Riveting Series Produced by Lightbox, the Academy Award and Emmy Award-winning Producers of ‘Man on Wire,’ ‘Searching for Sugar Man,’ and ‘American High,’ to Premiere on FUSION in 2016
From the black market to our own backyards, FUSION pulls back the curtain on the global trafficking trade with a new investigative series “The Traffickers.” The series is produced by Lightbox, the production company founded by Simon Chinn, who won Oscars for ‘Man on Wire’ and ‘Searching for Sugar Man,’ and his cousin Jonathan Chinn, who won an Emmy for “American High.” “The Traffickers” will make its series debut in 2016. A special preview of the first installment of the eight-part series will air January 11 @ 7 PM on FUSION.
Hosted by award-winning British journalist Nelufar Hedayat, each fast-paced, one-hour episode will give viewers an unconventional and eye-opening look at the processes, personalities and routes that move goods including precious minerals, counterfeit drugs, endangered species and even people around the globe. As the facts unfold, “The Traffickers” will likely raise even more questions than answers as it delivers an unflinching glimpse into the darker side of our interconnected world.
Traveling by plane, taxi, boat and rickshaw across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas and often filming undercover in bustling markets and down dingy alleyways, Nelufar digs deeper and deeper into the dark world of trafficking. It’s a world peopled by profit-driven dealers, compliant middlemen, bribe-taking officials, poachers and smugglers and comprising vast transportation networks, packaging factories, safe houses… and enormous amounts of money.
“We know our audience has an insatiable curiosity, so we are always looking for new ways to inform and surprise them, and that’s what this series does,” said Keith Summa, executive producer of Investigations for FUSION. “The Traffickers reveals how these criminal networks only exist because of the complicity of people very much in our world - doctors, lawyers, shopkeepers, government workers – people who could be your neighbor. Without them, these criminal networks don’t exist.”
“We were thrilled to have the chance to work with FUSION to combine the best traditions of investigative journalism with the look and feel of contemporary non-fiction thrillers,” said Simon Chinn and Jonathan Chinn. “FUSION embraced our vision for the visual style of the series and our desire to take audiences on riveting journeys that explore the moral complexities that exist in our interconnected world.”
Executive Producers on ‘The Traffickers’ are Simon Chinn, Jonathan Chinn, Sam Collyns for Lightbox and Keith Summa, Daniel Eilemberg, and Isaac Lee for FUSION. Suzanne Lavery is co-executive producer for Lightbox.
ABOUT NELUFAR HEDAYAT
Nelufar Hedayat is an award-winning British journalist and TV host who has worked across the BBC, Channel 4 and The Guardian covering breaking news, live events and in depth investigations in some of the world’s most hostile environments. Having fled war-torn Afghanistan as a child herself, Nelufar’s work has often focused on cultural upheaval experienced by women, children and families in conflict ridden societies.
In the six years she worked for the BBC, Nelufar presented, co-produced and wrote documentaries for television, including Shot for Going to School, where she secured Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala’s first television interview, and Music, Money & Hip Hop Honeys for BBC Three. She’s also made radio documentaries on Afghan child suicide bombers for Radio 4 and on faith and marriage for BBC 1xtra. Nelufar’s first film for the BBC, Women War Weddings and Me, was broadcast internationally to critical acclaim and went on to win a Broadcast Digital Award for Best Current Affairs’ Programme and was nominated for a Grierson Award. Nelufar was also a regular presenter on the popular children’s programme Newsround for CBBC and has worked on flagship news programmes like BBC Radio 4’s Today and BBC2’s Newsnight.
In 2014 Nelufar joined Channel 4’s flagship foreign affairs series, Unreported World, where her shocking report on the unregulated trade in dog meat in Vietnam, nearly broke their Twitter account. In her next Unreported World film, Nelufar went on location in Karachi joining the health workers who risk their lives every day to vaccinate children against polio in Pakistan. The Taliban actively target and kill polio health workers for immunising children. This was nominated for Best Investigation in the Asian Media Awards as well as earning Nelufar a nomination for Journalist of the Year. Nelufar writes regularly for the investigative online magazine GlamMonitor.com focusing on the hidden and not so beautiful world of the fashion and beauty industry and has written for The Mirror and Guardian. Nelufar speaks four languages including Farsi, Hindi and Dari.