James Jones (documentary maker)

James Jones is a British director known for making documentary films on social issues for international television and theatrical release.

Career

James Jones' films have been broadcast on the BBC, Channel 4, Sky, HBO, Apple TV+ and PBS Frontline.
Jones has tackled subjects including suicide in the military and homelessness. He has also made films in North Korea and Saudi Arabia. His film Children of the Gaza War was broadcast on the BBC in July 2015 on the first anniversary of the 2014 Gaza war. In 2016 he made a feature-length documentary Unarmed Black Male about the murder trial of a police officer in Portsmouth, Virginia. In 2017 he co-directed Mosul with Olivier Sarbil.
In 2019, he released a feature documentary on the drug war in the Philippines, On the President's Orders, for PBS's Frontline, Arte France, BBC's Storyville and Bertha Doc Society, in which he follows a newly installed police chief of Caloocan City who is a supporter of president Rodrigo Duterte's anti-drug campaign. It played at the Sheffield DocFest and Human Rights Watch Film Festival in New York.
In 2022, his film Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes was broadcast on Sky Documentaries. It told the story of the Chernobyl disaster using personal interviews with people who were there and newly discovered, dramatic footage filmed at the nuclear plant. The film was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Documentary and won a BAFTA for Best Editing.
In 2023, his series Wanted: The Escape of Carlos Ghosn was released on Apple TV+.