Nick Poyntz
I’m a documentary filmmaker, director and creative developer drawn to worlds that are difficult to enter and people whose lives reveal something larger — from death row, Sandhurst and drug cartels to autism, migration and institutions we usually see only from the outside.
My films are built on access, trust, observation and an instinct for visual storytelling. I filmed Sandhurstsingle-handedly over a year inside the Royal Military Academy; followed a condemned prisoner and two families through the final days before an execution for Life and Death Row; followed Akram Khan back into the Brick Lane curry houses of his childhood; and, for Narco Wars, directed 39 interviews with people on every side of the War on Drugs — from DEA agents, smugglers and cartel killers to Pablo Escobar’s widow, diplomats and senior military figures.
What interests me is what happens once the door opens. My approach is observational, but highly editorial: I look for character, humour, tension and contradiction — the moments when an unfamiliar world reveals itself.
I prepare thoroughly, read around a subject and ask difficult questions without being careless with people.
In 2001 I joined Roger Graef’s Films of Record, combining directing and self-shooting with development. I became a company director and shareholder and remained through its sale to Ten Alps.
Secret Life of a Bus Garage says something about what draws me to documentary. Its workforce represented more than 80 nationalities. My family history runs through northern England, India and Ireland: my grandfather came from an Anglo-Indian family with roots in southern Ireland and Tamil Nadu. Orphaned in India, he was brought up in a military orphanage in the Nilgiri Hills before emigrating to London. I have always been interested in how people carry one place into another — what they keep, what they lose and how they make a new home.
“Nick showed great skill with contributors and careful judgement in his storytelling.”
— Jeremy Phillips · Executive Producer · Discovery
“Nick did a brilliant job securing tricky access. He shoots beautifully and is a very talented and collaborative P/D.”
— Neil Crombie · Co-Founder & Creative Director · Swan Films
Freedom Road Films is the home for my commissioned, commercial and cultural work.
