André Singer

André Singer is currently CEO of factual production company Café Productions in the UK and Senior Vice-President, European Production, for Alliance Atlantis Fact.

Following studies as an anthropologist specialising in Iran and Afghanistan at Oxford University (where he was awarded his D.Phil and was research assistant to Sir Edward Evans-Pritchard), André joined Granada Television as a researcher on the Disappearing World series. He subsequently trained as a director and by the time he left Granada to set up independent company InCA, he had produced and directed numerous award-winning films for both Disappearing World (of which he became Series Editor) and World in Action, the Granada flagship current affairs series.

As a filmmaker he continued making documentaries for British television (Strangers Abroad for Central Television, Battle for the Planet for Channel Four, World About Us for the BBC, etc) and for the international market and for the UNHCR.

In 1989 he was invited to join the BBC to create the first documentary unit for independent productions.

Over the next few years he was the Executive Producer responsible for commissioning many of the major documentary series from the independent sector (Michael Palin's Pole to Pole, The Prize, Millennium, Madness with Johnathan Millar, The Visit, A Dog's Tale, etc). He also created and ran the series Fine Cut, which showcased feature documentaries from noted international directors such as Werner Herzog, Jean Rouch, Fred Wiseman, Don Pennebaker, Les Blank,.

In 1992 André left the BBC to form Café Productions, with offices in London, Paris and Washington. Over the next eight years, Café produced over 200 hours of peak-time international documentaries in the areas of history, archaeology, travel, science and anthropology. Café still also works on feature-documentaries and is currently coproducing films with, among others, Werner Herzog and Vikram Jayanti. In 2001 Café became part of the Alliance Atlantis Corporation and now works closely with the other factual companies in the AAC Fact group.

André has also over the years maintained links with the academic world and has been active in promoting the documentary genre worldwide. He is Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at USC in Los Angeles; was Visiting Professor of Media at the University of the West of England, 1994-2000; Vice President of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs, 1987-1996. He was a founder and Board Member of the European Documentary Network, 1996-2001; he is a Council Member of PACT, the UK Producers Alliance and currently also chairs the Film Committee of the Royal Anthropological Institute.