Geoffrey Smith
Geoffrey Smith is an internationally acclaimed documentarist, born in Melbourne, Australia. Winner of numerous awards, he has made over twenty- two films for all the major UK broadcasters and is drawn to observational real life dramas where deep ethical and moral dilemmas abound. In 2008, Geoffrey’s feature documentary ‘The English Surgeon’ won huge critical and audience acclaim. Shot in a Ukrainian hospital full of desperate patients and makeshift equipment, ‘The English Surgeon’ is an intimate portrait of brain surgeon Henry Marsh as he wrestles with the dilemmas of the doctor patient relationship. For this film, The Directors Guild of America nominated Geoffrey Smith for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary for 2009. It has played in over 95 Festivals around the world and won 11 major awards. In addition to filmmaking, Geoffrey has taught Masterclasses in Australia, the US and China. He is also a consultant for documentary production in Scotland and an editorial consultant on a variety of feature- length documentaries.
Always fascinated by the moving image, Geoffrey took to travelling in order to find himself and discovered a love for story-telling. However, his decision to become a filmmaker came out of an intensely traumatizing personal experience in 1987, when he was shot and wounded in the aftermath of the Election Day massacre in Haiti, where 23 people were killed. Struggling to put his life back together in London, he decided to film his journey back to Haiti to find the man who had so nearly killed him. This acclaimed film, ‘Searching for a Killer’ was subsequently shown on the BBC.
The thrill and magic of telling heart-felt stories drive him as filmmaker. As a genre, documentaries fascinate him more than mainstream cinema, as he finds reality much more intriguing and stranger than fiction. Geoffrey uses his camera as a powerful tool to make films that bring about emotional catharsis and help people through difficult periods in their lives. He also loves editing, and believes that “cutting an observational documentary is the most creative decision-making process on the planet”. His latest project revolves around a man he met in Toronto, who has been in jail for 31 years for a murder he did not commit, but falsely confessed to it to save his friend.
Geoffrey currently resides in London and professes to have a passion for motorcycles, music and humour.
Website
To know more about Geoffrey Smith, visit: www.theenglishsurgeon.com
List of Films
