Jonathan Finnigan

Jonathan Finnigan is an award-winning director from Britain, with extensive experience shooting all over the Asian region. After graduating with a degree in graphic design from the London College of Printing in 1989, Jonathan started his professional directing career working for an event production company, Project Worldwide, based in London. In 1994 he moved into television broadcast at Star TV in Hong Kong. As director of Network Production Services he wrote and directed some of Star's biggest promotional campaigns throughout the region over a period of seven years. A winner of fifteen awards at broadcast television's most prestigious promotions forum - Promax International, he now works as a freelance commercials director in South East Asia, focusing on promotional campaigns with agencies including Saatchi & Saatchi, Leo Burnett, Dentsu, Ogilvy, Lowe Worldwide, BBDO, Bates and J Walter Thompson. Turning his attention to documentary film making, he wrote, directed and produced the highly successful and award winning 'Marco Polo - The China Mystery Revealed' series for National Geographic - his first collaboration with Michael Yamashita. Filmed on location in Italy and some of China's most remote regions, the film sets out to uncover the mystery of whether the legendary Italian really made it to the Middle Kingdom. It was recently rated as the 13th most popular documentary since National Geographic began. 2005 saw the production of 'Treasure Fleet' that required filming in 13 countries across Asia, Africa and the Middle East. As well as following the voyages of the Ming dynasty admiral, Zheng He, this film also recreated episodes of his life on an epic scale. This two-hour special was aired on National Geographic Channel worldwide. Treasure Fleet won best documentary at the New York film Festival 2006 and the St Lawrence Award for best feature documentary in the New Zealand Documentary Film Festival 2006. It also won two awards at the Asian TV awards 2006 for best cinematography and best music score. 008 saw the completion of another epic 'Legacy of China'. Fifteen months in the making, Jonathan wrote, produced and directed this three-hour television series. 'Legacy' sets out to discover why the Chinese were such prolific inventors, why they lost their advantage and why it matters that we understand this enigmatic nation today. Key turning points in history are illustrated with well-produced dramatic re-enactment. Some of these scenes are shot on location in Greece - in Greek. The majority is filmed at Heng Dian World Studios in China where the stunning sets allow for large-scale authenticity. These are in English and Mandarin. The series is shot in China, USA, UK, Greece and Australia. 2009, Jonathan shot his first drama. 'The Visitor' is a short film set in a remote farmhouse in the Yorkshire Dales. It stars Patrick Baladi. 2021, Jonathan shot his new documentary "Cher and the Loneliest Elephant" - an incredible story in which the superstar Cher flies across the world during a pandemic to save Kaavan, a bull elephant from 35 years of incarceration.