In the Line of Fire: Memories of a Documentary Filmmaker

(Hardback)

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In the Line of Fire is the personal memoir of Antony Thomas, a documentary filmmaker whose work has won international acclaim and many prestigious awards. From the full range of documentaries made over a fifty-two-year career, the author focuses on subjects that affected him deeply and remain relevant to this day; the pernicious effects of racism, the seamless border between intelligence and crime, the last colonial wars in Africa, the conflicts in the Middle East, the rise of Islamic extremism, the politicisation of Evangelical Christians in the United States and the origins of fake news to mention just a few. Thomas brings these disparate experiences together by taking a very personal approach and using every opportunity to take the reader behind the camera where he shares the difficulties, the moral problems and the dangers that he and his colleagues sometimes faced, including the moment when the entire team was condemned to death in a military camp in Zambia. Eleven years later, Thomas was back in the line of fire, coping with vicious attacks from MPs and sectors of the press, following the broadcast of his controversial docudrama Death of a Princess.

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In the Line of Fire is one of the finest books written in the last years about documentary practice and its goals. It is a must-read for all those interested in nonfiction film. Cineaste

Author Bio

Antony Thomas was born in India in 1940 and taken to South Africa when he was six years old. At the age of 22, he was commissioned by the government there to make his first documentary. His experiences on that film changed the course of his life. Banned from further filmmaking in South Africa, he moved to England in 1966, where his documentaries have received outstanding reviews and multiple awards, including the most prestigious; the British Academy Award, the US Emmy Award and the Grierson Award (twice). He is also author of the acclaimed biography, Rhodes, the Race for Africa. Thomas retired from filmmaking in 2016.