James Miller (filmmaker)

Infobox actor
name = James Miller


box_width = 280px
caption =
birthname =
birthdate = birth date|1968|12|18|df=y
birthplace = Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, Wales
deathdate = death date and age|2003|5|2|1968|12|18|df=y
deathplace = Rafah, Gaza Strip
restingplace =
restingplacecoordinates =
occupation = Cameraman, Film producer, Film director
yearsactive =
spouse = Sophy Warren-Knott (1997-death)
influences =
influenced =
website = http://www.justice4jamesmiller.org
baftaawards = Best Current Affairs
2002 "Beneath the Veil"
2005 "Death in Gaza"
emmyawards = Outstanding Investigative Journalism
2002 "Beneath the Veil"
Outstanding coverage of a continuing news story
2002 "Unholy War"
Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming
2005 "Death in Gaza"
Outstanding Cinematography for Nonfiction Programming
2005 "Death in Gaza"
Exceptional Merit in Nonfiction Filmmaking
2005 "Death in Gaza"
awards = Peabody Award
2001 "Beneath the Veil" and "Unholy War"
RTS Award for International Current Affairs
1999 "Prime Suspects"
2000-01 "Beneath the Veil"
RTS Programme of the Year Award
2000-01 "Beneath the Veil"
RTS Craft and Design Award
2000 "Beneath the Veil"

James Henry Dominic Miller (18 December 1968 - 2 May 2003) was a Welsh cameraman, producer, and director, and recipient of numerous awards, including five Emmy Awards. He often worked with Saira Shah with whom he founded and operated an independent production company called Frostbite Productions in 2001. He was killed by a single shot fired by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on 2 May 2003 while filming a documentary in Rafah.cite web
title = Miller's family push for prosecution
author = Chris Tryhorn
publisher = "Times"
date = 6 April 2006
accessdate = 2007-08-22
url = http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1748652,00.html] The soldier who shot him was identified in the press as Captain Hib al-Heib.cite web
title = Britain tells Israel to try soldier for killing film-maker
author = Michael Smith
publisher = "The Guardian"
date = 5 August 2007
accessdate = 2008-04-22
url = http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2199243.ece]

The Israeli Military Police investigation into Miller's death closed on 9 March 2005 with an announcement that the soldier suspected of firing the shot would not be indicted as they could not establish that his shot was responsible, though he would be disciplined for violating the rules of engagement and for changing his account of the incident.cite web
title = Israel: No criminal charges against IDF soldier in journalist's shooting death
publisher = Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
date = 9 March 2005
accessdate = 2007-08-22
url=http://www.cpj.org/news/2005/Israel09mar05na.html] On 6 April 2006, the inquest jury at St Pancras Coroner's Court in London returned a verdict of unlawful killing, finding that Miller had been "murdered." After meetings with the Miller family, the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, sent a formal request to his Israeli counterpart in June 2007 for prosecution proceedings to be enacted within six weeks against the soldier responsible for firing the shot.cite web
title = Israel replies in shooting inquiry
author = Rory McCarthy
publisher = "The Guardian"
date = 8 August 2007
accessdate = 2007-08-22
url = http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2143804,00.html] As of August 2007, prosecution proceedings have yet to be enacted.

Early life and family

James Miller was born in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, Wales the younger son of Geoffrey Miller, an army officer who later rose to the rank of colonel, and his wife, Eileen, a headmistress. He grew up in the West Country, but from ages six to eight lived in the Outer Hebrides, where his father was posted. Raised as a Roman Catholic, he maintained that faith for the whole of his life. He was educated at Downside and later at the London College of Printing, where within a few weeks his tutors promoted him to the postgraduate course in photo-journalism. He worked as a photographer before moving to television.cite news
last = Keane
first = Fergal
authorlink = Fergal Keane
title = James Miller: documentary-maker
url = http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article36507.ece
publisher = "The Independent"
date = 7 May 2003
accessdate = 2007-08-27 (obituary)]

