Alex Cooke, Morgan Matthews join Grierson board

February 8, 2012 by Adam Benzine

Pictured: Mariella Frostrup hosting the 2011 Grierson awards

The Grierson Trust, the UK body behind the Grierson British Documentary Awards, has appointed documentary directors Alex Cooke and Morgan Matthews to its Board of Trustees.

Cooke is currently CEO of UK-based Renegade Pictures, the company she founded with Alan Hayling, where she has produced a range of documentaries for both international and domestic broadcasters. As a filmmaker, she has directed titles including United Gates of America for the BBC, a one-hour documentary about race and immigration inside one of California’s largest gated communities.

Matthews’ docs, meanwhile, include feature length documentaries Taxidermy: Stuff the World and Beautiful Young Minds, both of which garnered award nominations from bodies including BAFTA, RTS and Grierson.

He set up his own indie, Minnow Films, where he directed The Fallen, a three-hour film that paid tribute to every British serviceman and woman to have died whilst serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. As well as being nominated for a Grierson, the doc won an RTS and two BAFTAs, including one for best factual director.

The two directors will serve their three-year tenures alongside fellow Trustees Emma Hindley, Charlotte Moore, Terry Back, John Battsek, Emily Bell, Mandy Chang, Simon Dickson, George Duffield, Jill Franklin, Christopher Hird, Chris Harris, Mark Boyd and James Hunt.

Board chairman Dawn Airey said: “Alex’s experience includes directing hard-hitting documentaries including Closing Guantanamo and Tea Party America for BBC2′s ‘This World,’ as well as editing and producing for both the BBC and Channel 4, while Morgan has been making critically-acclaimed documentaries for over 10 years and has also set up Minnow Films – a company known for developing exciting new talent – which will be of huge value on the education front. I’m very much looking forward to working alongside both of them.”

Past winners of Grierson awards include Norma Percy, Molly Dineen, Olivia Lichtenstein, Nick Broomfield, Kim Longinotto, Paul Watson, Angus Macqueen and Pawel Pawlikowski.

Tags: Alex Cooke, Charlotte Moore, Chris Harris, Christopher Hird, Dawn Airey, Emily Bell, Emma Hindley, George Duffield, Grierson British Documentary Awards, James Hunt, Jill Franklin, John Battsek, Mandy Chang, Mark Boyd, Morgan Matthews, Simon Dickson, Terry Back, The Grierson Trust