Amanda Blue is a critically acclaimed filmmaker who’s been directing documentaries for the past 18 years and has been nominated for and won numerous awards both in the UK and internationally. Most recently she has been directing award-winning commercials and is currently moving into directing and writing fiction. She started her career working for Oscar-nominated film director, Mike Figgis and later produced his documentary arts films.

Early in her career, Amanda directed the multi award-winning documentary series for Channel 4, YOUNG BLACK FARMERS, about a group of inner-city black teenagers going to live and work on a Devonshire farm, which won a Banff Award for Best Unscripted Series. She was Bafta nominated as Best Director for her award-winning, PRESCOTT: THE CLASS SYSTEM AND ME, about the former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, his inimitable wife Pauline and their journey through the British class system. Amanda then directed the seminal series THE BIG SCHOOL LOTTERY for the BBC about the experiences of British children going from primary to secondary school, garnering many award nominations. She then went on to direct TWINCREDIBLES another critically acclaimed film for the BBC about growing up mixed race in Britain. Tom Sutcliffe wrote in The Independent, “Blue’s film, full of grace notes and emotion, was a lovely rebuke to the most familiar prejudices surrounding race, but it forced you to think about some cherished liberal prejudices too”. The film was nominated for Best Documentary at Prix Europa Festival. Her next film THE TOWN THAT CAUGHT TOURETTES pulled in huge ratings for Channel 4 and vast international sales. The Times had this to say about THE GREATEST SHOWS ON EARTH, Amanda’s comedy documentary series with her long-time collaborator the comedy writer and actress Daisy Donovan…”As in all really memorable television something had happened that nobody could have predicted…”

Amanda wrote and directed the feature-length drama documentary AFTER THE WAVE about the aftermath of the Boxing Day tsunami in Thailand. An international co-production funded by Screen Australia, SBS, Film Victora, The Wellcome Trust and Discovery Europe it screened at festivals across the world, was nominated for several awards and received critical acclaim across the board, “haunting and beautiful”, said the Sydney Morning Herald.

Most recently Blue wrote and directed the feature-length drama documentary DEEP WATER for Screen Australia and SBS. “It’s up there with the best crime documentaries of the recent past…. leaving audiences with a sense that justice still needs to be done…”, The Telegraph. This film was nominated for eight awards including Best Director and Best Feature Documentary at the AACTA awards in Australia.

Blue is now directing commercials and has quickly gone on to win critical acclaim and various awards for her work, picking up a Bronze Lion at Cannes, Kinsale Sharks, LIA Awards and New York Festival awards. David Reviews in the UK says this about Blue’s commercials work, “Amanda marries beautiful photography with multi-layered story-telling and is able to deal with the complexities of modern life, revealing the human experience in surprising ways”.

Work w/ CUSP

In her capacity as documentary filmmaker, Amanda is working with us on the CYCLES project—a study of the lives of young urban citizens aged between 12 and 24 years living in very different cities and contexts.