Believing indigenous knowledge and wisdom is more vital now than ever, Bruce Parry returns to television at a time when the world faces vast environmental challenges, and millions of people have left their ancestral lands. Against this backdrop, he answers the call of those still leading traditional lives, diving deep into their ways of life. The first foreigner to live within each of the communities he visits, he films much of his experience on his own camera.

Twenty years ago, working with filmmaker Steve Robinson, Bruce Parry lived immersed within indigenous groups to make three award-winning series of Tribe for the BBC.

Deeply affected by the people he met and what they taught him, Bruce took time away from television, settling in West Wales to live more closely from the land. He continued to visit different indigenous groups across the world, advocating for their unique ways of life.

Bruce’s approach remains unchanged: total immersion for a minimum of three weeks in each location. His total commitment to experiencing every aspect of tribal life leads to extraordinary encounters. ‘Only because I am there, immersed in the community and getting involved, do I get to uncover the deeper secrets of life there and the understandings that these people have. I really do think I don’t find out many of the things I learn – unless I do them.’

Episode 1: Bruce Parry travels deep into the Colombian Amazon to meet the Waimaha. The Waimaha have successfully lived in this remote place thanks to their connection with the rainforest around them. This connection comes – in part from the psychoactive drug yagé which they take during seasonal ceremonies. Can Bruce win enough trust to get invited to the yagé ceremony?

Episode 2: Bruce Parry visits the Mucubal in Angola’s Namib Desert, one of the most inhospitable places on Earth. Staying with a thirty-strong family, Bruce struggles to witness the visceral rituals his hosts continue to practice. Extreme isolation protects a unique way of life here, but for how long?

Episode 3: Bruce Parry visits the Indonesian island of Sumba, the only place on Earth where the ancient religion of Marapu is practised. Staying in a traditional hilltop village the dead are buried in stone tombs amongst the homes of the living and powerful ancestral spirits demand blood sacrifice. During his stay Bruce comes to see how the great sacrifices followers must make to appease their ancestors can also bring great reward.

The years – and too many litres of jungle intoxicants – have not dimmed Bruce’s passion and curiosity for those living lives vastly different from our own. The energy and willingness to have a go remains – however extreme the task. Yet his time away has brought a new wisdom, his return has a greater urgency as these communities become ever more precious.

Filmed and Directed (Episode 2) : Ben Cheetham

Tribe with Bruce Parry

 is a brand new four-part docu-series for Channel 4, premiering on Monday 20th May. It’s a story that’s gripped both sides of the Atlantic. A man in a Glasgow hospital, wakes from a Covid coma to discover the police have identified him as Nicholas Rossi, a fugitive from justice and one of America’s most wanted criminals. He maintains this is a case of mistaken identity and his name is Arthur Knight. Is he an extraordinary criminal, constantly changing his name and identity, or a wronged innocent thrown into a limelight he did not deserve?

Imposter: The Man Who Came Back From The Dead

Edinburgh TV Festival's New Voice Award for Debut Director

BAFTA- Nominated for Emerging Talent Award

Royal Television Society West- Nominated Best Director

Royal Television Society West- Nominated Best Documentary

PETE DOHERTY, WHO KILLED MY SON? is a modern-day Miss Marple mystery, set in the contrasting world’s of a grimy crack-stained East London and Guildford’s middle-class stockbroker belt. The Channel 4 documentary explores the unexplained death of Mark Blanco in 2006. Mark died in suspicious circumstances after attending a party with the controversial rock star Pete Doherty. After raising serious issues with the initial police investigation, this is the story of grieving mother, Sheila Blanco’s, relentless pursuit of justice. The debut film by director Ben Cheetham is a beautiful and brutal forensic examination of the full story behind Mark’s death.

Pete Doherty, Who Killed My Son? is a First Cut film by director Ben Cheetham. The film was commissioned by Channel 4 Documentaries commissioning editor Rita Daniels and was made by File Mile Films with executive producer Owen Philips.

Pete Doherty, Who Killed My Son?

Made as part of Channel 4 First Cut Pitch competition at Sheffield Documentary Festival 2022. Five finalist were chosen and given an identical brief: to shoot and edit a three minute film around the theme of “Last Laugh”.

I was selected unanimously by the judges as the winner of the pitch and awarded a 1x60’ First Cut commission.