In 1997, he married Sophy Warren-Knott, with whom he had a son, Alexander, and a daughter, Charlotte.cite news
last = Henshaw
first = David
title = James Miller: Renowned filmer of recent conflicts
url = http://media.guardian.co.uk/israel/story/0,,950830,00.html
publisher = "The Guardian"
date = 7 May 2003
accessdate = 2007-08-27 (obituary)]

Career

Miller started his working life as a freelance cameraman, and in 1995 joined the Frontline News collective as cameraman, producer, and director. He reported from the vicious civil war in Algeria and from most of the world's major trouble spots from 1995 onwards, working for CNN, and for all the leading news broadcasters in Britain.

In 1999 he made his first film for Hardcash Productions, "Prime Suspects", about a massacre in Kosovo for Channel 4's "Dispatches" programme. This film won the Royal Television Society (RTS) award for International Current Affairs in 1999.cite web
url = http://www.rts.org.uk/awards.asp?sec_id=331
title = RTS Television Journalism Awards 1999
publisher = Royal Television Society
accessdate = 2007-08-27] Almost every film he made for Hardcash won major awards. "Prime Suspects" was followed by "Dying For The President" about the Second Chechen War and "Children Of The Secret State" about Korea, both also for "Dispatches".

Miller then teamed up with reporter Saira Shah, daughter of the writer Idries Shah, to make "Beneath the Veil", about the life of women in Taliban-run Afghanistan. This film, shown on "Dispatches" and CNN, repeated the success of "Prime Suspects" by again winning the RTS International Current Affairs award;cite web
url = http://www.rts.org.uk/awards.asp?sec_id=329
title = RTS Television Journalism Awards 2000-2001
publisher = Royal Television Society
accessdate = 2007-09-01] it also won an Emmy Award, a BAFTA, and the RTS "Programme of the Year" award. Miller also won the RTS craft award for his outstanding photography. [cite web
url = http://www.rts.org.uk/awards_det.asp?id=771&sec_id=222
title = RTS Craft and Design Awards - 2000
publisher = Royal Television Society
accessdate = 2007-09-14] Miller and Shah's second film, "Unholy War", shot at the height of the Afghanistan war in 2001, won Miller his first Emmy as director and (together with "Beneath the Veil") also the prestigious Peabody award. Miller and Shah almost died of sub-zero temperatures while crossing the Hindu Kush during the making of this film. "Frostbite Films" was the name of the independent film production company set up by Miller and Shah in 2001 after this experience.

Miller and Shah were working on a documentary for the American cable network HBO at the time of his death. The resulting film, "Death in Gaza", was released in 2004, and won three Emmys and one BAFTA TV award in 2005. [cite web
url = http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0412631/awards
title = Awards for Death in Gaza
publisher = IMDb
accessdate = 2007-08-27] Miller received posthumously the Rory Peck Award for Features in 2004 for "Death in Gaza", having been a finalist on three previous occasions. [cite web
url = http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/798854
title = RORY PECK AWARDS 2004
date = 4 November 2004
publisher = British Film Institute
accessdate = 2007-08-29] [cite web
url = http://www.rorypecktrust.org/Awards2004/winners.htm
title = THE RORY PECK AWARDS 2004
date = 2004
publisher = The Rory Peck Trust
accessdate = 2007-08-29]

After Miller's death, his friend Fergal Keane wrote, "James Miller was one of the finest journalistic talents I have ever known. Had he lived he would undoubtedly have come to be recognised as one of the greatest documentary makers of his generation. As it is he leaves a journalistic legacy of immense worth."cite web
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/correspondent/3005613.stm
title = James Miller obituary
author = Fergal Keane
authorlink = Fergal Keane
date = 7 May 2003
publisher = BBC
accessdate = 2007-09-14]

