Jordan Bryon

He/they
Director & Cinematographer
Jordan Bryon headshot
Photo credit / Image credit
Una Regoje

Jordan Bryon, a transgender filmmaker from rural Australia, is a recipient of two BAFTAs, two Emmys, a Human Rights Press Award and more. 
His debut feature film, Birds of the Borderlands, delved into the lives of queer Arabs in Jordan and Lebanon, and resulted in his deportation from both nations. Thereafter, Jordan moved to Afghanistan for a six-year journey making films that explore the country’s complex tapestry. 
His Director/DP portfolio includes Battle Dogs, a doc-series for Discovery Channel spotlighting Kabul’s animal rescues; Emmy winning Brave (Great Big Story) about female journalists risking their lives to tell the news, Escape From Afghanistan (Dateline), tracking Australian military contractors' escape from the Taliban, and a Human Rights Press award winner and Walkley runner-up; Rehab Hell (ARTE), unveiling Kabul’s harrowing drug rehabilitation and has 7 million views on YouTube; and Children of the Taliban, charting the polarized lives of four children under Taliban dominion, which won two BAFTAs, and was nominated for Peabody, Grierson and Rory Peck awards. 
His DP portfolio includes Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror (Netflix), marking the 20th anniversary of 9/11; The El Masri Case investigating a German citizen abducted by the CIA in 2003, and won audience awards at multiple festivals; Free To Run (The North Face); In Her Hands (Netflix), a tribute to Afghanistan's youngest female mayor, with four awards and four nominations; and America and The Taliban for Frontline. During the Taliban’s takeover in August 2021, Bryon remained in Kabul and embedded with a Taliban unit for the New York Times to make The Martyrs Were Lucky, a psychological portrait of a despondent young fighter. Concurrently, Jordan co-helmed Transition, a critically acclaimed and deeply personal film juxtaposing his own gender transition with Afghanistan's transition under the Taliban, which premiered at Tribeca film festival and is now available on Amazon Prime.