Al Jazeera’s digital documentary series, Close Up, strives to give online audiences a front row seat to major global news events, through the eyes of individuals caught in the middle of them. We set out to craft personal stories that are intimate and intense, that showcase ordinary people who have been thrust into extraordinary circumstances and need to navigate critical junctures in history. Each episode is an original, short news-style digital-native documentary, made with a social media-consuming audience in mind, but with the added objective of being visually appealing, expertly filmed and edited, with intellectual rigor, robust journalism and ethical media practice that audiences expect from Al Jazeera.
Each film showcases a unique story of someone facing adversity and yet, against all odds, rising to the challenge of making positive social change, whether a volunteer sheltering survivors from Sudan's war, a refugee Ukrainian mother working tirelessly to keep alive her neurodivergent son's dreams of becoming chess grandmaster, or an 11-year-old Palestinian boy inventing makeshift lighting and cooling systems using scrap metal to improve southern Gaza's tent city, as he battles hepatitis and trauma all while anticipating being killed by Israeli forces every night.
By the end of each episode, viewers will have walked in someone else’s shoes for eight minutes, which we hope dispels people’s preconceived notions and deepens collective empathy for others far off, enduring otherwise unrelatable difficulty. If we provide insight and foster understanding and empathy across geographically and culturally diverse audiences, then we have succeeded.
Our strategy is to be highly agile and responsive, keeping our pulse across breaking news in order to leap into action when a story of global significance erupts. Our process of commissioning and deploying the right personnel for each short film is well-deliberated and efficient, in order to move as quickly as we can when we see an opportunity to humanise an event as it's unfolding. At its core, our strategy is to remain close to Al Jazeera's editorial remit of giving a voice to the voiceless. To that end, we prioritise human stories from parts of the world that tend to get overlooked.
In order to produce every episode in the series, we often have to contend with and overcome immense logistical and technological obstacles, from telecommunications blackouts in active war zones from Ukraine to Gaza and Sudan, to handling with sensitivity the delicate situation of filming with people who've lived through trauma.
From a production perspective, in addition to the more traditional horizontal, widescreen versions for YouTube, Facebook and aljazeera.com, we also produce bespoke vertical versions of each film specifically for Instagram, to bring a documentary film experience to the fingertips of a much younger, often 'social-only' Gen Z audience. We combine striking visuals with emotive narratives that touch upon ‘trending’ global news topics or conversations already at the forefront of social users’ minds. This works to maximise viewer interest and engagement, as audiences are more motivated to comment, interact, bookmark and share, igniting dialogue and bringing broader – and oftentimes newfound – awareness about critical world issues.
We intentionally focus every episode on a single protagonist, who narrates the entire film, without any external ‘omniscient’ voiceover or narration. It’s part of Close Up’s DNA to let our character speak in their own words, the audio of which is obtained via interviews and actuality in-situ, during events as they unfold. It is entirely unscripted and not fictionalized. But the way we edit our scenes together intentionally crafts stories that touch upon universal themes of courage, resilience, and hope, which resonate with audiences from all walks of life. As such, we believe 'Close Up' stands as a testament to the power of digital storytelling and its ability to be a force for social good. We feel this makes our entry a worthy contender for the prestigious Shorty Impact Awards.
‘Close Up’ receives immense engagement across social platforms, and gained its highest-ever audience reach and interaction figures this year. Each film has its own story of success. ‘Sudan War Rescue’ spread amongst the diaspora who reached out to our director asking how they could support the humanitarian we profiled as he helps people flee. Our Ukraine documentary was shared internally at the UN refugee agency and captured the attention of BBC Radio, whose producers then interviewed the boy's mother. And each Gaza film has seen record engagement. ‘Horror at Gaza Hospital’ is cited in foreign-language Wikipedia articles about Palestinian surgeon Sara al-Saqqa who we profiled, demonstrating our multilingual reach and authority as a record of history. Online we’ve seen an outpouring of respect and gratitude for providing a rare look inside al-Shifa Hospital that had been under immense media scrutiny at the time, yet with such little visual evidence of its day-to-day operations. It undoubtedly contributed to the groundswell of opposition to the war, the legal pinnacle of which was reached when South Africa went to the International Court of Justice and cited the targeting of medical facilities, such as al-Shifa Hospital, as evidence Israel was committing genocide.
Overall, the views expressed in thousands of social interactions leave us convinced that ‘Close Up’ is a series which deepens audiences’ understanding and, through amplifying the initiatives of courageous individuals, serves to inspire others to take a vocal stand for good.
