About
Insight Film is an award-winning independent production company specialising in feature documentaries and documentary series that combine rigorous journalism with creative storytelling. We are interested in collaborating with people from diverse backgrounds and disciplines to tell meaningful stories with innovation and care.
Company History
Insight Film is the successor to a line of companies with 30 years of award-winning history. Founded in 1991 as Insight News TV by BBC veteran Ron McCullagh, the company was rebranded as Insight TWI by incoming CEO, Jon Ossoff, in 2013. In 2020, Jon ran in the State of Georgia for US Senate and, aged just 33 years old, became the youngest Democratic Party senator since Joe Biden was elected in 1973. Jon passed the reins to in-house senior producers, Clive and Hugh, who are looking to build on the company’s rich history and also break new ground.
Over the years, Insight’s films have won numerous international awards including two Emmys, a BAFTA and a Peabody. The company built its reputation on immersive storytelling and rigorous journalism, with an expertise in investigations and international current affairs. Our film about the civil war in Sierra Leone - ‘Cry Freetown’ - kickstarted a long and fruitful collaboration with Sierra Leonean filmmaker, Sorious Samura, who became one of the most respected figures in international TV coverage of African affairs. Our work with Sorious broke down the long-standing convention at UK broadcasters of only using British reporters to tell foreign stories.
Insight continued to build on its ethos of supporting and partnering with diverse talent and local journalists, including a long standing partnership with the Ghanaian undercover specialist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas. Together with Anas and Sorious, Insight created the multi-award winning Africa Investigates series for Al Jazeera English, providing the first ever platform for African journalists to tell their own stories on-screen at an international broadcaster. After three seasons, the series was syndicated into Latin America Investigates, based again on partnerships with local talent and flying in the face of the “helicopter journalism” that has prevailed at big media organisations.
Building on this history and tradition, Insight Film continues to root itself in values of integrity, diversity and partnership. With a new focus on feature length documentaries and high-end series, Insight remains committed to telling meaningful stories and engaging with the most pressing issues of our time.
Team
We are a small, dedicated team and always keen to hear from people with ambitious ideas.
Producer / Director
Clive Patterson
Clive is an award winning producer, director and cinematographer. He cut his teeth making foreign affairs films and investigations for broadcasters including the BBC, Channel 4 and Al Jazeera English. More recently, he directed his first feature length film 'Sing, Freetown' (released by Picturehouse Cinemas to critical acclaim) and is currently producing two feature length documentaries for Netflix.
Producer
Hugh Davies
Hugh is a BAFTA-nominated producer and co-director of Insight Film. He has worked on features, investigations, and historical films for the likes of the BBC, Channel 4 and Netflix. He most recently produced the three part series Football's Darkest Secret for BBC1, which earned him a BAFTA nomination in the Emerging Talent: Factual category. He is currently producing a feature documentary for Netflix.
Head of Production
Selina Kay
Selina is a highly experienced production executive with over 25 years in the business. She has overseen a wide range of films ranging from complex undercover investigations in high risk locations to feature length documentaries and series. Films she has worked on have been screened on Netflix, BBC, Channel 4, Nat Geo, Discovery, among many others.