Welcome to Maya Vision International
Maya Vision International is an independent film and television production company, founded in 1983. Since then they have won many awards and become renowned for making work of the highest quality.
Specialising in producing original, landmark documentaries, features and drama for film and television, Maya Vision has developed a unique style, making some of history's greatest stories accessible to a wider public.
Working alongside many broadcasters and funders - including the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, five, PBS, UK Film Council and Arts Council England - Maya Vision's highly acclaimed and award-winning catalogue has been screened in more than 140 territories worldwide.
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Coming Soon: Christina: A Medieval Life
9pm, Monday May 5th on BBC FOUR
Michael Wood presents a fascinating portrait of ordinary people living through extraordinary times, tracing the life of a real-life peasant of 14th century Hertfordshire. She wasn’t a famous person, or of noble blood, yet Christina’s story is important in understanding our own roots.
In this time of war, famine, floods, climate change and the Black Death, which would claim the lives of half the population, are the beginnings of the end of serfdom, the growth of individual freedom and the start of a market economy.
And, in this absorbing piece of detective work, Wood recounts the history of medieval Britain told not from the top of society – but from the bottom. Through the lives of Christina and her fellow villagers, we see how the most volatile century in British history played a crucial role in shaping the character and destiny of a nation, and its people.
Part of BBC Four's Medieval Season
Now Open For Entries: Short Film Completion Fund 2008
Deadline - 5pm, Friday May 30th 2008
The second call (2008/II) of this year's Completion Fund is now open for entries until Friday May 30th 2008. A production budget of £35,000 will be available to fund a total of approximately seven films.
So please send us your rough-cut projects of films up to fifteen minutes in length, along with a completed application form.
Full guidelines, forms and more information can be found at www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/shorts or www.mayavisionint.com. You are very welcome to call for more details, but please read the guidelines first!
Calls to the first round of the 2008 Completion Fund are now closed. Six films are currently being produced as part of 2008/I and will Premiere in June 2008.
Thanks to all of those who have already submitted this year and we look forward to viewing the new entries.
Coming Soon: Heart of Darfur
A Wide Angle special for WNET thirteen
Heart of Darfur reports from Al Fasher, once a sleepy desert town of 40,000 but today home to 100,000 refugees and 10,000 UN personnel.
The film captures the desperation of daily life in Al Fasher's sprawling Abu Shouk refugee camp and travels outside Abu Shouk into rebel held areas to show the realities of surviving in remote villages.
Coming Soon: Panorama: Notes From A Dirty Island
Bill Bryson Takes us on a journey through the Britain he loves and asks, why do we treat our beautiful island so badly?
Recently Aired: The Story of India with Michael Wood
An epic six-part series across 10,000 years and 10,000 miles tracing the story of the Indian sub-continent from pre-history to the modern day.
For the past eighteen months, Michael Wood and his crew have been busily travelling around the entire Indian subcontinent, filming for our major new 6-part series, 'The Story of India'. 
Agra, Northern India
The series will form the centrepiece of BBC2's 'India and Pakistan '07 Season' season, marking 60 years of Indian and Pakistani independence.
This is an epic journey with Michael Wood to uncover the fabulous sights and sounds, the dazzling achievements and the dramatic history of the world's oldest, richest and most influential civilisation.
Find out more about The Story of India...
Awards Update: 'The Story of India' and 'Once Upon A Time In Iran'.
We are pleased to announce that The Story of India with Michael Wood has recently been awarded three 'Accolade' awards, "honoring outstanding achievement in film, television and videography"
Accolade Award of Excellence: Television Mini-series
Accolade Honorable Mention: Cinematography
Accolade Honorable Mention: Editing
Futher, Kevin Sim's 'Once Upon A Time In Iran' has recently been awarded a 'Highly Commended' honour in the category of Best Documentary at the annual Broadcast Awards. The judges said of the film:
"This study of Iran's cult of martyrdom proved that you can bring international affairs to a big audience. The complexity of the issues made it a 'proper' piece of documented work"
Now Available: Music from The Story of India with Michael Wood
We are pleased to announce that the official soundtrack to our recent six-part BBC/PBS series is now available to buy from i-Tunes!
