Les Guthman
Encyclopedia
Les Guthman is an American film director
and producer, who has the distinction of both having produced three of the 20 Top Adventure DVDs of All Time, according to Men’s Journal magazine, and having won the National Academy of Science’s (U.S) nationwide competition to find the best new idea in science television. For the past three years, he has been extensively involved in 3D production and research, while making two feature documentaries, Skiing Everest
and “Saturn’s Embrace,” along with building the XPLR Channel for webcasting adventure, expedition and environmental documentaries in partnership with SnagFilms
.com.
, including Michael Brown’s Farther Than the Eye Can See, which was nominated for two Emmy Awards in 2004, the awards for Best Sports Documentary and Best Sports Cinematography. Farther Than the Eye Can See, the film of blind climber Erik Weihenmayer
’s renowned ascent of Everest, won 18 international film festival awards. Altogether, there have been 202 film festival screenings of Guthman’s films since 2002 and they have won 31 film festival awards.
Guthman produced Outside Television’s expedition and expedition film, Into the Tsangpo Gorge, which he also co-wrote with director Scott Lindgren. The expedition achieved the epic first whitewater descent of the “Everest of rivers," through the 18,000-ft.-deep Tsangpo Gorge (Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon) in Tibet
and was recognized by the Explorers Club
as one of the most accomplished expeditions of recent times. Into the Tsangpo Gorge aired on NBC Sports
in May 2002.
Into the Tsangpo Gorge and Farther Than the Eye Can See, along with his production, Into the Thunder Dragon, by filmmaker Sean White, were honored by Men’s Journal magazine in 2005 as three of the 20 Top Adventure DVDs of All Time.
His Outside Television production, In the Shadow of the Condor won the 2001 Teddy Award for Best Conservation Film, named in honor of President Theodore Roosevelt
. His production The Teachings of Moises Chavez was runner-up for the same award in 2002.
Guthman has also written, produced and directed 12 films, including Messner (2002), the first documentary about Reinhold Messner
, world’s greatest mountain climber, since Werner Herzog
’s The Dark Glow of the Mountains
in 1984. Messner was an Opening Night selection of the Mountainfilm in Telluride
Festival in 2004. He also made two highly regarded environmental films with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
: The Hudson Riverkeepers (1998) and The Waterkeepers (2000). The two films have been re-edited and re-released on iTunes
as one feature-length documentary under the title, The Waterkeepers, With Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Churning the Sea of Time: A Journey Up the Mekong to Angkor, premiered at Lincoln Center in April 2006. It was an official selection of the Museum of Modern Art
's "Directors Fortnight Expanded" in 2007 and was shown at the Royal Geographic Society in London, the Smithsonian in Washington, DC; and the Asia Society
in New York, among other featured screenings.
Guthman's 2009 feature documentary, Skiing Everest (film), features the handful of skiers worldwide who climb Mt. Everest and other 8,000-meter peaks alpine style (without using supplemental oxygen, or hiring porters and guides), and click into their skis. Filmed around the world, it includes skiers Mike Marolt, who was also director of photography, Steve Marolt, Hans Kammerlander, Chris Davenport
, Laura Bokas, Mark Newcomb and Fredrik Ericsson
. Skiing Everest was sold to ESPN
is July 2011 for broadcast in the United States and Europe. It debuted on ESPN Classic in November 2011 with six primetime broadcasts over the weekend of November 18-20.
His 2011 documentary Saturn's Embrace brings to the screen the Cassini-Huygens
mission's exploration of Saturn and its moons through Cassini's unsurpassed photographs and radar images; and explores the stunning discovery of salt water, with its possibility of primitive life, on the moon Enceladus
. The film features, and is written and co-produced by, Dr. Carolyn Porco
, head of the Cassini-Huygens
digital imaging team, and includes commentary by evolutionary biologist and author Richard Dawkins
.
