James Becket obit

James Becket, Filmmaker, Journalist and Human Rights Lawyer, Dies at 89

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James Becket, the American filmmaker, journalist and human rights lawyer whose career took him from documenting torture under Greece’s military dictatorship to making films about refugees, health and the environment, has died. He was 89. Becket died on Sept. 22, 2026.

Born in New York City on Oct. 5, 1936, Becket studied at Williams College before graduating from Harvard Law School in 1962. He also studied at the University of Chile as a Fulbright Scholar and at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva.

His career rarely stayed in one lane. During the 1960s, Becket worked as a foreign correspondent across Europe, Latin America and Africa, contributing to publications including The New Republic, The Nation, The New York Times and The Christian Science Monitor. He also wrote about land reform, economic development and international human rights law.

His human rights work became especially significant after Greece’s military junta seized power in 1967. Becket and his Greek wife, Maria, became active in the movement opposing the dictatorship. Amnesty International sent Becket and British barrister Anthony Marreco to Athens to investigate allegations of human rights abuses, producing a report based on firsthand testimony about the regime’s use of torture. Becket later wrote ‘Barbarism in Greece’, appeared on television to discuss the regime and helped organize the escapes of torture victims who travelled to Strasbourg to testify before the European Commission of Human Rights. The Greek regime declared him persona non grata.

From 1974 until 1981, Becket served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ Director of Public Information. As a spokesperson and filmmaker for the organization, he covered major refugee crises involving Vietnamese boat people, Cambodians fleeing genocide and people escaping wars and apartheid in Africa.

Film eventually became the central thread connecting many of Becket’s interests. His early political film ‘Que Hacer?’ was made in Chile during Salvador Allende’s rise and screened at film festivals including Cannes. After moving to Los Angeles in 1981, Becket wrote, directed and produced films internationally, drawing on the political and humanitarian experiences that had shaped his earlier career.

He also worked in American television, directing after-school specials and writing episodes of ‘Miami Vice’ and ‘Crime Story’. His feature-film credits included ‘Ulterior Motives’, ‘Natural Causes’, ‘The Best Revenge’, ‘Plato’s Run’, ‘Southern Cross’ and ‘Junior Pilot’. Across his career, he wrote 30 screenplays, 10 of which were produced.

In 1999, Becket created Becket Films and increasingly turned his attention toward documentaries about health and ecology. He made films about childhood epilepsy, inspired in part by his daughter’s experience with the condition, and stroke recovery. He also documented a series of environmental symposia bringing religious leaders and scientists together aboard ships travelling through ecologically threatened regions including the Amazon, Arctic and Adriatic. His later projects included 2014’s ‘Sons of Africa’ and 2020’s ‘The Seeds of Vandana Shiva’.

Becket leaves behind a body of work that crossed journalism, law, diplomacy and filmmaking while repeatedly returning to the same subjects: human rights, people displaced by conflict, political power and the environment. Whether he was reporting from abroad, documenting abuses in Greece or putting those concerns on film, his career was built around using storytelling to bring difficult issues before a wider audience.

 

Filmography

Feature films

Que Hacer? (1972) Co-filmmaker, Lobo Films (Directors’ Fortnight, Cannes Film Festival, Critics’ Award, Mannheim).

Ulterior Motives (1991), Writer/Director, (Thomas Ian Griffith, Ken Howard, Mary Page Keller), Den Pictures,

Natural Causes (1994), Director, (Linda Purl, Will Patton, Ali MacGraw), (Pacific Rim .Best Foreign Film, Houston Film Festival)

The Best Revenge (1995) Writer/Director, (Carlos Riccelli, Robert Pine), Becket Films. (Winner Best Feature, Breckenridge Film Festival)

Plato's Run (1996), Writer/Director, (Roy Scheider, Gary Busey), NuImage Films.

Southern Cross (1999), Writer/Director/Producer, (Malcolm McDowell, Esai Morales, Michael Ironside), Bon Films.

Junior Pilot (2006), Writer/Director, (Mark Dacascos, Eric Roberts, Larry Miller), Green Communications.

Television

Je Suis un Refugie (1979) Writer/Director, UNHCR, First Prize Cork Film Festival

Sanctuary,(1982) Writer/Director, PBS, Cindy Awards, Best in Festival awards

Crime Story (1988) Writer, Going Home 27 February 1988

Miami Vice (1988) Writer, Heart of Night 31 August 1988

Big Boys Don't Cry (1992) Director, CBS Schoolbreak Special, Churchill Films, Humanitas Award

Fast Forward (1994) Director, ABC Afterschool Special, Wild Films, Humanitas Award

Guns in School (1993) Director, PSA, George Foster Peabody Award.

Screenplays

Becket wrote 30 screenplays of which ten have been produced.

 

Documentaries

The Aegean: The Apocalypse, (1995) Producer/Director, RSE.

The Adriatic: A Sea at Risk, A Unity of Purpose (1998), Producer/Director, RSE.

El Misterio del Capital de los Indigenas Amazonicas, (2002), ILD,

The Baltic: A Sea in Peril, (2003) Producer/Director, RSE.

The Amazon: The End of Infinity (2004), Producer/Director, RSE.

Childhood Epilepsy ‘What you need to know’. (2005)

Diagnosis Epilepsy: Now what? (2006) Winner 2007 Telly Award

The Arctic: The Consequences of Human Folly, (2006), Producer/Director, RSE.

The Green Patriarch, (2008) Producer/Director, RSE, 2008

Stroke Recovery: Taking Back Our Lives, (2010) Producer/Director, Becket Films.

The Mississippi: At The Tipping Point (2011) Producer/Director, RSE, 2011

Sons of Africa,(2014) Producer/Director, Journeyman Pictures. Winner Best Doc, Seattle Independent Film Festival, Borrego Springs Festival

The Seeds of Vandana Shiva (2020), Producer/Director with Camilla Denton, Becket Films

Books

(1969) Barbarism in Greece Walker and Company LCCN 7310918 7-310918(also translated and published in Swedish, Italian, Greek, and Turkish)

(1973) (with Elise Smith) First Amnesty International Report on Torture, Duckworth's,

(1998) Inca Gold Bantam ISBN 978-1-933390-20-8

(1992) Murder on the Tour de France Bantam ISBN 0-553-29443-1

Selected articles

(14 May 1962) "Report from a Troubled Colony” The New Republic

(16 May 1964) "Autogestion: Algeria's Socialist Experiment" The Economic Weekly,

(23 May 1964) “Algeria's War Orphans” Christian Science Monitor

(19 July 1966) “Suez, dix ans apres, Les consequences de la nationalisation" Journal de Genève

(29 December 1967) “Chile's Mini-Revolution” Commonweal

(27 May 1968) “Torture in Democracy's Homeland” Christianity and Crisis

(March 1968) “The Real Latin America (photographic essay)” Renewal

( March, 1968) “How I Became National Champion: Letter from Bolivia” Skiing

(6 January 1969) “Greek Junta on Trial” The Nation

April 1970 pp 44–49) “Inquisition Greek style” Ramparts Magazine

(4 August 1972) "Torture as an Institution" New York Times

(March 1978) "The Subjective Camera as Leading Character" American Cinematographer