Death

The documentary which Miller was making on the day of his death ("Death In Gaza", released by HBO in 2004) depicts Miller and his colleagues leaving the home of a Palestinian family in the Rafah refugee camp after dark, carrying a white flag. They had walked about 20 metres from the veranda when the first shot rang out.cite web|title=Silenced Witnesses|author=John Sweeney|publisher=The Independent|date=30 October 2003|accessdate=2007-08-22|url=http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article93639.ece] For 13 seconds, there was silence broken only by Shah’s cry: "We are British journalists." Then came the second shot, which killed Miller. He was shot in the front of his neck. The bullet was Israeli issue, fired, according to a forensic expert, from less than 200 metres away. Immediately after the shooting, the IDF said that Miller had been shot in the back during crossfire. It later retracted the assertion that he had been shot in the back. According to witnesses there was no crossfire and none can be heard on the APTN tape.

An IDF spokesperson made the following statement after Miller's death: "The IDF expresses sorrow at the death of the cameraman who entered a combat zone. Cameramen who knowingly enter a combat zone endanger themselves as well as the troops, and clearly run the risk of being caught in the crossfire."cite web|title=Journalist killed covering Gaza clash: Cameraman was honored for Afghanistan documentaries|author=Kelley Wallace|publisher=CNN|date=3 May 2003|accessdate=2007-08-22|url=http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/05/03/cameraman.killed/index.html] An IDF spokesperson described the circumstances of his death as occurring during "an operation taking place at night, in which the [Israeli] force was under fire and in which the force returned fire with light weapons."

IDF spokesman, Captain Jacob Dallal said, "Our forces found a tunnel at the house in question, when an anti-tank missile was fired at them. They shot back at the source of the attack ... James Miller was apparently hit during that exchange. The Israeli military expresses sorrow at a civilian death, but it must be stressed that a cameraman who knowingly enters a combat zone, especially at night, endangers himself."cite news
author = Arnon Regular & Amos Harel
title = London calls for probe into Gaza death of British journalist
url = http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=289681
publisher = Ha'aretz
date = 4 May 2003
accessdate = 2007-08-25]

Aftermath

On March 9 2005, the IDF closed the Miller case,cite news
author = Hanan Greenberg
title = U.K. cameraman killing case closed
url = http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3056327,00.html
publisher = Yedioth Ahronoth
date = March 9 2005
accessdate = 2007-08-30] announcing that the soldier believed responsible for the shooting would not be indicted. The army said Military Police had carefully investigated the incident but had been unable to establish the soldier's guilt. "The findings of the military police show that an Israel Defense Forces lieutenant, the commanding officer of the IDF force at the site, allegedly fired his weapon in breach of IDF Rules of Engagement," a statement said. "However, it is not legally possible to link this shooting to the gunshot sustained by Mr. Miller." The army did say that the soldier would be disciplined for violating the rules of engagement and for changing his account of the incident. It did not elaborate.

Miller's family expressed disappointment at the decision. His widow Sophy said, "Nothing can express our outrage that, waiting for two years and putting our faith in a system which has now failed to deliver, we still have prosecutors who suspect and continue to suspect a commanding officer and who will only bring disciplinary measures because of an initial flawed investigative process. The truth will come out and we hope the Israeli judicial system will mete out justice. This investigation does not serve the IDF, decent Israeli citizens, us, his family, and, above all, James."cite news
author = Eric Silver
title = Award-winning film-maker's death divides UK and Israel
url = http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2838644.ece
publisher = "The Independent"
date = 6 August 2007
accessdate = 2007-08-26]

British Foreign Office Minister Baroness Symons said she was "dismayed" by the decision. "I deeply sympathize with James' family, who have worked so hard to secure justice for James. The British government will continue to raise James's case with the government of Israel." [cite web
url = http://britemb.org.il/News/symons090305.htm
title = Statement by Baroness Symons following the James Miller verdict
date = 9 March 2005
publisher = British Embassy, Tel Aviv
accessdate = 2007-08-26]

