SMOKING BEAR
FILM | TV | DIGITAL

Smoking Bear is an award-winning independent production company founded by Ed Gibbs and Rubika Shah, with a focus on bringing diverse stories to broad, global audiences. As impact storytellers, they have a keen interest in popular culture and visceral, cinematic storytelling, and are innately drawn to stories exploring youth culture and rebellion.

 

They are best-known for their critically acclaimed feature doc WHITE RIOT, which won multiple awards including the Grierson Award for Best Documentary at the 2019 BFI London Film Festival. A New York Times Critic’s Pick in 2020, it was also nominated for Best Documentary at the British Independent Film Awards and BAFTA shortlisted in 2021.

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Their slate of upcoming docs, docuseries and features includes THE MAD DOG OF EUROPE, produced with Paris-based Le Bureau Films and Cologne-based Heimatfilm.

 

Their earlier work includes the proof-of-concept short, WHITE RIOT: LONDON, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2017 and again in 2024, as part of 'Sundance at 40'. The Crystal Bear-nominated LET’S DANCE: BOWIE DOWN UNDER, a rare mini-doc about David Bowie and MTV, premiered at the Berlinale in 2015 and screened nationally through Picturehouse. They also produced a series of acclaimed shorts for the BBC between 2014 and 2016, including a look at DO THE RIGHT THING, 25 YEARS ON with Academy Award-winning filmmaker Spike Lee. More recently, in 2021, they produced the award-winning 6x6 docuseries FOOTBALL & ME for the FA, which debuted on Sky. A follow-up series launched in summer 2022.

 

Writer-Producer Ed Gibbs hails from a background in film and music journalism. Prior to becoming a producer, he was the Sunday newspaper critic for The Sydney Morning Herald. A former magazine editor, he has also written and/or broadcast for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), the BBC, Empire, GQ, Little White Lies, MOJO, Rolling Stone and The Guardian, among others.

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Writer-Director Rubika Shah, a 2020 BAFTA Breakthrough awardee, also completed two back-to-back campaigns in lockdown for Academy Award-winning production house Grain Media, including a short drama series called FIGHT BACK for YouTube/Google, Tribeca and the United Nations. She is currently developing her dramatic debut feature with BBC Film.