Martin Smith is a producer, writer, director and correspondent.Smith has directed dozens of nationally broadcast documentaries for CBS News, ABC News and PBS Frontline. His films range in topic from war in the Middle East to the 2008 financial crisis.
Over most of two decades, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani’s life has been a roadmap of Islamist militancy in Iraq and Syria. Designated a terrorist by the United States, the powerful Syrian militant now seeks a new relationship with the West.
Release Date2021-06-01
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Charactersd
The inside story of what happened to immigrant children separated from their parents at the border. The film explores the impact of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy, and how both Trump and Obama dealt with minors at the border.
Release Date2018-05-08
DepartmentWriting
JobWriter
Charactersd
Day after day scores of bodies litter the streets of Baghdad. To staunch the violence, the U.S. has spent billions to “stand up” the Iraqi forces. In Gangs of Iraq, a joint production of FRONTLINE and the “America at a Crossroads” series, FRONTLINE takes a hard look at how the four-year training effort has fared and how the coalition-trained forces have themselves been infiltrated by various sectarian militias. Now, with President Bush sending new U.S. troops to Iraq, it remains to be seen if America and its allies can build a national Iraqi army and police and restore order.
Release Date2007-04-17
DepartmentWriting
JobWriter
Charactersd Narrator
Bitter Rivals illuminates the essential history - and profound ripple effect - of Iran and Saudi Arabia's power struggle. It draws on scores of interviews with political, religious and military leaders, militia commanders, diplomats, and policy experts, painting American television's most comprehensive picture of a feud that has reshaped the Middle East.
Release Date2018-02-20
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Charactersd Self
Episode Count2
Vote Count1
Join correspondent Martin Smith in Syria as he reports from government-controlled areas while the war rages. With on-the-ground reporting and firsthand accounts from Syrians caught in the crisis, the film shines new light on the ongoing conflict.
Release Date2015-10-27
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Charactersd Self
How did the U.S. lose the war in Afghanistan? Who bears responsibility? And what has been the human cost? Drawing on decades of on-the-ground reporting and interviews with Taliban and U.S. officials, this epic three-part investigation traces how America’s 20-year investment in Afghanistan culminated in Taliban victory and examines the missteps and consequences.
Release Date2023-04-04
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Charactersd Self
Military and diplomatic leaders examine some of the choices President Barack Obama faces regarding the Islamic State and the civil war in Syria.
Release Date2015-12-08
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Charactersd Self
One year after the murder of columnist Jamal Khashoggi, a two-hour FRONTLINE documentary investigates the rise and rule of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia (MBS). Correspondent Martin Smith, who has covered the Middle East for FRONTLINE for 20 years, examines the crown prince’s vision for the future, his handling of dissent, his relationship with the United States — and his ties to Khashoggi’s killing. This Episode can be watched Online at (last Update 18th Oct 24): https://www.pbs.org/video/crown-prince-saudi-arabia-1jt2ey
Release Date2019-10-01
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Charactersd Self
Vote Count5
The next president of the United States will inherit some of the greatest foreign policy challenges in American history — an overstretched military, frayed alliances, and wars on two fronts. FRONTLINE gives viewers a hard, inside look at the real policy choices the next president will face. The report features strategists and diplomats giving their best advice about how to correct past failures and how to shape a realistic foreign policy approach in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Release Date2008-10-28
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Charactersd Self
Since it began in 1983, Frontline has been airing public-affairs documentaries that explore a wide scope of the complex human experience. Frontline's goal is to extend the impact of the documentary beyond its initial broadcast by serving as a catalyst for change.
Release Date1983-01-17
DepartmentWriting
JobWriter
Episode Count1
Vote Count49
Tracing Xi Jinping's defining moments, how he's exercising his power and the impact on China and relations with the U.S.
Release Date2024-11-26
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
Episode Count1
In the summer of 2003, violence against the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq spiked alarmingly. Traveling across Iraq, FRONTLINE reporters went to see how the U.S. plan to turn the country into a showcase for democracy in the Middle East was faring.
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
The “Chinese Dream”: a return to former greatness – that is Xi’s goal. He challenges Hong Kong’s special status just as he pushes for the reunification of Taiwan with the mainland. Military force and confrontation with the United States are not off the table.
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
FRONTLINE reports from the lawless Pakistani tribal areas along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and reveals how the area has fallen under the control of a resurgent Taliban militia. Despite the presence of 80,000 Pakistani troops, the Taliban and their supporters continue to use the region as a launching pad for attacks on U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan. In a region little understood because it is closed to most observers, FRONTLINE investigates a secret front in the war on terror.
