Selected Work: Presenter, director, executive producer, camera
The Case for the Climate | earthrise – Systems Change | Al Jazeera English
The solutions for the environmental crisis exist, and there are plenty of films on previous earthrise series to prove this. Many of them have the potential to be transformative but our current…
Believing in Change | earthrise – Systems Change | Al Jazeera English
I’ve been producing and presenting environmental programmes for over a decade now. As the years have progressed, I’ve come to believe that knowledge and data alone are not sufficient to mitigate the…
Planetary Justice | earthrise – Systems Change | Al Jazeera English
In this second programme of the 2023 series of earthrise, we follow on from the first and continue exploring how the law is forcing action on the climate and nature crisis. In the Peruvian Andes, I…
Business Critical | earthrise – Systems Change | Al Jazeera English
In this episode, which has been nominated for a prestigious Association of International Broadcasters award in the Politics and Business category, I explore how corporations are helping transform the…
Change of Power | earthrise | Al Jazeera
I find it really exciting to think that the world is in the middle of the greatest energy transition since the Industrial Revolution. But I am also deeply worried because it’s clear that transition…
Healthy Eating | earthrise | Al Jazeera English
As populations grow and incomes rise, we are eating more and more meat and dairy. I was amazed to learn the average person now eats over 40 kg of meat a year. Think 350 quarter pounders! Intensive…
Fixing the Food Cycle | earthrise | Al Jazeera English
Our global food system is totally topsy-turvy. It fuels climate change, degrades land, pollutes soil and water supplies and wipes out wildlife, including the pollinators we need for our crops. Far…
Natural Wisdom | earthrise | Al Jazeera English
I was lucky enough to spend a month with the Shipibo tribe in the Peruvian Amazon in 2015. This trip opened my eyes to the crucial role indigenous peoples play in protecting nature. It also made me…
Wild Recovery | earthrise | Al Jazeera
This is the first programme of the latest series of earthrise which I exec’d from a hotel room in Doha, Qatar, during the COVID-19 pandemic. With restrictions on movement in place around the world,…
Crisis…What Crisis? | People & Power | Al Jazeera English
One of the things that really baffles me is why governments have failed to respond effectively to the climate crisis our planet faces, despite having known about the causes and likely consequences of…
Amanda Burrell Presenter Showreel
Recent presenting work on Al Jazeera English, including on Planet SOS. Find more at amandaburrell.com Instagram: @planetmands
Can the pandemic spur action on climate change? | Inside Story | Al Jazeera English
My first studio discussion programme was a special for Al Jazeera’s Inside Story strand, to mark the fifth anniversary of the Paris Climate Agreement on 12th December 2020. In 2015, world leaders…
Reimagining Plastic | earthrise
This programme looks at solutions for ridding the world from the scourge of plastic waste. It’s also about the need to entirely rethink the way we use the planet’s resources. If we are to turn the…
Rewilding Patagonia | earthrise
The human footprint is so huge that it affects an astonishing three-quarters of the land on the planet. Only a few pockets of wilderness remain on Earth today. In response, a worldwide movement is…
Voices from the Frontlines | Planet SOS | Al Jazeera English
Presenting Al Jazeera’s environmental magazine programme from the studio in Qatar. I was instrumental in getting the series commissioned. The growing urgency of the climate and ecological crisis had…
Water Wise Women | earthrise
Jordan is one of the world's driest countries. Some estimates say its supply of fresh water will run out by 2060. And yet, 50 per cent of the water distributed to homes across the country is lost…
Friends Indeed | Community Channel
For people going through a period of struggle or change, the support of a mentor or ‘befriender’ can be transformative. I explore this through five different relationships. The most rewarding films…
Wasteland Renewal | earthrise
Bangka Island in Indonesia has a long history of tin mining. Years of extraction have taken their toll on the land, leaving it acidic, cratered and unsuitable for agriculture. A group of businessmen…
