Jon Blair

Between January 2011 and July 2013 Blair was in charge of Major Series and Documentary Specials for the broadcaster AlJazeera English. In late 2011 he had the Discussions brief added to his portfolio. During his time at Al Jazeera he commissioned and executive produced a range of one-off documentaries and series as well as creating new talk show formats. As Executive Producer of Bahrain: Shouting in the Dark, directed by May Ying Welsh for Aljazeera, Jon won a Robert F Kennedy Journalism Award, an Amnesty International Media Award, a UK Foreign Press Association Feature Story of the Year Award, a George Polk Award for Journalism, and a Scripps Howard Foundation Jack R Howard Award, and was nominated for a British Academy Award and a Royal Television Society Award. In 2012 Blair was asked to create formats and commission high-profile series and one-off documentaries for AlJazeera's new American channel and in that capacity he commissioned some of the United States' best known non-fiction film makers to make a range of documentaries and series to be shown in 2014.

Before he joined AlJazeera, Blair's feature documentary, Dancing with the Devil, premiered at the Silverdocs Festival in the US in June 2009 and had its Latin American premiere at the Festival do Rio, the Rio de Janeiro Film Festival in October 2009. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian described it as "horribly fascinating", it portrays the bloody battle between drug lords and police in Rio de Janeiro where more than 1000 people die each year.

During 2007 and early 2008 Blair made Ochberg's Orphans for Rainmaker Films, about the 1921 expedition of one Isaac Ochberg who saved nearly 200 orphans from the wreckage of post-revolutionary Russia. The film was shortlisted for an Oscar for Short Documentary.

In August 2007 Blair completed Murder Most Foul a 75-minute feature documentary for More 4 about crime in South Africa with the ex-South African Shakespearean actor, Sir Antony Sher.

In 2006, Blair produced and directed a multi episode comedy series for BBC1, Dawn French's Girls Who Do: Comedy. In 2005 Jon made two one-hour drama documentaries for Discovery Networks Europe in the Zero Hour series, about the Oklahoma bomb and the plot to kill Pope John Paul II. Prior to that he worked as an Executive Producer for Discovery for eight months.

In 2003 Blair served as a visiting professor at Stockton teaching a course on researching real world issues to a group of final year cross disciplinary students.

In 2003–04, he produced a four-hour series – of which he produced, wrote and directed 3 hours – Reporters at War, a first hand history of war reporting, featuring some of the most famous American and British war reporters through the ages. The Series won an Emmy in the US for Best Historical Programming. His feature length opening programme of the series won the Broadcasting Press Guild Award for best multi-channel programme for 2003 and was nominated for the Broadcast Award for Best Multi-Channel Programme for 2003/4, as well as receiving an Honourable Mention at Banff. The Series also received a Gold Medal at the New York Festivals.

Also in 2002, Blair produced, wrote, directed and narrated The Meyssan Conspiracy, about a 9/11 conspiracy theory, for Channel Four Science and then a rapid turn-round special, also for Channel Four, on the Bali bombing. He was also a contributor to The Times Special Supplement on the first anniversary of the 11 September tragedy.

Following a programme on Bin Laden: the Early Years for Channel Four after 11 September 2001, in 2002 he was series producer, as well as director and writer of two episodes of the four-part series The Age of Terror. The series made by 3BM Television received wide critical acclaim including an International Documentary Association Award nomination and winning the Broadcast Award for Best Multi-Channel Programme for 2002. The series was also nominated for a Banff Documentary Award.

In 1991 Blair produced and his company made the feature film, Monster in a Box, Spalding Gray's sequel to his earlier work, Swimming to Cambodia. The film, directed by documentarian Nick Broomfield, and distributed in the US by Fineline Features consists of a long-form monologue by Gray detailing the trials and tribulations he encountered when writing his eponymous first novel. The soundtrack music was composed by Laurie Anderson. The film achieved the ultimate accolade of being parodied on Sesame Street as an instalment of Monsterpiece Theater, with the main actor and writer aptly called Spalding Monster in a homage to Gray. With rather more pathos the film also contains a number of references to Gray's suicidal thoughts of drowning, thereby hinting at his eventual death in 2004 when he is thought to have jumped off the Staten Island Ferry in New York.

Having created one of the first independent production companies in England with Spitting Image Productions, Blair set up his own company, Jon Blair Films, in 1987. The company's first production was a feature documentary co-produced with BBC1 which Jon produced, directed and wrote, Do You Mean There Are Still Real Cowboys?. It tells the story of a year in the life of the small cow town in Wyoming where the actress Glenn Close's parents now live. The feature-length version was narrated by Robert Redford.

Blair was co-founder and co-creator of Spitting Image, acting as producer and then executive producer until mid 1987. He was also executive producer of all Spitting Image specials for NBC and HBO in the US. In his time at Spitting Image as producer or executive producer the programme won two Emmies, a Banff comedy award, and numerous other international awards.

Blair is the winner of a British Academy Award for Best Documentary for his 1983 film, Schindler, which preceded Steven Spielberg's feature by 10 years and was used extensively by Spielberg as a research resource. Schindler was narrated by Dirk Bogarde and written, produced and directed by Blair.

A version of the play with an all black cast was staged in Nigeria in 1979 directed by and starring writer, poet and playwright, the Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka.

As a producer/director on the British TV shows Tonight, This Week and TV Eye, Blair covered domestic and foreign political and economic stories including the first programme about the 1976 Soweto uprising for British television, There Is No Crisis!, and coverage of wars in the Middle East, Cambodia and Angola. As a war correspondent/feature writer he has contributed to The Times, The Sunday Times, The Observer, The Economist and The New York Times. He has also been a book reviewer for the Los Angeles Times.

Jon Blair was born in South Africa. He was drafted into the South African army in 1966 but chose instead to flee to England. Amongst numerous awards he has won four of the premier awards in his field: an Oscar, an Emmy (twice), an International Documentary Association Distinguished Achievement Award and a British Academy Award. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2015 Birthday Honours for services to film.In 1994 Blair was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey for his contribution to human rights awareness through his film-making work.