Biography
Zoë Dobson, Award Winning Director
OVERVIEW
A fearless creative with a track record in creating distinctive cinematic stories with originality and verve. Zoe is a Bafta winning and double Emmy nominated director of world-class documentaries
Zoe is known for award winning Music and Arts documentaries. Including Duran Duran There is Something you Should Know Netflix, Greatest Guitar Riffs staring Brian May and Tony Iommi Sky Arts, Monumental Art: Christo & Jeanne Claude BBC Four.
Zoe’s documentary work includes the Emmy nominated Why Do We Dance? and the landmark series on Tea, One Cup A Thousand Stories for BBC Studios. Her directorial scripted debut on film, The Cunning Man, was sponsored by Directors UK and Arri. The Cunning Man was long listed for a BAFTA, selected at 3 Oscar qualifying festivals and won 33 International film festival awards including 5 for Best Director.
The Cunning Man is magic realism and horror, a peculiar English folk tale that modernises anxieties over the countryside and the people who live there. The composition and cinematography of the film is inspired by the palette of Dutch Vanity paintings and their themes of transience of life and the certainty of death.
In 2021 Zoe was a mentee on the Netflix sponsored WFTV Mentoring Scheme. In 2022 she was selected for the BFI backed Filmonomics 6 course, which has allowed her to focus her goal of gradually moving into scripted.
Zoë delivers high-end documentary films with the cinematic sensibilities of drama.
In short, Zoë has established a reputation for making work that is slick, throughly engaging and constantly pushes the creative boundaries of documentary film making.
TESTIMONIES
“Zoe has spent the last 10 years bringing her expertise to various broadcasters resulting in the airing of a variety of highly crafted and acclaimed documentaries. She has a clear authentic voice layered by years of experience. She is joyous, unafraid film maker who consistently pushes boundaries.”
Tracy Forsyth, Former Genre Head BBC Worldwide
“The practicalities of the shoot were extremely complex, but harder still was editing and writing each film to have its own distinctive style and feel that reflects the artist and his/her work, not only did Zoe pull it off with aplomb, but she managed the edit and the team with great skill and, more importantly, great calm.”
David Notman-Watt, MD Back2back on Lily Cole Art Matters
“Zoe really captured the essence of her subject, told each story in an accessible way and got a great performance out of Lily. I’ve been particularly impressed with the way she wrote the narration and structured the material.
Siobhan Mullholland, Sky Arts Commissioning Editor on Lily Cole Art Matters
“Zoe gained access to some of the world’s famous contemporary artists convincing them to open their doors to our cameras. A fantastic story teller, Zoe co-wrote the scripts with Lily Cole and pulled the films together with clear editorial vision and visual flair.”
Benedetta Pinelli, Executive Commissioner Sky on Lily Cole Art Matters
“The series followed a group of motorbiking British Jews along the east coast of America. Zoe skilfully navigated the story of this epic journey, laden with complex socio-political narratives: the group visited holocaust museums and ventured into Klu Klux Klan territory. This series demonstrated her propensity for sensitivity of story-telling, from the acutely personal to the universal.”
Benedetta Pinelli, Executive Producer Sky on Jews on Bikes, Sky Atlantic
I am a rarity in the industry. There is a chronic lack of female directors, 75% of TV directors are male and I’m proud to do my bit to challenge those stats.