Cover Story | Al Jazeera World
Social dynamics are changing in Turkey. When Turkey was founded in 1923, it was on firm secular principles. Turkish women were banned from headscarf – known as the hijab outside Turkey – in all…
Power of Rubbish | earthrise
With a population of nearly 20 million and counting, Sao Paolo is the largest city in Brazil and the eighth largest in the world. And as its population grows, so too does its waste. For nearly three…
Winds of Change | earthrise
Two stories about communities adjusting their way of living, and dying, to reduce carbon emissions. Over the past 20 years the Danish island of Samso’s 4000 inhabitants have moved from a reliance on…
The People’s Voice | earthrise
Public anger and disillusionment at how politicians are failing to tackle the environmental crisis is on the rise. I wanted to make a programme that explored this. Luckily, our shooting schedule…
Golden Boys | Al Jazeera World
At the 2008 Beijing Paralympics, the Bosnia and Herzegovina men's sitting volleyball team won the silver medal. Four years later at the London Paralympics, their ambition was to go further. This film…
Reenergising Bhubaneswar | earthrise
The Indian state of Orissa faces an energy crisis. But because of climatic fluctuations and a 35% reduction in rainfall, water catchments in reservoirs and dams have been drastically reduced and some…
36 Boys | Al Jazeera World
Today, there are an estimated three million Turks in Germany, the largest ethnic community in the country. Multiculturalism and the integration of immigrants has been a fiercely controversial topic…
People of the Lake | Al Jazeera World
The Aral Sea, located between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, was once the fourth-largest lake in the world, an immense body of fresh water covering a surface area of 68,000 square kilometres. But that…
Land and the Climate Crisis | Planet SOS | Al Jazeera English
Planet SOS explores how the way we use land is both contributing to, and affected by the global climate crisis. Poor land-use practices are causing degradation and desertification to such an extent…
Coming Back | Al Jazeera World
On May 18, 1944, Joseph Stalin deported 218,000 Crimean Tatars to Central Asia. Using personal testimonies, this film tells the story of the Tatars' expulsion from their homeland and their long…
Istanbul: Songs of the city | Al Jazeera World
When Istanbul was at the heart of the Ottoman Empire, it was one of the most ethnically diverse cities in history. After the founding of Turkey in the early 20th century, however, most of the city's…
UN Climate Change Conference | Planet SOS | Al Jazeera English
Following the latest report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, examining the state of the world’s oceans and cryosphere, we ask whether time is running out to avert the worst…
War and Conflict | Ancient Inventions | Discovery Channel
In this programme about inventions catalysed by war and conflict, Terry Jones examines the search for the ultimate weapon, as well as the ability of doctors to repair the damage such weapons cause.…
Pencils and Bullets | Al Jazeera World
Nearly 30 of the documentaries I commissioned and executive produced for Al Jazeera Turk have been revised to be shown on the Al Jazeera World series on the English channel. It’s been fantastic to…
Sea level rise: Studio explainer | Planet SOS | Al Jazeera English
Myself and my computer-generated mini-planet Earth are back, this time to demonstrate the effects of global warming on sea levels rising. I picked up new skills working with computer generated…
Ecosystem Alert | earthrise
In this programme we meet some of the pioneers striving to protect two of our most valuable remaining ecosystems. Until I made this episode, I wasn’t fully aware of the damage caused to primary…
The Decline of Nature | Planet SOS | Al Jazeera English
Nature is in decline. In May 2019, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) published the most comprehensive study of life on Earth. It found that…
City Life | Ancient Inventions | Discovery Channel
Of all the productions I’ve been involved in, this was of the ones I enjoyed the most. I studied history at Cambridge and toyed with the idea of becoming an academic. I decided instead to start my TV…
Antarctic sanctuary: The Weddell Sea quest | earthrise
