About — Bright Leaf Pictures LLC

Brazil in Crisis (PBS NewsHour)

In Imperatriz, Brazil, with indigenous leader Sonia Guajajara and intrepid cameraman, Marcelo Lacerdo.

Guarani Suicides (UN-TV)

Outside of Dourados, Brazil, for a UN-TV story about suicides among indigenous teens.

Air Pollution and Climate Change (UN-tv)

Interviewing some generous farmers in Punjab, India, about new methods to curtail air pollution.

WMD: Threats and Responses (UN-tv)

With Mrs. Takahashi in Tokyo, after filming an interview with her about the subway Sarin attack during which she lost her husband.

WMD: Threats and Responses (UN-tv)

Interviewing Odesson Alves Ferreira, who was injured during the Cesium 137 accident in Goiania, Brazil. (with cameraman Marcelo Lacerdo)

Charles Lyons

I founded Bright Leaf Pictures in 2021 to further my work as a director, producer and writer, including of a feature documentary about former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the future of the UN –– The Quiet Diplomat.

I’ve reported on and produced content related to the environment, human rights, and culture, and was a professor of film studies. I’m currently a contract producer for PBS NewsHour based in Latin America and a consultant for Amazon Aid Foundation, which is supporting a series of articles I’m writing about illegal gold mining in the Amazon.

In April 2023, I received a Conservando Juntos/ Earth Journalism Network grant (supported by USAID), to report on the continuing violence due to illegal gold mining within the Yanomami territory in the Amazon.

In 2022, working for PBS NewsHour, I produced coverage of the Brazilian presidential election and two long-form segments ––one on deforestation, one on indigenous rights –– via a Pulitzer Center grant with NewsHour special correspondent Jane Ferguson.

In 2021, I received an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grant to produce and edit a two-part series on the pandemic in Brazil, also for PBS NewsHour.

My multi-media journalism producing includes long-form segments for United Nations-TV in Brazil, Japan and India; and, while Executive Producer at an environmental non-profit, a series on climate change entitled “States of Change,” for PBS NewsHour.

Prior to that, I served as a producer/ writer for ABC News and a reporter/ columnist for Variety. I’ve also consulted for Amazon Aid Foundation (AAF), with articles supported by AAF published in Mongabay.

Earlier in my career, I was a contributing writer to The New York Times’ Arts & Leisure section and published articles in such NYT sections as LIVES, Sunday Review, and Business.

My articles have also appeared in such outlets as The Brazilian Report, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Los Angeles Times, and IndieWire.

I hold a doctorate in film and theater from Columbia University; have taught film at and Yale, UCLA, Columbia, and Savannah School of Art & Design; and am author of the book The New Censors: Movies and the Culture Wars.