Martin Smith (documentarian)
| Martin Smith | |
|---|---|
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Smith at the 69th Annual Peabody Awards
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| Born |
January 28, 1949 South Pasadena, California |
| Alma mater | New York University Tisch School of the Arts (BFA, 1975) |
| Occupation | Director, Writer, Producer, Correspondent |
| Spouse(s) | Marcela Gaviria (2012–present) |
| Website | rainmedia |
Martin Smith (born January 28, 1949) is a producer, writer, director and correspondent. Smith has directed dozens of nationally broadcast documentaries for CBS News, ABC News and PBS Frontline. His films range in topic from war in the Middle East to the 2008 financial crisis.
Smith was born January 28, 1949 and raised on a citrus farm in Riverside, California and in Los Angeles. He studied Comparative Literature at Brown University and has a BFA (1975) from the Institute of Film & Television at the Tisch School of the Arts of New York University.
In his 25 years producing and reporting, Martin Smith has covered the world: from revolution in Central America and the fall of communism in Russia, to the rise of Al Qaeda and the war in Iraq, to the inside story of the global financial meltdown. Smith was among the first journalists to investigate Col. Oliver North's clandestine network and one of the first western reporters to investigate the emergence of Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda network.
Smith began his career at CBS News as a film editor in 1976 and in 1982 directed and wrote his first documentary, "Guatemala", which won a both a George Polk Award for Investigative Journalism and an Emmy from the Academy of Television Art & Sciences. In 1983, Smith moved to PBS where he produced for the PBS science series NOVA and for FRONTLINE. In 1986 he produced "Who's Running This War" for FRONTLINE and won his second George Polk award. In 1989 he was executive producer of "Inside Gorbachev's USSR" with Hedrick Smith, winning a third Polk award and DuPont Columbia Gold Baton. In 1990, he was hired as a senior producer at FRONTLINE responsible for editorial supervision of over 50 documentaries in four years.
Between 1994 and 1998, Smith worked with Peter Jennings, the ABC News anchor, as a senior producer and oversaw a series of documentary specials for ABC's Peter Jennings Reporting unit, including "Hiroshima: Why the Bomb was Dropped", recipient of the Edward R. Murrow Award in 1995 and the George Foster Peabody award.
In 1998 Smith founded RAIN Media, an independent production company, which has produced nearly 50 hours of award winning programming for FRONTLINE, including: "The Terrorist and the Superpower", which was produced three years before the attacks on the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon. In the three months following 9/11, Smith produced in record time seminal films on the genesis of the attacks – "Looking for Answers" (2001), and "Saudi Time Bomb?" (2001). The Alfred I. Dupont jurors awarded Smith with his second Gold Baton and said of the body of work: "the series never flinches from showing why terrorist groups harbor such hate for America and includes people whose attitudes toward the United States are undoubtedly offensive to many viewers. Yet all of the programs are balanced and never sensationalized." Smith continued reporting on Al Qaeda in subsequent years. In the trilogy, "In Search of Al Qaeda", (2002), "Return of the Taliban" (2006) and "Obama's War" (2008), Smith twice interviewed President Pervez Musharaff on Pakistan's duplicitous Afghanistan policy. This work was had a major impact on US policy at the time, revealing Pakistan's double dealing. Excerpts from "Return of the Taliban" were used by US commander Karl Eikenberry in high level briefings of Bush administration officials. Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Smith also produced four films on Iraq for FRONTLINE: "Gangs of Iraq" (2007), "Private Warriors" (2005), "Beyond Baghdad" (2004) and "Truth, War and Consequences" (2003).
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