You can download individual tracks from Howard Davidson's stunning and moving score, performed by The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Also available are selected tracks from our friends at Saregama Plc, including the music of A. R. Rahman.
The complete album of all 21 tracks costs just £7.99.
'The Story of India with Michael Wood OST'
by Howard Davidson and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, featuring the music of A.R. Rahman.
Recently Aired: Once Upon A Time In Iran
US Title: 'Pilgrimage to Karbala'
Nominated - Grierson Awards 2007,
Best Documentary on a Contemporary Issue 
BAFTA award winning director Kevin Sim takes a breath-taking journey from Iran to Iraq to reveal how an ancient murder still shapes the dangerous world of the Middle East.
This is a film about the power of stories featuring presidents and a pilgrimage to the contested heartlands of Shi’a Islam in Iraq.
The film received it's UK Channel 4 Premiere on Thursday, 22nd Febraury 2007.
On Monday, March 26th 2007 the film aired for the first time in the USA, on the PBS network.
In Production: The Search For Gaugamela (Working Title)
The Battle of Gaugamela, fought in 331AD between Alexander the Great and Darius of Persia is perhaps the greatest of the ancient world. Despite its significance in ancient history, and much speculation that it lies somewhere in the north of modern day Iraq, nobody has ever pinpointed the exact location of the battlefield.
On his first visit back to Iraq since the early 1990s, Michael Wood spent some of this past summer (2006) with the Allied Forces and took the opportunity to travel out to Mosul to try and pin down the location of Alexander’s third great battle.
Will he be able to uncover the site of the ancient Battle of Gaugamela and, from the site of ancient bloodshed to modern day unrest, what lessons can be learnt from what is seemingly a longstanding fault line of history.
Now Showing: Single Shot
www.single-shot.co.uk
Single Shot is the first product of the Moving Image Initiative, supported by Arts Council England and UK Film Council’s New Cinema Fund. Developed as a series of short, high-impact moving image works these works all take the form of, are edited to look like a continuous shot or based on the artist’s interpretation of the title.
Full details of the works, launch and tour can be found on our dedicated website, www.single-shot.co.uk
Recently Aired: Durga: The Goddess Comes To London
Nominated - Sandford St. Martin Trust Award 2007
A Durga Image in London
On Monday, 2nd October, a 10ft clay statue of the Hindu goddess Durga was ritually immersed into the River Thames, at Putney.
This was the culmination of a year long project that began in Calcutta in October 2005 and saw the renowned sculptor, Nemai Chandra Pal, create a giant 24ft x 20ft protima in the Great Court of The British Museum.
The whole story, from start to end, was covered in a film for UK channel five, broadcast on Thursday 14th December 2006.
"Radiant. So perfect I felt bleary" - The Independent
Moving Image Initiative
Maya Vision is very proud to announce that we have been contracted to jointly manage the new UK Film Council/Arts Council England collaboration, the Moving Image Initiative. We'll be working alongside Film and Video Umbrella to run the scheme. The initiative is split into two phases; the first part is a scheme called Single Shot, whilst the second is the development of a slate of feature length artist films.
MII: Features Development
We are currently working with a slate of selected artist-filmmakers in developing artist filmworks of between 60-90 minutes duration. It is envisaged that two projects from this part of the scheme will be submitted as applications for earmarked funding from the UK Film Council's New Cinema Fund.
The Royal Shakespeare Company: The Complete Works
To announce the RSC’s year long Complete Works season in Straford-upon-Avon, Maya Vision International were approached to shoot and produced a promotional DVD that was distributed nationwide with copies of The Sunday Telegraph. Featuring Greg Doran, Dame Judi Dench and Michael Boyd amongst others, it’s a distilled look at the depth and breadth of this international collection of artists celebrating and performing the Complete Works of Shakespeare!