Raw targets US docs with Norman promotion

UK-based prodco Raw has promoted executive producer Louise Norman in a bid to secure more US documentary commissions.

Norman has been named head of US documentaries and senior VP of special projects, reporting to company founder Dimitri Doganis and CEO Joely Fether.

The All3Media-owned firm is targeting growth in high-end documentaries following the commission of A&E’s David Koresh and the Siege of Waco (WT), which senior executive producer and director Mark Lewis and executive VP of US television Adam Hawkins secured.

Also upcoming is CNN series Kennedys: An American Dynsasty (WT), and Silk Road: Drugs, Death and the Dark Web, which is for UK pubcaster the BBC and A&E in the US.

Raw promoted Hawkins to lead US programming last year, two years after Silver Springs-based Discovery Communications acquired the Gold Rush prodco.

Norman’s credits include high profile National Geographic and Channel 4 coproduction Inside the Hunt for the Boston Bombers,ESPN’s The Prince of Pennsylvania and CNN’s highest-rated original series, Race for the White House, which Kevin Spacey coproduced.

Raw’s Doganis said Norman had an “extraordinary track record” in docs that deal with “the toughest subjects, the trickiest individuals and the most impenetrable organisations”.

“In this rapidly evolving landscape, with new buyers entering and the power of some old players in the balance, we continue to believe in the power and appeal of the best true stories bought to the screen by great film-makers,” he added.

“Documentaries and unscripted series can deliver all the tension, the twists and turns, and the extraordinary characters that people now expect from scripted shows – but with the additional appeal of saying something important about the real world.”

Norman said: “There has never been a more exciting time to be making ambitious documentary specials and documentary series for the US market, there is a voracious appetite by audiences for programming that delivers compelling true stories and extraordinary characters with journalistic integrity and cinematic quality.”

Raw recently changed hands, with Discovery Communications selling the business to its half-owned subsidiary, All3.