Saskia Baron is a documentary filmmaker and journalist who freelances for the BBC, Channel 4, The Guardian/Observer, The Independent and various specialist magazines. Her film and television reviews appear regularly on The Arts Desk website. Saskia also does consultancy and advocacy work aimed at improving the lives of autistic people, particularly when they also have intellectual disabilities and struggle to represent themselves.
Highly experienced as a producer-director, Saskia has made documentaries about a wide range of genres including the arts, business, history and science. Her films for the BBC include The Autism Puzzle, which has played in over thirty countries, Cold War, Dirty Science, which explored the chemical, biological and psychological weapons that emerged from Porton Down and Empire of the Censors, which chronicled a hundred years of film censorship in the UK. For Channel 4 Saskia made two films in the Science and the Swastika series, looking at Nazi eugenics and human experimentation as well as series producing British Empires, a history of major businesses and editing C4’s irreverent rival to Top Gear, Ride On.
A passion for cinema led Saskia to work not only as a film critic but as a producer of numerous television shows about the movie industry – including series producing the BBC’s Moving Pictures magazine programme for several seasons and making documentaries about the relationship between independent film-makers and Hollywood for PBS in the USA and the history of Iranian cinema for Iran International.
Full credits are available here:
Additional experience and links to work
25 years of working in television (primarily BBC & C4) producing a wide range of programmes, often with a focus on history, cinema and medicine. My documentary, The Autism Puzzle (made for the BBC in 2002), has been shown in over 30 countries. It is used on the Open University autism course to teach students about the history of ASD. It features interviews with pioneers such as Leo Kanner and Lorna Wing. As part of a proposed follow-up documentary, I made a short film about a psychologist who has devised a unique therapy to improve autistic people’s emotional wellbeing and self-regulation by handling birds of prey.
As well as working in television, I write features and reviews for many UK newspapers, magazines and websites. Some of my work for The Guardian can be found here. I am also an experienced and confident copy writer and editor who enjoys working collaboratively with other writers – and if needed, ghost-writing
I studied counselling and psychotherapy at Birkbeck for two years – with a view to supporting families who have children with special needs. The course was helpful in learning how best to run a support group for people living with a rare genetic disorder. I have written about the group in The Guardian, under a pseudonym.
I was a trustee for the Inge Wakehurst Trust (closed 2017), which assigned funds to organisations and research aimed at improving the lives of autistic adults. I was also a trustee for several years with Respond, which provides therapy and advocacy for autistic and/or learning disabled people who have suffered abuse or are at risk of abusing.
I have been involved as an expert by experience and journalist in research projects at the universities of Edinburgh and Newcastle. These projects were aimed at improving quality of life and health outcomes for autistic adults.
A long-standing connection to the National Autistic Society involved advising on programming at conferences aimed at professionals, chairing debate sessions, conducting interviews and presenting papers.
“As a key member of the editorial board, Saskia was able to use her deep and current knowledge of autism, her extensive networks and her personal experience to help shape NAS conferences. Saskia brought clarity of thought, creativity and new ideas to the board and to the conferences. In particular, her work championing the needs of autistic people in older age has left a lasting legacy.”
Carol Povey, Director NAS
Additional references are available from Dr Noelle Blackman, CEO Respond and Dr Ilona Roth, senior lecturer at the Open University.