basement films

We are a production company seeking to make impactful and extraordinary stories to move and change the world.
Founded by @bendepear

[basement films @Basement_Films]

I just wrote my first note on Substack https://t.co/YJGZI6917Q

[basement films @Basement_Films]

Here are our speeches @senoritaramita & @bendepear in full from Sunday night; talking about the extraordinary number of Drs and journalists who have been killed and why we all cared so much. Thanks to everyone who worked on this and all who supported it including inside the @bbcnews - too many to mention. Our love and respect to @jaber_badwan & @osama.s.alashi and all the Drs & journalists who have survived the onslaught and to all those who were killed.

[BAFTA @BAFTA]

The Editing: Factual BAFTA goes to Mel Quigley and Andy Kemp for Gaza: Doctors Under Attack.

#BAFTACraftAwards with @SamsungUK OLED

[United Nations @UN]

In Gaza, 1 in 5 households survives on just one meal a day.

Many families are forced to borrow money or resort to desperate measures to get enough food.

@WFP has expanded its life-saving operations, but the situation remains extremely fragile.

https://t.co/5nBlpmRHRw

[basement films @Basement_Films]

It’s been a multi award winning weekend for our team who made “Gaza: Doctors Under Attack” - yes the one about the targeting & destruction of almost every hospital in Gaza & killing of 1700 medics. Yes the one that went from the @bbcnews to @channel4

FIRSTLY; The amazing @melaniequig_ & Andy Kemp won a @bafta for Editing; our second successive BAFTA in a row for a fillm about Gaza. Also with them is @karimalishah who was nominated as best director but somehow missed out.

ON FRIDAY NIGHT Mel & Andy won big at the BFE “Cut Above” awards, winning best current affairs & best single documentary.
The industry is now recognising it with multiple gongs, as they did “Kill Zone” last year, showing people understand the worth of strong films about Gaza, when you run them.

The people we owe everything to for this film were the Doctors & medics who told us their stories, and the film makers on the ground @jaber_badwan & @osama.s.alashi. They can’t ever make it to awards because as well as Israel targeting and killing journalists, & not letting foreign journalists in, it also makes it impossible for journalists like them to get out.

So in effect we attend for them; and here they are below, our colleagues and friends and heroes; we send them love and we salute them.

[basement films @Basement_Films]

Honoured that we have 3 @BAFTA nominations for “Doctors Under Attack”

[Ben de Pear @bendepear]

Very happy we are nominated for a @BAFTA for "Doctors Under Attack"

[basement films @Basement_Films]

We are honoured to have been nominated for a @BAFTA for current affairs for "Doctors Under Attack" the film @BBCNews wouldn't run but we are grateful @Channel4 & @zeteo_news released instead.

[BAFTA @BAFTA]

The Current Affairs nominees are… 📰

BREAKING RANKS: INSIDE ISRAEL’S WAR (EXPOSURE)
THE COVID CONTRACTS: FOLLOW THE MONEY
GAZA: DOCTORS UNDER ATTACK
UNDERCOVER IN THE POLICE (PANORAMA)

#BAFTATVAwards with @pandocruises

[UN Human Rights Council @UN_HRC]

“My report shows that torture extends far beyond prison walls, in what can only be described as a torturous environment imposed by Israel across the entire occupied Palestinian territory,” @FranceskAlbs told the @UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

#HRC61➜https://t.co/TnkLkevBCq

[Malachy Browne @malachybrowne]

'Made in USA' and Department of Defense codes imprinted on weapons fragments used to make American Tomahawks and seen in photos by Iran near bombed Minab school. Latest story w/ @trbrtc & @johnismay

https://t.co/HX7aQaGv2s

[basement films @Basement_Films]

Very proud that ‘Gaza: Doctors Under Attack’
https://t.co/QwMuy8O7jy has been nominated by the @royaltelevisionsociety for Best Single Documentary congrats to all @basementfilms2 @senoritaramita @karimalishah and our everlasting respect to the medics & survivors in Gaza who shared their stories with us. 36 hospitals attacked, 1700 medics killed, countless others detained and tortured, and many many are still locked up. Those back in Gaza are still fighting to provide whatever service they can. Finally thanks to Channel4 for showing it after the cowardice elsewhere

