Paul Moreira


Paul Moreira is a French journalist and documentary filmmaker. He is based in Paris, France. He has directed several investigative documentaries in conflict zones, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Burma, Palestine, Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia.

Career

Paul Moreira has contributed to the emergence of investigative journalism on French television. In 1999, in created the program "90 minutes" on Canal plus, a European television network. The investigations of his team collected several awards. Like "Escadrons de la mort : l'école française" by Marie Monique Robin. This film got the award of the political documentary of "Audiovisual Club" of French senate in 2003, best investigative film at FIGRA, award of merit from Latin American Studies Association.
The investigation about the suicide of Judge Borrel proved it was actually a murder and contributed to reopen criminal investigations.
Following the success of the show and at the request of the management of Canal Plus, he created a weekly slot dedicated to investigative documentaries: Lundi Investigation.
In 2006, Paul Moreira left Canal+ to create an independent TV production company, Premieres Lignes .
Since then, he has been developing a line of investigative and comprehensive films on global issues. He works on assignment for various French channels: Canal Plus, Arte, France Televisions, La Chaine Parlementaire. His films have been broadcast in most European countries as well as Canada, India, Singapore, Australia, Japan, Russia...
In 2007, he published an essay on journalism, public relations, war reporting at the embedment age and perception management.

Filmography (selected works)

;2003
  • "In The Jungle of Baghdad": Looting and chaos that followed US forces invasion of Iraq.
;2004
;2007
  • "Iraq: Agony of a Nation": At the height of the confessional strife in Baghdad, an investigation on the roots of the civil war.
;2008
  • "Armes, trafic et raison d'état," a 90 minutes film on the flow of weapons pouring into Eastern Congo Arte TV, a French-German channel, co-directed by Paul Moreira and David Andre.
;2009
  • "Afghanistan: on the dollar trail", a 52 minutes documentary on corruption and embezzlement of humanitarian aid in Afghanistan.
;2010
  • "Burma: Resistance, Business and Nuclear Secrets": an undercover documentary in Myanmar that reveals how Alcatel-Shanghai-Bell, the Chinese branch of Alcatel, is helping the junta control the internet.
  • "Coupables indulgences", "Guilty indulgences", how the Catholic hierarchy protects pedophile priests
;2011
  • "Wikileaks : War, Lies and Videotape" : an in-depth investigative documentary about Wikileaks.
  • "Bunker cities", a 52 minutes documentary about gated communities in Europe, Brazil and Iraq.
  • "Toxic Somalia", an investigative film about the toxic waste dumped on Somalian coasts with a rare access to pirates from Hobyo, children hospital in Mogadishu and Italian trafficking networks.
;2012
  • "Tracked : Investigating digital arms dealers", western companies selling tracking devices to middle eastern dictatorships, Syria and Libya.
;2013
  • "Big Tobacco, Young Targets", a documentary about tobacco companies targeting children worldwide.
  • "Journey through an invisible war", a 60 minutes film on the low intensity conflict between Israeli settlers and Palestinian in the West Bank.
;2014
  • "Bientôt dans vos assiettes ", "Soon on your plates! "
;2015
  • "Danse avec le FN",
;2016
  • "Ukraine The Masks of the Revolution", a documentary about role of extreme right-wing paramilitary groups in Ukraine during and after the overthrow of the Yanukovych government, and especially in the violence in Odesa in May 2014. FIPA included this documentary among its 2016 selections. The Ukrainian Embassy in France asked Canal+ to stop the screening of the film. The channel went ahead with the screening. Due to popular demand, the film was shown several more times on Canal+. The film was also translated into several languages, and shown in other countries, such as Italy and Poland.
;2018
  • "Inside the Russian Info War Machine", how Russia manipulates public opinion, undermines democratic governments and attempts to alter world events.
  • "Digital Addicts", Child mobile phone addiction, brain development, long-term damage
;2019
  • "Chocolate's Heart of Darkness", Driving along the Ivory Coast - the region responsible for most of the production and export of cocoa - the filmmaking team encounter armed militias, a badly deteriorated forest reserve, and thousands of illegal cocoa plants. In one camp, a group of 40 immigrant men and children toil through the brush with machetes, engaging in a process that is both back breaking and risky. The children spray poisonous pesticides without wearing masks or any other protective gear. Beyond documenting the environmental and human rights abuses, the filmmakers attempt to hold corporations accountable for their complicity.
;2020
;2021
  • NETFLIX : "The Fugitive : the strange case of Carlos Ghosn", executive producer of a 90 minutes feature bio-pic documentary on Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault-Nissan.
;2022
  • "In The Name of Law and Order", ARTE. Documentary series on crowd control and less-lethal weapons around the world.
;2023
  • "Poutine and the oligarchs", FRANCE TELEVISION. Documentary series on Russian money in Europe.

Civic involvement

Moreira heads the campaign Liberté d'Informer, a civic society movement to align the restrictive French law on the more transparent American Freedom of Information Act model. A petition has gathered nearly 6,000 signatures and a strong public interest.