Meet Louis Theroux, one of Britain’s most revealing and unique documentary makers, and a new addition to BBC AMERICA’s line-up this Spring. From ‘lifers’ behind bars in California’s San Quentin Prison, to wealthy Americans killing game in South Africa, and private security firms profiting from lawlessness in Johannesburg, this all new season showcases Theroux at his best. Titles include Behind Bars with Louis Theroux, Law & Disorder in Johannesburg with Louis Theroux, African Hunting Holiday with Louis Theroux. The BBC AMERICA Reveals…Louis Theroux documentary series starts Tuesday, March 1, 10:00p.m. ET/PT
With his trademark low-key but tenacious style he illicits candid and controversial responses, cleverly holding a mirror up to the behavior and attitudes he encounters.
Theroux is BAFTA award-winning and Emmy nominated, holds dual UK/U.S. citizenship, and is son of travel writer Paul Theroux. He has shot countless exposes for the BBC, been seen on Michael Moore’s TV Nationand hosted Bravo’s Weird Weekends. His unique approach can disarm even the most difficult of interviewees, from tough-talking neo-Nazis to religious recluses, big game hunters to compulsive gamblers. Whoever his subject, Louis Theroux gets under their skin.
As Theroux recently told The Guardian, “When looking for a subject, I’m just intrigued by decisions that seem strange or counter-intuitive, and worlds in which I will feel alien but not so alien that there can be no journalistic purchase. There has to be some part for me to play, rather than just gawking. And if I’ve learned anything, in the older films and the more recent, it’s that I’m constantly surprised by how humane instincts flourish in the darkest places, and also shocked by people’s willingness to hurt one another. But there’s nowhere absolutely without hope – prisons, max-security mental hospitals. I try not to quote Nietzsche, but there was something about whenever you name something it tends towards its opposite. As soon as you define something as morally or ethically repulsive you start to become surprised by its positive values.”
In Behind Bars with Louis Theroux, he goes inside California’s notorious San Quentin prison and finds a bizarre self-contained society where ‘straight’ men fall in love, gangs are divided along strict racial lines and an inmate can be assaulted for the most minor mistake. In Law & Disorder in Johannesburg with Louis Therouxhe investigates the private security protection firms in Johannesburg taking the law into their own hands. And inAfrican Hunting Holiday with Louis Theroux, Louis investigates the elite world of wealthy American hunters who pay top dollar for the ultimate luxury adventure experience: a chance to shoot big game on a farm in Africa.
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