[Malachy Browne @malachybrowne]

I reported this story and have been working around the clock since Saturday to cover the deaths and obtain definitive evidence so that we can confidently assign responsibility. We've been reviewing photos of the dust covered bodies of children and verifying their names against the names scrawled on little coffins. We've been debunking false claims about the attack and that the harrowing cemetery photo isn't real. And while it appeared obvious to many early on that the U.S. or Israel hit the school, it takes days to sift through, pinpoint and analyze the evidence. It took four days before a new satellite image we ordered came through so we could confidently assess the damage and the types of weapons used. All that reporting and cross checking and the production of the visuals showing it takes time. But it ultimately allows us to more confidently assert U.S. responsibility, explain our rationale and add to the body of reporting that officials should be challenged with. It's easy to critique a headline, and I agree language matters, but you diminish the reporting. We're not justifying anything, we're stating where the reporting points responsibility, and quoting legal experts on the laws of armed conflict. Here's a gift link https://t.co/yWNfYgojXT

[basement films @Basement_Films]

Please watch our Basement Films new 3-part series “Hostage” here https://t.co/NoU970iCrw
Directed by Marian Mohamed, and co-produced with Story Films Limited, it tells the extraordinary story of John Cantlie, who along with his friend James Foley, was kidnapped by jihadists and ultimately held by ISIS in Syria.

James was horrifically executed, but John survived. It is a tribute to him and all journalists who take the ultimate risks to go to places few will venture to so we can be better informed.

The series builds on the amazing reporting of the Anthony Loyd and Manveen Rana podcast Last Man Standing. It was co exec/produced with Peter Beard.

The series made by a brilliant team at Story Films Limited and Basement Films. A big thank you to @Simon Young for commissioning the series and pushing it to be the best it could, to Prash Naik at Creators Counsel (as ever), Kezia Tomsett for the amazing score and the team at TVC Soho. And a special thank you to all the contributors and friends/colleagues of John and James who helped make the series.

Josh Wilkins Alec Webb Samantha Tilyard Sasha K. Martin McDonnell Ellen Green Shana Kemp Firas Itani Jacqueline Edwards Holly Mina Jones Crissania R

[Press Gazette @pressgazette]

The Committee to Protect Journalists has found more journalists and media workers were killed in 2025 than any year since its records began 30 years ago (2024 was the previous record). Israel was responsible for two-thirds of deaths in both years https://t.co/zHddiLGSiH

[basement films @Basement_Films]

In August 2023 our film "Sri Lanka's Easter Bombings" was broadcast by @Channel4 - in it we set out allegations from multiple insiders and whistle blowers that senior Sri Lankan politicians and security chiefs were involved in a conspiracy around the Easter Bombings in 2019 that killed 253 people in hotels and churches across Sri Lanka. Our insiders named two senior Sri Lankans- a politician named Pillayan, and the head of state security at the time Suresh Salley.
Suresh Salley was today arrested on charges of "conspiracy and aiding and abetting" the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, and joins PIllayan who has been in prison since last year.
Please watch our film - made with the co-opertion of very brave Sri Lankans - here
https://t.co/GP53R2xITl

[basement films @Basement_Films]

The investigation and arrest of Andrew Mountbatten Windsor is an extraordinary moment, and to be done effectively it will have to dig deep into the establishment and its protection of him. The main witnesses to any alleged crimes will be the police, in the form of his close protection officers, who went everywhere with him at all times, and the palace, in the form of the structure around him that ensured all legal moves and avenues against him were effectively closed down for over a decade. Any cover up is theirs as well as his.

I came across Prince Andrew twice as a journalist and both times he was surrounded by protection officers. The first time was in Pretoria at an event with the UK High Commissioner; Andrew cruised the room followed by his protection, blatantly checking out all the women. The second time was on a plane to Chicago, which when he decided no longer suited his timetable he disembarked from with his protection officers who whisked him back to Windsor whilst the rest of us sat on the tarmac as they searched for airmiles Andy’s luggage.