“The team felt Ben’s short film showed essential characteristics of the very best documentary making - a superb main character, revealing shooting and a structure in the edit that develops. It also followed the brief in an innovative way that made us all laugh out loud.” said Rita Daniels, Sacha Mirzoeff, Channel 4 First Cut commissioners.

vimeo.com

Channel 4 First Cut Pitch: Last Laugh

 returns for more matchmaking at Woodgreen Pets Charity. The team continue their mission to find homes for their abandoned dogs. But Woodgreen’s perfectly imperfect pooches are a little unpredictable – will they manage to win over a new set of potential owners?

Series Directors: Jordan Maloy & Phil Broadhurst

The Dog House: Series 4 & 5

RTS West:        Best Factual Series

300,000 SQUARE MILES OF OCEAN. 3 GPS-TRACKED VOYAGES, FILMED AROUND THE CLOCK. ONE WEEK AT SEA. FROM THE NORTH SEA TO THE ENGLISH CHANNEL, 24 FISHING BOATS – FILMED ACROSS ONE EPIC WINTER – ALL HUNTING THE CATCH. HIGH DRAMA ON THE HIGH SEAS AROUND BRITAIN.

Trawlermen: Hunting the Catch tells the story of Britain’s fishermen on a scale not seen before: a national scale. With access across the UK’s deep-sea fishing fleet from Shetland to Cornwall – from £35 million pelagic mackerel boats and state-of-the-art squid hunters to supercrabbers and beam trawlers – satellite data simultaneously tracks the voyages of three boats on their grounds around Britain. From the North Sea to North Atlantic, the Irish Sea to the English Channel, these are some of richest fishing grounds in the world making competition for the catch intense.

Skippers must hunt the catch 24/7 if they are to earn a wage for themselves and their crew. All through hell and high water. This is the most dangerous job in Britain, and failure means risking your life for no reward.

Trawlermen: Hunting The Catch

The Simpler Life is a six-part series for C4 that asks whether we have made the right choices about how we live our modern, consumer-focussed Western lives. World renowned psychologist Barry Schwartz will be providing the psychological context that asks ‘Does a Simpler Life make us Happier?’ It does so by building a world in which 25 to 30 British people - selected to represent a diverse range of modern Britain – live the simple life of an Amish community. They will work alongside an Amish family from Ohio who will provide a template of Amish life into which we can set our community, helping the contributors take up the challenge to live substantially from their own land over a period of five months. They will plough the land by horse, plant and harvest their own food, manage their own livestock, establish traditional Amish style cottage industries such as pickling vegetables and making jam, minimise the use of technology while dressing very simply with no make-up or jewellery or fashionable clothes. all in order to building their own community separate from the modern world (they'll even travel to the local town by horse and buggy). Like the Amish they will meet regularly as a community to resolve issues or questions that emerge in the community. And, as they do all that, they will be monitored and measured by Barry Schwartz and a team of scientists to score and evaluate changes in their wellbeing across the period of filming and when they return to their normal modern lives.

Series Producers: Joanna Mcdiarmid/ Helen Simpson

The Simpler Life

RTS- Best Formatted Popular Factual Series

RTS West- Best Factual Entertainment 

The Dog House is a dating show with a difference. Set in an animal rescue home, the programme works with dedicated staff to match rescue dogs with prospective owners, and throws multi camera rigged scrutiny on the moment people first set eyes on the dog they hope is about to become part of their family. In the process we learn the back stories of the abandoned strays, the unloved family pets, and the unmanageable canines who find their way the rescue centre. At the same time we learn the stories of the dog seeking prospective owners and the dog shaped holes in their lives that they want to fill.

Executive Producers: Nick Mirsky & Anna Llewellyn

Series Director: Anna Llewellyn/Victoria Bell

Series Producer: Victoria Bell/Claire Parry

The Dog House: Series 2 & 3

Highly Commended Grierson Awards 2020

Nominated Royal Television Society Award, 2021

This was made as a graduation film for the “Directing Documentary” MA at The National Film and Television School.

“Inside a Marriage” takes a compassionate look at a profound moment in a families life together. After 10 years of marriage Shilpa and Dipak have temporarily separated in order to consider whether they have a future together. Following their journey the film explores what it is that binds a family together in the face of adversity.

Inside a Marriage was highly commended at the 2020 Grierson Awards and nominated for a Royal Television Society Award in 2021.

This film achieved remarkable access to tell the story of a woman’s journey within her marriage, creatively exploring moments which are rarely captured. Its strong structure and themes kept the story moving along, skilfully showing viewers something new. Ambiguous to the end, it was a cracking film that the judges thought warranted a highly commended citation.

Directed, Filmed & Produced: Ben Cheetham

Production Managers: Tian Boyce/  Malika Ruzmetova

Inside a Marriage

Made as part of the “Directing Documentary” MA at The National Film and Television School.

