Alby James is currently an independent producer working in partnership with other companies to develop and produce compelling and ground-breaking character-based and genre feature films and TV drama series. His interest is in filmmakers and writers who offer original takes on universal themes by taking risks with genre, structure, tone, voice and character.
Until May this year he was Head of Development for two years with EON Screenwriters’ Workshop in London, a wholly-owned subsidiary of James Bond production company, Eon Productions, developing a slate of new film projects for EON to produce in partnership with Columbia Pictures. He is currently working as Senior Project Leader of the Sediba training and development workshop that is based at the National Film & Video Foundation in South Africa, leading in the selection and development of ten new feature film writers with exciting projects.
In the last few years he has also led on the development on several new drama series and serials for the SABC, most of which have already hit the screen, including 6 x 30 min. serial adaptations of five Shakespearen plays and several new 4-6 part 60 min serials, such as Ubizo, Umthunzi we Ntaba, Society, After Nine, Shreds and Dreams, When We Were Black I – 1976, Parallel Lives, James Mpanza – The Father of Soweto and When We Were Black II – Sounds of Freedom. He is also a judge and mentor for the Script Station at the Berlinale Talent Campus and a jury panel member for the World Cinema Fund.
For six years from January 2000, he was Head of Screenwriting at the Northern Film School at Leeds Metropolitan University in Leeds in the north of England and then one year as Academic Leader for Media & Performance at London Metropolitan University. Previous to this he was a an award-winning theatre director and writer for 15 years, running his own company, Temba Theatre Company, and working as a freelance director in the UK and Europe. From the early-90s he was a BBC drama producer.