In 1996, Les Guthman made Corwin, a feature-length documentary about Norman Corwin
, the legendary writer, producer and director during the Golden Age of Radio. Corwin aired on PBS between 1996-99. Actor Charles Laughton
, in the early 1940s, is quoted in the film as saying, "There is no actor in Hollywood or on Broadway, who would not drop what he is doing to be in one of Norman Corwin's radio plays. We all look up to him as a writer of the highest caliber and one of the most important writers in America today."
In 1999, Guthman won the National Academy of Sciences nationwide competition to select the best new series concept in science television, which resulted in his film, Three Nights at the Keck, hosted by actor John Lithgow
.
In 1991, he created and produced the Discover Magazine (TV series)
television series at the Walt Disney Company, based on Discover Magazine. He produced Discover Magazine (TV series)
for two seasons on The Disney Channel, and then, working with Disney President and CEO Frank Wells, moved the series to the Discovery Channel
, where it became a signature series. At the same time, he developed an unproduced series with HBO based on a comedian’s view of science.
In 1989, Guthman brought the annual Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award
ceremony to PBS in a primetime broadcast hosted by Tom Brokaw
and featuring a welcoming address by Sen. Ted Kennedy
and a keynote speech by Polish Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa
. The ceremony honored the Tienanmen Square protests of 1989 and the fall of the Berlin Wall
the same year. The Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award
was given to Chinese dissident Fang Lizhi
, who was being protected inside the U.S. Embassy in Beijing at the time of the broadcast.
Guthman also co-created and produced the CableAce Award
-nominated series 21st Century, which included the last interview with Dr. Jonas Salk
, discoverer of the polio vaccine
. 21st Century was co-created and hosted by NPR
and KCRW
host Warren Olney
.
His credits include almost a decade at NBC News
in New York, where he was a producer and writer for Tom Brokaw
, as well as senior political writer and Manager of Election Analysis.
He was Story Editor and Story Consultant on Visions, the Peabody Award-winning landmark PBS series, which commissioned 80 scripts and produced 40 feature-length independent films and television stage productions over four seasons at KCET in Los Angeles. One of its films, Alambrista, won the Camera d'Or
award at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival
. He was a producer and writer for Norman Lear
’s Tandem Productions, where he developed two feature film projects.
Guthman's other films are Paragliding Across America (2001), the expedition of world-record-holding paraglider Will Gadd
to become the first to paraglide across the United States; Marathon of the Sands (2000), the world’s most grueling ultra-marathon competition in the Moroccan Sahara; Eco-Sanctuary Belize (2001) and Ten Adventures of a Lifetime (2004).
In 2004, he created XPLR Productions
, based in New York. XPLR Productions
has partnered with Snagfilms
to create the webcasting channel XPLR for environmental and adventure documentaries, including many of the films listed above. Selected XPLR-distributed films also stream on Hulu
, Roku
, EPIX
and Comcast
Xfinity.
Guthman edited three books by three-time Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist Paul Conrad
: The King and Us, Pro and Conrad and Paul Conrad: Drawing the Line.
He is a member of the Explorers Clubhttp://www.explorers.org/ in New York
and was head of the Explorers Club Film Festival in 2008.
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
and producer, who has the distinction of both having produced three of the 20 Top Adventure DVDs of All Time, according to Men’s Journal magazine, and having won the National Academy of Science’s (U.S) nationwide competition to find the best new idea in science television. For the past three years, he has been extensively involved in 3D production and research, while making two feature documentaries, Skiing Everest
Skiing Everest
Skiing Everest is an American adventure documentary directed by Les Guthman and Mike Marolt; written by Les Guthman, and featuring high-altitude skiers Mike Marolt, Steve Marolt, John Callaghan, Jim Gile, Hans Kammerlander, Chris Davenport, Laura Bakos, Mark Newcomb and the Fredrik Ericsson who...
and “Saturn’s Embrace,” along with building the XPLR Channel for webcasting adventure, expedition and environmental documentaries in partnership with SnagFilms
SnagFilms
SnagFilms is a website that offers advertising-supported documentary films. Films are streamed on the website, which contains a library of around 2,000 films. Filmmakers can submit documentaries for consideration as well...