“Jake and the Lads” (2019) is a film about a young father living in the South Welsh valley town of Tredegar. The film explores fatherhood identity and Jakes personal struggle to not repeat his own fathers’ mistakes.

Jake and the Lads

Made as part of the directing documentary MA at the national film and television school.

Living with it is an intimate story of Guy Benn's struggle with schizophrenia. For the first time since his diagnosis Guy speaks openly about his illness and the stigma associated with it. Living with it is a story of acceptance, strength and resilience in the face of severe mental illness.

Watch full film

Living With It

Ebb and Flow

Director, Camera, Editor & Translator: Ben Cheetham

Paz A Lo Colombiano

Entirely funded through Kickstarter and shot during a 5 month period whilst living on location; this is a cinematic documentary telling the story of one man's dream to build a boat... and sail it home. Following his 70th birthday party, Vik travels North to finish making the little boat that will carry him home along the canals and waterways of England. This is a story of defiance against old age; a story of lost highways and a boating nation.

Director: Andy Lawrence
Producers: Kieran Hanson / Andy Lawrence
Camera: Ben Cheetham / Tom Turner
Sound: Ben Cheetham / Tom Turner
Editing: Andy Lawrence
Additional editing: Ben Cheetham / Tom Turner
Sound mixing: Martin Salmonson
Graphics: Ross Phillips
Still photography: Jonathan Purcell
with Music by Walk

allritesreversed.co.uk

One Long Journey

Poll Function

British Born Chinese is a film about the experiences of Daniel and Kevin, two boys born to Chinese migrants and living in Manchester (UK). Made over the course of two years in experimental reflexive and participatory style, the film explores the complexity and challenges faced by the boys seeking to reconcile Britishness with Chineseness.

Premier screening: Manchester Central Library, 30 April 2015
European International Studies Association Convention, Giardini Naxos, September 2015
Ethnofest, Athens, November 2015
Bookworm Bookshop, Beijing, November 2015
Central University for Nationalities, Beijing, November 2015
LSE Literary Film Festival, London, 27 February 2016
World Film festival, Tartu, Estonia, March 2016
Chinese University of Hong Kong, 23 June 2016
School of Social and Behavioral Studies, Nanjing University, 4 July 2016
Days of Ethnographic Film festival, Moscow, September 2016
Antropofest, Prague, 27-28 January 2017
University of Aberdeen Chinese Studies Group, 21 February 2017
Echos of Antropofest 2017, Univerzity of Nitra, Slovakia, 30 March 2017

Director: Andy Lawrence
Lead Researcher: Elena Barabantseva
Producers: Elena Barabantseva / Andy Lawrence
Camera: Andy Lawrence / Ben Cheetham / Tom Turner / Daniel He / Kevin But
Sound: Kieran Hanson / Ben Cheetham / Tom Turner / Daniel He / Kevin But
Editing: Kieran Hanson
Online Editing: Andy Lawrence

BRITISH BORN CHINESE

This film documents the growing role of food banks in the UK and highlights the issue of food insecurity and how it can impact on the lives of vulnerable people.

Director, Camera, Editor: Ben Cheetham/ Tom Turner

Food Insecurity 

Composed by Emilio Reyes
Performed by Joe Carvell
Filmed by Ben Cheetham

Trio for Double Bass and Laser

A film to promote the (eventually successful) campaign to save an old listed hospital building from demolition.

Director, Camera & Editor: Ben Cheetham/ Tom Turner/ Kieran Hanson

Saving Ancoats Hospital

Best Student Film: EthnoFilm festival

This film was made with the 'Institution for the Protection of Childhood and Adolescence' in Bogotá, Colombia. 'Saliendo Adelante' explores the life of José, now is in his early 20's, who has lived on the streets since the age of 6. Through the film we see José's attempt to change his life's trajectory and battle drug addiction by talking part in the programme of social rehabilitation offered by the institution.

Saliendo Adelante (Moving Forward)

This film explores the relationship between my mum and my sister. The two women reflect upon their ongoing differences in opinions and past conflicts. Through the film we learn how my sisters teenage pregnancy has helped each side to reconcile their difficult relationship.

Becoming Mum

Made as part of an MA in visual anthropology. “Beautiful Birds” (2010) is an observational documentary looking at a shooting party in North Yorkshire.

Beautiful Birds

This is a photographic essay looking at an ex mill working, and now largely unemployed, community and the nostalgia it has for Manchester's rich industrial past. It also explores the effects that extensive redevelopment or 'gentrification' projects have had on the area and its inhabitants.

Director, Photographer & Sound Recordist: Ben Cheetham