Date: October 2011
Location: Tanzania
Distributor: Al Jazeera English (December 2011) – 24 min.
Credits: directed, filmed & edited by Claudio von Planta
Additional Cameraman: Peter Murimi
Undercover Reporter: Anas Aremeyaw Anas
Executive Producer: Ron McCullagh of Insight News TV
 
Winner of 2012 One World Media Award Children’s Rights
 
SPELL OF THE ALBINO is a very disturbing investigation into the witchcraft driven albino body parts trade in Tanzania.
> More…

Date: January 2011
Location: Alaska to Argentina
Distributor: BBC World News (January 2011) – 8 x 23 min.
Credits: directed, filmed & produced by Claudio von Planta
Additional cameramen: Paul Jackson, Kevin Augello, Jonathan Richards
Editors: Julia Frater, Paul Jackson, Robert Alexander, Jonathan Richards

RACING GREEN is a 8 x 23min BBC World News TV series about 8 Imperial College engineering graduates from London who built the first electric car in history that succeeded to drive the 26,000 km long Pan-American Highway from Alaska to Argentina – it’s a world record and proofs that electric vehicles are ready to replace petrol cars.
> More…

Date: January 2010
Location: Tanzania + Zambia
Distributor: BBC 4 UK (28 April 2010) – 52 min.
Credits: directed and filmed by Sean Langan
2nd cameraman - Claudio von Planta
Production Company – Renegade Pictures
 
AFRICAN RAILWAY is a leisurely, wryly amusing documentary in which award-winning Sean Langan rides the ramshackle rails of the vast Tazara Express, Africa’s so-called freedom railway linking Zambia’s copper belt to Tanzania and, eventually, and significantly, to China.
> More…

Date: September 2009
Location: Australia, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan, Japan
Distributor: BBC, National Geographic etc. – 6×60 min.
Credits: directed and filmed by Claudio von Planta
Co-director and producer – Sam Simon
2nd cameraman – Robin Shek
Editors – Julia Frater, Paul Jackson, John Walker, Mike Clark-Hall, David Aitkinson
Production Company - Big Earth
 
BY ANY MEANS is a 6×60 minutes BBC adventure series with Charley Boorman traveling from Sydney to Tokyo. He looks at different forms of transport, wins insights into many cultures and discovers little known corners of the world.
> More…

Date: February 2009
Location: Afghanistan
Distributor: Channel 4 UK (12 July 2009) – 46 min.
Credits: directed and filmed by Claudio von Planta
Co-director and 2nd cameraman - Jim Foster
Editor – Olivia Baldwin / Production Company – Darlow Smithons Productions
 
COMMANDO CHAPLAINS offers an insight into the work of two Royal Navy chaplains who look after British troops in Helmand, Afghanistan. They spend most of their time at the frontline where soldiers are facing death and injuries on a regular basis.
> More…

Date: March 2008
Location: UK to Sierra Leone
Distributor: DVD
Credits: filmed, directed and partly edited by Claudio von Planta
Editors: Julia Frater and Sebastian Smith / Graphics: Jonathan Richards
Composers: Barrie Bignold and Miko Giedroyc

HULL FREEDOM TRAIL follows 24 people from Hull in the UK who embarked on an anti-slavery campaign. They drove five 4×4 vehicles to Sierra Leone where they donated the trucks to humanitarian organizations that focus on anti-trafficking.
> More…

Date: June 2007
Location: UK to South Africa
Distributor: BBC, National Geographic etc. – 8×45 min.
Credits: directed, filmed and partly edited by Claudio von Planta (on 3rd motorbike)
Producers Directors: David Alexanian + Russ Malkin
DOP with support crew 1: Jim Foster / DOP for the preparation + support crew 2: Jimmy Simak
Editors: Julia Frater, Paul Jackson
 
LONG WAY DOWN was my second epic motorbike expedition with Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman. I already filmed their first TV series Long Way Round from London to New York. This time we drove from Scotland across Europe and Africa to Cape Town.
> More…

Date: October 2006
Location: Sierra Leone, Congo DRC, USA
Distributor: CNN International (2+3 March 2007) – 52 min.
Credits: filmed and directed by Claudio von Planta
Presenter: Sorious Samura
Producer: Elisabeth Jones / Editor: Richard Guard
Executive Producer: Ron McCullagh Insight News TV
 
BLOOD ON THE STONE is a Sorious Samura investigation into the certification process of today’s diamond trade. This 52 minute documentary is published as a bonus feature on Warner Brother’s DVD of Blood Diamond where Leonardo DiCaprio is starring as a ruthless diamond dealer during Sierra Leone’s civil war in the 90s.
> More…

Date: August 2006
Location: Iraq
Distributor: Al-Jazeera International – 22 min.
Credits: filmed and directed by Claudio von Planta
Producer and Reporter: Karzan Sherabayani
 
THE THIN BLUE LINE is a 22 min. report on the police in Kirkuk at the frontline of Iraq’s civil war.
> More…

Date: February 2006
Location: Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
Distributor: Sky One (22 May 2006) – 46 min.
Credits: filmed and directed by Claudio von Planta
Reporter and Producer – Sam Kiley / Co-Director and Producer - Jim Foster
Production Company – Carbon HQ
 
GUNS FOR HIRE – CONGO DRC is my second documentary about ex-military personel who work for PMCs, private military companies.
> More…