Brian Tilley | Director and Producer | South Africa

Brian Tilley has directed several documentary series for Al Jazeera English, including five seasons of the award-winning My series, shot in Nigeria, Cuba, Tunisia, Ethiopia, and Zimbabwe. He was the Series Producer of three seasons of the Africa Direct series, which featured 72 films from 57 filmmakers in 28 African countries. Brian also served as a producer for the documentary series Why Democracy and Why Poverty by STEPS.

His feature documentary It’s My Life, was screened at IDFA and on several television channels including BBC, ARTE, YLE, CBC, DR and Sundance Channel. He wrote and directed the drama series In a Time of Violence co-produced with Channel Four and ARTE, which was sold to 32 countries. He has been a story consultant on acclaimed documentaries including Rehad Desai’s Emmy award-winning Miners Shot Down, and Hajooj Kuka’s Beats of The Antonov.

Additionally, he has edited scripts for fiction films such as Oliver Schmitz’s Hijack Stories and Wanuri Kahiu’s Kenyan Cannes hit Rafiki. He co-wrote Akin Omotoso’s 2019 Nigerian feature The Ghost in The House of Truth. Most recently Brian was part of the writing team on a Kenyan Netflix series Spin, and was a series producer on the Al Jazeera series, Africa New Directions.