Legal action against Israeli government

On May 2 2005, the second anniversary of Miller's death, his family initiated a legal suit against the Israeli government. The family charge that the Israeli army did not act with reasonable caution when troops - members of the Bedouin Desert Reconnaissance Battalion - opened fire at Miller, who was holding a white flag. Miller’s widow Sophy said the family was determined to find justice and put an end to the "culture of impunity" within the army. "It is our hope that as well as accountability for James' death a successful civil case will go some way towards changing this and in doing so may make Israeli soldiers think twice about shooting innocent civilians," she told The Guardian. [cite news
author = Sam Jones
title = Briton's family sues over shooting
url = http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1475328,00.html
publisher = "The Guardian"
date = 3 May 2005
accessdate = 2007-08-26]

More than two years later, on 5 August 2007, the family's Israeli lawyer, Michael Sfard, said, "The family demands justice, both criminal and civil. They deserve that the man who shot their loved one for no reason whatsoever should be indicted and get what he deserves. As he left a widow and two children, they deserve to be compensated by the State of Israel. This is something the political and military echelons have promised time and again, but they have not fulfilled their promise so far."

Inquest

The inquest into Miller's death opened at St Pancras Coroner's Court in London on 3 April 2006.

Giving evidence at the inquest, Miller's wife Sophy named the Israeli soldier who shot her husband as First Lieutenant Haib from the Bedouin Desert Reconnaissance Battalion, who was commanding a unit at the time of the killing on 2 May 2003.cite news
title = Israel 'delayed' death inquiries
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/4872444.stm
publisher = BBC
date = 3 April 2006
accessdate = 2007-08-26] She said that the IDF had given out misleading information from the moment her husband was shot, and that Lt. Haib had given six testimonies, all of which were conflicting. Despite advice from the Israeli Military Advocate General that he be disciplined for breaching the rules of engagement, illegal use of weapons and misconduct during the investigation, he was acquitted by Brigadier General Guy Tzur, the head of the army's Southern Command.

Footage of Miller’s death was shown to an unnamed Israeli soldier who was quoted as saying that members of the IDF should not fire unless they felt they were under threat. He was quoted as saying: "There is no chance that it was an accident - the soldier could clearly see him, it was a perfect shot. I do not know what to say, it looks like murder, it looks like he wants to kill him."

The court heard that an autopsy proved that Miller died from a "classic sniper's shot", and that the bullet was consistent with that used by the IDF.cite news
author = Richard Alleyne
title = Israelis destroyed evidence, claims filmmaker's widow
url = http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/04/04/nmiller04.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/04/04/ixhome.html
publisher = "The Daily Telegraph"
date = 4 April 2006
accessdate = 2007-08-26] Independent investigator Chris Cobb-Smith, who had previously served in the British Army and as an Iraq weapons inspector, found there was no way the soldier fired by accident. He told the court, "This was calculated and cold-blooded murder, without a shadow of a doubt."cite news
title = Film-maker's death 'was murder'
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/4876176.stm
publisher = BBC
date = 4 April 2006
accessdate = 2007-08-26] He added, "These shots were not fired by a soldier who was frightened, not fired by a soldier facing incoming fire - these were slow, deliberate, calculated and aimed shots ... It is a soldier aiming and firing deliberately. He should not have been firing anywhere near a lit building, anywhere near where he knew there were women, children or foreign journalists."cite news
author = Simon Freeman
title = Film-maker was victim of 'cold-blooded murder'
url = http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article701915.ece
publisher = "The Times"
date = 4 April 2006
accessdate = 2007-08-30]

Daniel Edge, Miller's assistant producer, said Israeli soldiers put pressure on him to say that the shot came from Palestinians. He told the inquest: "They personally tried to get me to say the sentence 'James could have been shot by a Palestinian', which I refused to say."

On April 6, 2006, the jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing, finding that he had been "murdered". Miller's family asked that the British government ensure his killer is prosecuted, accusing the Israeli authorities of "an abject failure to uphold the fundamental and unequivocal standards of international humanitarian and human rights law."