Environmental correspondent Nick Clark follows a Greenpeace campaign to create the world's largest sanctuary in the remote Weddell Sea in Antarctica. The continent's spectacular wildlife is under…
Ladakh’s Ice Stupa Project | earthrise
Some scientists predict that global warming could leave much of the Himalayas ice-free by the end of the century. As glaciers disappear, so too does the freshwater on which one billion people……
Meltdown | Hot Cities | BBC World News
If average global temperatures rise by merely a few degrees, most of the world’s glaciers will all but disappear. This will lead to floods and severe water shortages for millions of people. Meltdown…
Fighting Insectageddon | earthrise
I was shocked when I learnt about a 2017 study that revealed insect numbers in some parts of Germany had declined by over 75% in the previous 27 years. I really wanted to make a programme that…
Tales of Beyoğlu | European Capital of Culture Agency
Beyoğlu is the ‘bohemian quarter’ - of Istanbul. Once one of the districts (I think) that housed non-Muslims who were encouraged to worship freely upon payment of a religious tax, it has evolved to…
Motherhood on Ice | Al Jazeera Correspondent
Al Jazeera's Amanda Burrell is in her 40s, childless and single. She would like to have children one day and is weighing up the available options. Among them is oocyte cryopreservation or, as it is…
Sex and Love | Ancient Inventions | Discovery Channel
In this programme, Terry Jones focuses on inventions related to sex and love. Foundation make-up was first worn in Ancient Egypt, not to enhance beauty but to protect labourers constructing the…
Yemen | Women in Black | BBC2
‘An engrossing series’ The Daily Telegraph ‘Very interesting… an honest picture of one woman’s dual existence’ The Guardian ‘A series of enjoyable documentaries on the real lives behind the veil’ The…
The Forgotten Refugees | BBC World News
’An admirably succinct summary of the Bhutanese refugee situation in Nepal and captures the complex human calculations of the resettlement solution’ Nepali Times I travel to seven camps in Nepal…
Land First | Concern Worldwide
This film was made during my two years spent living in India as part of a Commonwealth Broadcasting Association Bursary. A feature-length documentary following a month-long march by a group of…
First Steps | BBC World News
Stepping Stones to School and Catch them Young. Documentaries following children taking part in a global scheme which aims to increase their learning abilities and to give them more of a chance in…
Getting By | Community Channel
Conversations with people in the United Kingdom struggling with considerable poverty after life crises, from cancer recovery to homelessness and chronic childhood illness. At the time, twenty percent…
Alvin’s Guide to Good Business | BBC World
Alvin Hall, a business veteran with 25 years experience on Wall Street, travels the world meeting social entrepreneurs to advise them how to make their enterprises more effective. In Phnom Penh,…
Stick Thin in India | Fresh | BBC3
An exploration of the growth in cases of anorexia in India. While I was living there I discovered that the disease was becoming a serious problem. But, because of the stigma surrounding mental…
Becoming Bangladeshi | Our World | BBC World News
‘The thing I like best about this film is the presenter. Pure goodness. Thank you BBC.’ Viewer comment on BBC website When Bangladesh went to the polls in December 2008, it was the first…
Survival | BBC World News
‘Beautifully photographed. High quality, scientifically accurate, and unsensational’ British Medical Journal Two observational documentaries filmed in Bangladesh, for a landmark series on global…
Survivor’s Guide: The Dispossessed | BBC World News
Documentary exploring how the Bote tribe in Nepal, who’ve lost access to the forest and its resources, is fighting to survive. My role was production director. Rockhopper TV for BBC World News 23…
Hitler, Churchill and the Paratroopers | Timewatch | BBC2
Documentary looking at Churchill’s race to create an airborne regiment finer than Nazi Germany’s. I was assistant producer and directed the sequence shown. This is one of several programmes I worked…
Harem: The Sultanate of the Women | Channel 4 / A&E
‘Best girl power’ The Sunday Times ‘Finely judged balance of story telling and analysis, a thoughtful textured piece of film-making’ Time Out I pitched this idea to Channel 4 with Paladin Invision,…