Documentary Filmmaker
A selection of short documentaries in which Turner acted as director, cinematographer, and editor, or held one of these roles, either through direct commission or by pitching, filming, and producing for various international media outlets.
TRAPPED IN OMAN | BBC Africa Eye
Cinematographer - Commissioned
BBC Africa Eye investigates the plight of Malawian women lured to Oman with offers of domestic work, only to be trapped in a cycle of exploitation, with little hope of escape. Through WhatsApp voice notes, videos, and texts, this documentary reveals their abusive ordeals, and exposes the tactics of agents that traffic and then abandon them. The investigation also examines the poverty and desperation that leads young people to seek opportunities in the Middle East, and the weak justice system that often allows their employers to abuse them with impunity.
Intimate testimonies reveal widespread accounts of sexual and physical abuse, or worse, of African workers - and the film follows the work of an extraordinary network of women working across three continents fighting to bring them home, often against impossible odd
GREECE'S WILDFIRES | The Guardian
Director, Cinematographer, Editor - Pitched & Produced
Shepherd Giannis Tsiboukas, 36, confronts the ‘total destruction’ caused after a wildfire ravaged his land on the island of Evia in Greece. Tsiboukas lost more than 40 animals to the fire that destroyed more than 50,000 hectares. Peoples homes and livelihoods have been decimated. Hundreds of wildfires have torn through Greece this month on the heels of its most severe heatwave in decades, which left its forests tinder dry. Other Mediterranean countries – Turkey, Italy, Algeria and Spain among them – have suffered similar problems. Scientists say there is little doubt that climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas is driving more extreme weather events.
SEARCH & RESCUE IN THE TIME OF COVID | The Guardian
Director, Cinematographer, Editor - Pitched & Produced
Savvas Kourepinis is the captain of the Astral, a humanitarian boat patrolling the Mediterranean Sea to rescue people attempting to cross the main maritime route from north Africa to Europe. For most of this year, the Covid-19 pandemic forced these vital search-and-rescue missions to cease in what is often referred to as the deadliest migration route in the world. As Kourepinis and his crew set out on one of their first patrols since lockdown restrictions eased, they face stringent coronavirus regulations and the reluctance of nearby countries to take in the people the Astral has rescued
CHILD BRIDES OF CLIMATE CHANGE: KENYA'S BATTLE | Time Magazine
Cinematographer, Editor - Commissioned
Reporting for this article was supported by a grant from The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting
Climate change has given rise to a resurgence of child marriage in northern Kenya in the last five years. Increasingly frequent droughts and a plague of locusts linked to climate change have depleted water and grazeland, and the livestock that are the economic backbone of pastoralist communities like Bubisa who are dying of hunger, thirst and disease. To cope, desperate families are increasingly pulling their daughters from school and marrying them off in exchange for dowries—typically comprised of new clothes, drums of fresh milk and several camels.
INSIDE A GREEK CORONAVIRUS WARD | The Guardian
Cinematographer, Editor - Pitched & Produced
Despite a decade-old financial crisis that has crippled its hospitals, Greece appears to be keeping its coronavirus outbreak under control, with a far lower death toll than many other European nations.
Dr Yota Lourida, Infectious Diseases specialist at Sotiria hospital in Athens, explains how it dealt with the crisis, and the steps taken by the country to mitigate against potentially catastrophic outcomes.
SOBRE LAS CENIZAS DE MORIA | Revista 5W
Cinematographer, Editor - Commissioned
El incendio que devoró el mayor campo de refugiados de Europa ha acelerado la aplicación de la restrictiva política migratoria de Grecia.