Request for prosecution

In June 2007, Lord Goldsmith, the then outgoing Attorney General for England and Wales, sent a request to his Israeli counterpart for legal proceedings to be enacted within six weeks to prosecute the soldier responsible for the killing. The request included new analysis of audio evidence which confirmed that the shot that killed Miller was fired from an Israeli armored personnel carrier.

Miller's sister, Anne Waddington, was interviewed by the BBC on the morning of 7 August 2007, the day the six-week deadline was due to expire. She said, "Unfortunately, we have had four and a half extremely painful years of experiencing the Israeli tactics, and they are the masters of delay - they have always played for time, and they have always failed to deliver." She added, "The Israelis put out a lot of false and misleading statements immediately after my brother was murdered, and they did try to suggest he was killed by a Palestinian in the back and as a result of crossfire, but they put out many, many lies and false stories, which of course have been shown not only on the APTN video footage of the actual murder, but also through eyewitness testimony and the additional evidence which was very, very clear at the time." Asked whether she used the word "murder" very deliberately, she replied, "Yes I do, and of course the jury in the inquest last year found, very unusually, that it wasn't just unlawful killing, it was actually murder." [cite web
url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/ztuesday_20070807.shtml
title = BBC Radio 4 Today Programme Listen Again
date = 7 August 2007
publisher = BBC
accessdate = 2007-08-28 The audio can be heard by clicking on the link for the "0830 - 0900" segment; the interview starts after 8 minutes 10 seconds.]

On 7 August 2007, the Israeli Attorney General, Menachem Mazuz, requested more information on the new analysis. After being informed of his response, Miller's family issued a statement:

We are very pleased that General ["sic"] Mazuz has replied within the time limit set out in Lord Goldsmith's letter. This information has for the most part been in the possession of the Israeli investigators for more than four years.

We will look on with interest to see whether Israel will seek to undermine the expertise of the Metropolitan Police's acoustic examination, or perhaps this will be the first significant step towards Israel pursuing justice.cite web
url = http://www.christiankhan.co.uk/ViewNews.asp?NewsID=139
title = New enquiry into murder of award-winning cameraman James Miller
date = 8 August 2007
publisher = Christian Khan Solicitors
accessdate = 2007-08-25]

At the request of Miller's family, Lord Goldsmith agreed to ask the UK Crown Prosecution Service to advise "on whether there is enough evidence for a prosecution in the UK under the Geneva Conventions Act in which case the UK government could request extradition."

Filmography

* "Prime Suspects" (1999)
* "Dying for the President" (2000)
* "Children Of The Secret State" (2000)
* "Beneath the Veil" (2001)
* "Unholy War" (2001)
* "The Tramp and the Dictator" (2002)
* "The Road from Rio" (2002)
* "The Trade Trap" (2002)
* "The Perfect Famine" (2002)
* "" (2002)
* "Death in Gaza" (2004)

ee also

*Gaza Strip
*Rafah
*Rachel Corrie
*Tom Hurndall
*Brian Avery

Notes

External links

* [http://www.justice4jamesmiller.org/ Justice for James Miller]
* [http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/death_in_gaza/ Death in Gaza] page from HBO.
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0588533/bio Biography] from IMDB.
* [http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/66039 Israeli army refuses to discipline officer thought responsible for Miller's death] - IFEX
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/4883442.stm Film-maker 'murdered' by soldier] BBC News article on inquest verdict
* [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/889716.html U.K. may seek extradition over British cameraman's Gaza death] Ha'aretz, 08.05.2007

Persondata
NAME = Miller, James
ALTERNATIVE NAMES = Miller, James Henry Dominic
SHORT DESCRIPTION = Cameraman, Film producer, Film director
DATE OF BIRTH = 18 December 1968
PLACE OF BIRTH = Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, Wales
DATE OF DEATH = 2 May 2003
PLACE OF DEATH = Rafah, Gaza Strip