International Guests

Archie Baron

Born in London and educated at Trinity College in Oxford, Archie Baron joined the BBC in 1986 as a graduate trainee and spent 12 years there, producing and directing documentaries, many with historical themes.

His film The Homecoming, that followed Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s on his return to Russia after 20 years of exile, won the RTS Arts Award and was BAFTA nominated. Other projects included episodes of the International Emmy and Peabody award-winninig series People’s Century and The Un-Americans, a 3 part series on the influence of McCarthyism on ordinary people.

In 1998, Archie left the BBC to set up Takeaway Media with partner, Neil Cameron. Together they have continued producing films for the BBC, exploring the history that provides the essential context to current affairs.

Motherland: a Genetic Journey is a culmination of nearly 3 years development, scientific research, production and post-production.

Baron is a guest of Encounters courtesy of the British Council.

Paul de Bont

In 2001 film producer Paul de Bont was asked to set up an alternative distribution route for documentary films and in 2002 DocuZone was established as the world’s first digital documentary distribution system, a non-commercial project with one goal: improvement of the possibilities for documentaries in film theatres.

DocuZone is an experiment to discover whether digital distribution can improve the public awareness for and the quality of Dutch [cinema] documentaries. Since the start of the project ten Dutch film theatres show a new documentary every week and the average visitors-rate for documentaries in these Dutch cinemas has risen to 19.5 per performance.

Paul de Bont is here, as a guest of the Festival and the Royal Netherlands Embassy, to participate in panel discussions on digital distribution options in South Africa.

Sam Pollard

Sam Pollard’s professional accomplishments as a feature film and video editor, a documentary producer and director span almost thirty years.

His first assignment as a documentary producer came in 1989 on Henry Hampton’s series Eyes On The Prize II. For one of his episodes in this series, he received an Emmy.

Eight years later, as a Co-Executive Producer/Producer of Hampton’s last documentary series I’ll Make Me A World, Sam received The George Peabody Award.

Between 1990 and 2000, he edited a number of Spike Lee’s films: Mo’ Better Blues, Jungle Fever, Girl 6, Clockers and Bamboozled. Sam and Spike Lee also co-produced a couple of documentary productions for the small and big screen. Spike Lee Presents Mike Tyson, a biographical sketch for HBO for which Sam received an Emmy, and Four Little Girls, a feature-length documentary about the 1965 Birmingham church bombings which was nominated for an Academy Award.

Sam Pollard is currently a Professor in Film Studies at New York University Tisch School of the Arts.

Sam Pollard is here courtesy of the Maurits Binger Institute, Sundance Institute, SABC1 and the National Film and Video Foundation [NFVF].

Viacheslav Telnov

Born and educated in Leningrad [St Petersburg], Viacheslav Telnov worked as a radio engineer, production manager and commercial director before becoming the Director of the St Petersburg Documentary Film Studio in 1999.

Founded in 1918 it is Russia’s oldest state documentary studio producing some 20 films and videos annually. The Studio has an impressive archive – some 1400 hours of footage, amounting to 58 days viewing – among it footage of WW2 when it was the only film studio to operate at the front.

Viacheslav is a guest of the Encounters Festival and will introduce Vacations in November.

Peter Wintonick

For over 20 years, Peter Wintonick has worked in just about every aspect of movie making. He’s been a producer, director, writer and editor on feature dramas, theatrical documentaries, educational films, television programs and Internet sites.

Wintonick is most noted for co-producing and co-directing Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media. The most successful documentary in Canadian history, it has played theatrically in 200 cities around the world and won 22 awards. His Cinéma Verité: Defining the Moment screened at Encounters 2000 and Life Without Death, which he Executive Producer screened at Encounters 2001.

He is founder of the Virtual Film Festival, a global Web site for independent film, has sat on numerous juries and panels of Festivals internationally, and advises and consults many filmmakers and projects.

Peter Wintonick is a guest of the Encounters/Sithengi Documentary Co-production Forum.