Zandland goes straight to YouTube with a factual series ‘you’d never see on TV’

Chicago Gangs is one episode of the Humans series

ETVF: Ben Zand’s factual prodco Zandland will next month launch its self-funded original documentary series Human on YouTube as part of its strategy to bypass traditional gatekeepers.

Zand, who has previously partnered with Channel 4 in the UK to distribute its factual content online, announced the plans at the Edinburgh TV Festival this morning.

With episodes dropping monthly from September on Zandland’s YouTube channel, Humans is hosted by filmmaker and Zandland founder Zand. Each episode focuses on one extraordinary person or collective, using their story to explore a much broader global issue.

From gang-afflicted neighbourhoods in Chicago to exclusive jail access in Colorado, to the Israel-Gaza conflict, remote communities in Central Africa, to whites-only towns in South Africa, the series aims to help audiences understand the world and each other.With the series created, funded and distributed entirely in-house, Zand said he has chosen Zandland to back itself and bypass traditional gatekeepers by going direct-to-audience with independent storytelling. Zandland has already filmed multiple episodes, with new ones to be released monthly starting in September.

Zand said: “Humans is a significant milestone in Zandland’s story. We’re not waiting around to be commissioned or asking for permission from gatekeepers; we’re commissioning the content we want to see ourselves and delivering it straight to the consumer.

“With this series, we are giving audiences raw, unfiltered access to communities and conversations they’d never normally see – not to sensationalise, but to humanise in an increasingly divided global society. This is a series you’d never see on TV.”