User:CRG2/sandbox/Peter Getzels

Peter Getzels (center) with Robert Lawrence Kuhn (left) and philosopher JL Schellenberg (right) on the set of Closer To Truth

Peter Getzels is an award-wining documentary film and television director, producer, and cinematographer whose work is conceptual and internationally focused. A seasoned filmmaker of observational narratives, Peter has spent an entire winter in the Himalayan villages of Ladakh; hunted and sledded with the Inuit at the top of Greenland; and kayaked from North to South along the coast of Vietnam. Working in over 35 countries, he’s filmed in war zones, among hill tribes in Southeast Asia, on ships in the South Pacific and up on some of the world’s highest peaks. Currently, Peter is owner, executive producer, director, and writer at Getzels Gordon Productions, an independent production company he founded with his partner, Harriet Gordon, in Washington, DC.

Background

Getzels was born in Chicago in 1956. He attended the University of Chicago Laboratory School and graduated in 1973. Getzels graduated from Bowdin College, in 1979, where he studied anthropology and religious studies. After spending a year hitchhiking from Boston to Chile, Getzels went on to study anthropology at the London School of Economics, and won a Watson Fellowship and a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. He conducted anthropological field studies in the Peruvian Andes, northern India, and Greenland. His background as an anthropologist and as a mountain climber has influenced much of his film work, including the Emmy-nominated series Into the Lost World for National Geographic, Behind the Ice Wall for the Discovery Channel, and Mr. Mike is on the Mountain for C4 UK. Getzels worked as a guide for the American Alpine Institute, and has scaled nearly every significant peak in South America. He has also participated in three major expeditions in the Himalayas. In addition to his explorations of various mountain ranges, Getzels has spent time traveling along the Amazon River, the coast of Tierra del Fuego, and Vietnam.

Originally based in Oxford, UK, Getzels worked as a producer in the BBC Science department, and also ran a successful independent production company. Getzels returned to the United States to work as a staff producer at National Geographic. At National Geographic, he produced projects on a broad range of subjects in a variety of locations, including Cambodia, the Solomon Islands, Peru, Bolivia, Guyana, Iraq and Alaska. During his career, Getzels has been an undergraduate Teaching Fellow in Comparative Religions and taught documentary film at the Ecole Nationale Superieure La Femis in Paris. Getzels has shown his films and lectured widely in the US and England.

Closer to Truth

Peter Getzels is currently the director and co-executive producer of the PBS series Closer to Truth in collaboration with host and co-creator Robert Lawrence Kuhn. Closer to Truth has aired 13 seasons, and filmed in several international locations, including Denmark and the United Kingdom. Getzels and Kuhn also collaborated on a five part series entitled China’s Challenges, which filmed all over China and explored the social, economic, and cultural trends which characterize modern China.

Partial Filmography

• Atlantis Found
• Atlas Mexico
• Baseball’s Secret Formula
• Behind the Ice Wall
• The Bite that Cures
• Closer to Truth
• In the Company of Saints
• The Condor and the Bull
• Descending the Dragon
• Emperor of the Sea: Voyage of Zheng He
• Evolution Revolution
• Expo’s Meaning, Shanghai Expo
• Extra Sensory Perception
• First Out of Eden
• Ghosts of the Killing Fields
• Harvest of Empire
• Hugo Chavez’s Black Magic
• Inside New Orleans High
• In the Footsteps of Taytacha
• Into the Lost World
• Life or Death on Mt. McKinley
• Lost Treasures of Iraq
• Mr Mike is on the Mountain
• Moche Murder Mystery
• Moses of Oxford
• The New Eden
• The New Rasputin
• The Peacemaker
• Peacepact Warriors
• Poacher Patrol
• Return of the Killer Bugs
• Return to the Source of the Yangtze
• The Search for Kennedy's PT 109
• Shale Country
• Summerhill at 70
• Taboo: Bolivia, Peru, Venezuela
• Tales from the Tomb x 4

Awards and Honors

• Basil Wright Award
• Best of Festival, Autrans, France
• Best of Festival, Banff Mountain Film Festival
• Carlo Mauri Award & Best Photography
• Cine Golden Eagle Award
• Cine Golden Eagle, Best Indie Documentary
• David I Wolper Documentary Award x 2
• Emmy Governors Award
• Emmy Nomination
• Emmy Nomination Best Science
• Festival dei Popoli
• Finalist, NY Film Festival
• Finalist, American Film Festival
• Finalist, Royal Anthropological Institute
• First Place, Gold Camera Award US Int’l Film & Video Festival (Technology & Nature Program, Medicine and Health)
• Genesis, The Humane Society of the United States
• International Documentary Association, ABC News Source Award
• International Documentary Association, Nomination ‘Humanitas Award’
• Margaret Mead Film Festival
• One World Award, Telluride
• Robert Flaherty Film Seminar
• Silver Hugo, Chicago
• Silver Plaque, Chicago
• Special Jury Award, San Francisco

External links

• Harvest of Empire on IMDB
• Getzels Gordon Official Website
• Profile from Bethesda Magazine
• Closer To Truth Official Website