Release Date2006-10-03
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Release Date2014-02-05
DepartmentWriting
JobWriter
Vote Count2
In August 1998, two cars exploded simultaneously at U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 268 and injuring 5,000. CIA and FBI investigators soon identified suspects, including accused mastermind and Saudi exile Osama bin Laden. But was this an individual terrorist act, or a symptom of deeply rooted anti-U.S. vendettas? In collaboration with The New York Times, "Frontline" investigates bin Laden, his followers, and the Africa bombings.
Release Date2001-09-13
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count4
Did America rush into a war in Iraq for which it was unprepared? FRONTLINE examines why the U.S. went to war in Iraq, what went wrong in the planning for the postwar occupation, and what was at stake for both the U.S. and for Iraqis.
Release Date2003-10-09
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Tens of thousands of fresh American troops are now on the move in Afghanistan, led by a new commander and armed with a counterinsurgency plan that builds on the lessons of Iraq. But can U.S. forces succeed in a land long known as the “graveyard of empires”? FRONTLINE producers Martin Smith (Beyond Baghdad, Return of the Taliban) and Marcela Gaviria (In Search of Al Qaeda, The War Briefing) once again make the dangerous journey to the front lines of America’s biggest fight. Through interviews with the top U.S. commanders on the ground, embeds with U.S. forces and fresh reporting from Washington, Smith and Gaviria examine U.S. counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan — a fight that promises to be longer and more costly than most Americans understand. [Explore more stories on the original website for Obama’s War.]
Release Date2009-10-13
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count1
Privileged, yet shaped by oppression during Mao’s Cultural Revolution – this is how China’s President Xi Jinping grew up. A childhood and youth that would leave lasting marks on the world. Xi was molded early on for the role of leading a global superpower. But just how deeply he internalized Mao’s ideas only became clear over time, as authoritarian traits emerged that no one had quite anticipated – especially considering that Xi’s own father was a victim of the Cultural Revolution.
Release Date2025-06-04
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
How did the U.S. lose the war in Afghanistan? Who bears responsibility? And what has been the human cost? Drawing on decades of on-the-ground reporting and interviews with Taliban and U.S. officials, this epic three-part investigation traces how America’s 20-year investment in Afghanistan culminated in Taliban victory and examines the missteps and consequences.
Release Date2023-04-04
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Episode Count3
Events that led to the largest government bailout in U.S. history.
Release Date2012-04-24
DepartmentWriting
JobWriter
Episode Count2
In December 2001, as American forces blasted mountain hideouts in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan, hundreds of Al Qaeda soldiers fled seemingly disappearing into thin air.
Release Date2002-11-21
DepartmentProduction
JobProducer
An investigation into the hidden relationship between Silicon Valley and the National Security Agency.
Release Date2014-05-20
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count5
FRONTLINE examines the rise of Xi Jinping, his vision for China and the global implications. Correspondent Martin Smith traces the defining moments for President Xi, how he’s exercising power and his impact on China, and relations with the U.S. and the world.
Release Date2024-11-26
DepartmentDirecting
JobDirector
Vote Count1
Inside the government’s crackdown on insider trading, drawing on exclusively-obtained video of hedge fund titan Steven A. Cohen, incriminating FBI wiretaps, and interviews with both Wall Street and Justice Department insiders. In November 2013, hedge fund giant SAC Capital agreed to plead guilty to what prosecutors called “insider trading that was substantial, pervasive, and on a scale without precedent in the history of hedge funds.” “To Catch a Trader” goes inside the suspenseful and compelling story of this unprecedented government investigation, as correspondent Martin Smith traces how an insatiable search for trading “edge” ultimately doomed some of the most successful names on Wall Street.
Release Date2014-01-07
DepartmentWriting
JobWriter
America’s heroin and opioid crisis has been called the worst drug epidemic in U.S. history. FRONTLINE goes inside the crisis and places it in a fresh and provocative light — telling individual stories of addiction, but also investigating how the heroin epidemic as we know it came to be.
FRONTLINE investigates for-profit universities and their predatory ways against those who have served in the military.
Release Date2011-06-28
Frontline examines Syria’s uncertain future under jihadist-turned-statesman Ahmad al-Sharaa. After the fall of Bashar al-Assad, correspondent Martin Smith travels the country tracing al-Sharaa’s rise to power and the emerging threats to the country’s stability.
Release Date2025-07-01
Vote Count1
