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In The Line of Fire: Memories of a Documentary Filmmaker
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.
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.
391 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 31, 2022
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May 4, 2022
A brilliant book. It kept me hooked from the first page. The author tells us about his unusual child-hood, which gives us an insight into what ultimately becomes his chosen profession. Every chapter, from climbing Everest and getting frostbite, to being captured and placed in front of a Firing Squad, is filled with amazing clarity. The chapters on "Death of a Princess" and "For Neda" are told with simple but powerful writing. I would recommend this book to everyone that has an interest in documentaries and film making. An amazing man, telling an amazing life story.
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