When I was at Channel 4 News we tried repeatedly to investigate Andrew and particularly that photograph. Even after Epstein’s conviction and emergence of “that photo”, they rounded the wagons, having refused to receive US legal papers from his alleged victims. After repeated attempts the police admitted they had looked into the circumstances of the photo before dropping the investigation. It felt like a coup at the time, but the police and palace seemed to go to extraordinary lengths to obfuscate and stonewall all media enquiries, before the royals ultimately paid millions to a woman whom he denied ever meeting.

As editor I found the monarchy and conventions of Royal coverage the hardest to comprehend. When, in 2015 we were offered an interview with Charles I was keen to do it to ask about his brother, but we were told we had to sign a draconian 15 page contract that essentially ceded all editorial control to the palace. Indeed, the signatures of previous tv execs littered the pro forma contract which gave Prince Charles the right to final cut, before broadcast and release. After refusing to sign (I took legal advice as I thought it broke OFCOM rules by giving final editorial control to the interviewee) they refused the interview; the contract appeared here https://t.co/BsdyEKeag4.

When Charles was seen to have re-entered public life with a series of spider-letters, I got Michael Crick to doorstep him https://t.co/KDJbx95HwN. I was removed from my tenuous membership of the royal broadcast pool.

That was the end of our relationship with the Royals; Nnewsnight & Emily Maitlis then got their extraordinary Andrew interview and the rest should have been history; but all this has still taken nearly a decade to happen.

[Broadcast Awards @BroadcastAwards]

Up for Best Current Affairs Programme is Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, @Basement_Films for @Channel4

✨Join us on the 4th of February, book your table now! https://t.co/nNgcHHD0eh

#BA2026 #BroadcastAwards #Production #TV #Broadcast #TVProduction #ChildrenTV #Comedy #Drama #Documentary #News #CurrentAffairs #Streamers #Daytime #Entertainment #PostProduction #RealityTV #Sports #Broadcasters

[basement films @Basement_Films]

Our friends in Gaza, 250+ of whom have been killed doing their jobs, won an @iemmys award last night for "KIll Zone: Inside Gaza" which we made for Channel 4.
We are beyond proud that this film - one of the first to be made purely in Gaza was recognised for this honour, its 8th major award including @bafta @amnesty @press_gazette @broadcastnow_mbi @rorypecktrust award.
We want to pay tribute to our DOP @jaber_badwan and the 11 other filmmakers who continued to risk everything to document the atrocities.
Thank you to all @basementfilms2 @vanessa_bowles for directing @melaniequig_ for pushing through the thousands of hours of blood drenched bodies and helping make sense of the carnage, @thompwalker for bringing all the heart, Andy Kemp for further editing @tvcsoho for the post @ramacqueen95 for keeping it all together, @anabellemarshall_directs for incredible support, and menna_hj for the spirit, for putting up with it all.

This was our first film in Gaza, not the one that @bbcnews dropped but made for @channel4 and we thank them especially @nevmab & Jo Potts.

Watch this space as our latest film "Gaza: Doctors Under Attack", yes the one dropped by @bbcnews has been nominated for multiple awards and won the @societyofeditorsuk investigation award last week.

[basement films @Basement_Films]

Very proud that our Basement Films film “Gaza: Doctors Under Attack” made for BBC News but dropped by them and then run by Channel 4 won the Society of Editors Broadcast Investigation of the Year : as ever this award is first and foremost for our team in Gaza led by Jabir Badwan & Osama Al Ahli, but it was brilliant made by Ramita Navai Karim Shah Melanie Quigley Robert Angus Macqueen Andy Kemp Menna Hijazi Leah Gowns and post done at TVC Soho.
We are relieved that the killing for now has slowed if not ended in Gaza, but following events at the BBC this week it’s a reminder that the board there and the leadership there first praised and approved this film and then dropped and traduced its makers.
We want a strong BBC News - the dropping of this film was a strong signal of its weakness and disfunctionality.
Also pleased to see Cathy Newman won Broadcaster of the year - her investigation we started 7 years ago Channel 4 News should never have taken this long to be acted on; she is indefatigable

[BBC News (World) @BBCWorld]

Gaza children dying as they wait for Israel to enable evacuations https://t.co/83Rs2uhmYU