Risk, Security and Storytelling

James Brabazon is a journalist and documentary filmmaker. Based in the United Kingdom, he has travelled to over 70 countries, investigating, filming, and directing in the world’s most hostile environments. He is the author of the international bestseller My Friend the Mercenary, a memoir recounting his experiences of the Liberian civil war and the Equatorial Guinea coup plot. He is currently the commissioning editor for the Foreign Film Fund, Channel 4 News. James first gained an international profile as the only journalist to film the Liberian LURD rebel group fighting to overthrow President Charles Taylor. James’s work has often involved filming close-quarter combat, for which he was awarded the IDA Courage Under Fire Award 2004 and the Rory Peck Trust Sony International Impact Award 2003.

Matt Timblin is the director of security at Human Rights Watch, overseeing security, related risk and crisis management across the organization’s global work footprint. He has travelled extensively and spent over two decades, in various roles, operating in some of the world’s highest risk and most challenging environments. After a 12-year career in the British Army, Matt spent over five years in the Middle East and Central Asia as a security and risk contractor and consultant for various organizations. Prior to his current position he worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) as a permanent adviser to news crews, documentaries and independent production companies filming in insecure areas worldwide. In this role he helped in the progression of many of the organization’s current security related policies and processes to support and enable news coverage and filmmaking in hostile and high risk environments. During his time at the BBC he worked with journalists on the ground at major world events including the Arab Spring, the Syrian conflict, the protests in Cairo and Gezi Park as well as working on documentaries in Mexico, Colombia, Afghanistan and Yemen amongst others.