FOCUS PRODUCTIONS – the award-winning Science and History producers

Focus are the major producers of savant films in the world

Famous for its award-winning films on Savants – those  inexplicable geniuses who have extraordinary abilities which cannot be understood by science – Focus Productions has produced some of the world’s most popular documentaries on savants – with sales of these films to hundreds of TV broadcasters all over the world.

Our hugely popular savant films include:

Brainman (The Boy with the Incredible Brain), The Real Rainman, The Musical Genius, Painting the Mind, The Two Dereks – and exciting new savant films are now in development.

Focus Productions was started by the award-winning British writer and director Martin Weitz, a former World In Action journalist and now Creative Director of Focus Productions.

Over the years Focus Productions have made a distinctive slate of intelligent and original films about important, and often overlooked subjects. On low budgets we don't make cheap programmes and whilst our range of our productions is extraordinarily broad, they all try to be original, thought-provoking and produced to very high standards.

Our BAFTA-nominated and Royal Television Society award-winning film Brainman (also known in the UK as The Boy with the Incredible Brain) is typical of this approach and the ecstatic reviews on both sides of the Atlantic  bear this out: "a beautiful film about a beautiful mind" wrote the New York Timesand critics in Britain also didn’t hold back the praise:
“The most astonishing thing I've ever seen on TV.” Metro
“a terrific film. Nice one, Five” The Guardian   
“Genuinely extraordinary and incredible… likely to stick in your mind for a long time”  Evening Standard
“Awe-inspiring and strangely moving” The Times 
“A stupefying film. Thoroughly reccommended” The Sunday Telegraph.
“ A highly interesting and truly moving documentary”  Sunday Express
“an absorbing and pretty amazing documentary”  Daily Mail

FOCUS documentaries range from an investigation of archaeological discoveries made about the ancient Copper Scroll featured in the Pharaoh's Holy Treasure on BBC2 to the history of British Blues in John Mayall – the godfather of British Blues shown many times on BBC2 and BBC4. From the investigation of Mother Teresa’s alleged miracle in The Saint-Making Business on Channel 4 to the extraordinary story of the genius British savant Daniel Savant in Brainman / The Boy with the Incredible Brain. (Discovery and Five TV).
Focus were delighted to be chosen to make the BBC-2 documentary on the Jamaican legend of Nanny Maroon – the 18th century female rebel leader who masterminded a slave rebellion against the British Army- as part of the BBC’s Abolition of Slavery Season. The documentary was presented by Mercury Music Prize winner,  Ms Dynamite, who travelled to Jamaica to unravel the story of Nanny.

Focus are not just science and history producers, with a strong journalistic background nurtured at Granada’s World In Action and from writing investigative pieces for the Sunday Times, as well being the author of the best-selling book on useless medical treatment, Health Shock, Focus boss Martin Weitz, has produced several current affairs films for C4’s Dispatches for Focus.

Bras- the bare facts was a disturbing investigation into the possibility that bras might cause breast cancer. Our subsequent Dispatches investigation The Drug Trial that Went Wrong,  was nominated for a Royal Television Society Award, and looked into what caused the world’s worst drug trial accident.  Most recently, our lastest Dispatches film The Children Left Behind investigated the failure of large schools to successfully educate many children.

Focus has also produced a surreal comedy documentary for Five TV Pig at the Ritz which still has a strong cult following and made Grunty, a pig, into a national star.

Our radio productions, made by Martin Weitz Associates Ltd for BBC Radio 4,  include some of BBC’s most feted radio programmes; This Sceptred Isle. We won the Sony Gold Award for our series on the WW2 Evacuation The Evacuation- the true story.  We also produced Andrew Sach's acclaimed history of the Jews " The Jewish Journey " described as "a triumph for Radio 4" by The Spectator.

We also produce interactive DVDs – we are currently producing a major educational DVD set on mobility and visual impairment for London University’s Institute of Education  on behalf of the government’s Dept of Children, Schools and Families. Last year we produced Ready or Not for Bristol University's Graduate School of Education,  to show how drama can be used to support the transfer from primary to secondary school.
Our production company offices are situated in Bristol and we always welcome good ideas and suggestions for new programmes.  Please send ideas to: info@focusproductions.co.uk