOSEVIC: HOW TO BE A DICTATOR – BBC/PBS/FRANCE 2&5 80 mins
- 2003 STAR WARS DREAMS (BBC4/ARTE FRANCE) 54 mins
- 2004 MY LIFE AS A SPY : (Personal Cold War) – BBC4 59 mins
- 2005 SREBRENICA: NEVER AGAIN? (10 th anniversary) (BBC4) 79 mins
- 2005 CHILDREN OF BESLAN (School Siege)(BBC2/HBO) 59 mins
- 2006 SAVING JAZZ (New Orleans Music post Katrina) (BBC4/Sundance) 59mins
- 2007 GODLESS IN AMERICA (US Atheism) (BBC4/Sundance) 59 mins
- 2009 HOW THE BEATLES ROCKED THE KREMLIN (impact of the Fab 4 in the Soviet Union) BBC 4/ARTE/PBS 60 mins
- 2011 9/11: DAY THAT CHANGED THE WORLD (Tenth Anniversary Film) ITV/ Smithsonian /FR3/NHK 92 mins
- 2011 THE HUNT FOR BIN LADEN ITV/ Smithsonian /FR3/NHK 92 mins
- 2013 THE DAY KENNEDY DIED ( ITV, Smithsonian)
- 2015 THE DAY THEY DROPPED THE BOMB ( ITV, Smithsonian)
Awards & Nominations
In the course of his career, Leslie Woodhead has won numerous awards and nominations for his documentaries
- 1968 Rank Documentary Award -“The Stones In The Park”
- 1981 Rts Cyril Bennett Award – Granada Dramadoc Unit
- 1986 Bafta Desmond Davis Award -“Outstanding Creative Contribution To Television”
- 1992 Royal Anthropological Institute Award For 5 Films With the Mursi Of Ethiopia, 1974-1991
- 1999 Special Jury Prize, Amsterdam Documentary Festival for A Cry From The Grave
- 1999 Honorary Companion, University Of Manchester
- 2000 Silver Award, Fipa Festival, Biarritz for ” A Cry From The Grave”
- 2000 Banff TV Festival: “A Cry From The Grave” – Grand Prize; also Best History & Biography Prize.
- 2000 Amnesty Us Awards: “A Cry From The Grave” – Media Spotlight Award.
- 2000 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award – “A Cry From The Grave”
- 2004 “History Today” Award: “Star Wars Dreams”
- 2006 Fipa “Grandes Reportages Award: ‘Children Of Beslan’
- 2006 Royal Television Society Journalism Award ; ‘Children Of Beslan’.
- 2006 Royal Television Society Documentary Award: ‘Children Of Beslan’.
- 2006 Peabody Documentary Award: ‘Children Of Beslan’
- 2006 One World Documentary Award: ‘Children Of Beslan’
- 2006 Banff Best Social And Political Documentary;’Children Of Beslan.
- 2006 Emmy Nomination: Best Documentary: ‘Children Of Beslan’
- 2012 Bafta Nomination 9/11 – DAY THAT CHANGED THE WORLD (Best single Documentary)
- 2013 Aldeburgh Documentary Festival Lifetime Achievement Award
- 2014 Bafta Nomination THE DAY KENNEDY DIED (Best Single Documentary)