.com.
Film and Television Career
As founding Executive Vice President and Executive Producer of Outside Television, Les Guthman produced 28 feature-length expedition, adventure and environmental documentariesDocumentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
, including Michael Brown’s Farther Than the Eye Can See, which was nominated for two Emmy Awards in 2004, the awards for Best Sports Documentary and Best Sports Cinematography. Farther Than the Eye Can See, the film of blind climber Erik Weihenmayer
Erik Weihenmayer
Erik Weihenmayer is the first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest, on May 25, 2001. He also completed the Seven Summits in September 2002. His story was covered in a Time article in June 2001 titled Blind to Failure...
’s renowned ascent of Everest, won 18 international film festival awards. Altogether, there have been 202 film festival screenings of Guthman’s films since 2002 and they have won 31 film festival awards.
Guthman produced Outside Television’s expedition and expedition film, Into the Tsangpo Gorge, which he also co-wrote with director Scott Lindgren. The expedition achieved the epic first whitewater descent of the “Everest of rivers," through the 18,000-ft.-deep Tsangpo Gorge (Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon) in Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
and was recognized by the Explorers Club
The Explorers Club
The Explorers Club is a professional society dedicated to scientific exploration of Earth, its oceans, and outer space. Founded in 1904 in New York City, it currently has 30 branches world wide...
as one of the most accomplished expeditions of recent times. Into the Tsangpo Gorge aired on NBC Sports
NBC Sports
NBC Sports is the sports division of the NBC television network. Formerly "a service of NBC News," it broadcasts a diverse array of programs, including the Olympic Games, the NFL, the NHL, MLS, Notre Dame football, the PGA Tour, the Triple Crown, and the French Open, among others...
in May 2002.
Into the Tsangpo Gorge and Farther Than the Eye Can See, along with his production, Into the Thunder Dragon, by filmmaker Sean White, were honored by Men’s Journal magazine in 2005 as three of the 20 Top Adventure DVDs of All Time.
His Outside Television production, In the Shadow of the Condor won the 2001 Teddy Award for Best Conservation Film, named in honor of President Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
. His production The Teachings of Moises Chavez was runner-up for the same award in 2002.
Guthman has also written, produced and directed 12 films, including Messner (2002), the first documentary about Reinhold Messner
Reinhold Messner
Reinhold Messner is an Italian mountaineer and explorer from Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol "whose astonishing feats on Everest and on peaks throughout the world have earned him the status of the greatest climber in history." He is renowned for making the first solo ascent of Mount Everest without...
, world’s greatest mountain climber, since Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog
Werner Herzog Stipetić , known as Werner Herzog, is a German film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and opera director.He is often considered as one of the greatest figures of the New German Cinema, along with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Margarethe von Trotta, Volker Schlöndorff, Werner...
’s The Dark Glow of the Mountains
The Dark Glow of the Mountains
The Dark Glow of the Mountains is a TV documentary made in 1984 by German filmmaker Werner Herzog. It is about an expedition made by freestyle mountain climber Reinhold Messner and his partner Hans Kammerlander to climb Gasherbrum II and Gasherbrum I all in one trip without returning to base camp...
in 1984. Messner was an Opening Night selection of the Mountainfilm in Telluride
Mountainfilm in Telluride
Mountainfilm in Telluride is America’s premier festival celebrating achievement in adventure and activism, culture and environment, held annually over Memorial Day weekend in Telluride, Colorado since 1979....
Festival in 2004. He also made two highly regarded environmental films with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Robert Francis Kennedy, Jr. is an American radio host, activist, and attorney specializing in environmental law. He is the third of eleven children born to Ethel Skakel Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy and is the nephew of John F. Kennedy and Edward M. Kennedy...
: The Hudson Riverkeepers (1998) and The Waterkeepers (2000). The two films have been re-edited and re-released on iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
as one feature-length documentary under the title, The Waterkeepers, With Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Churning the Sea of Time: A Journey Up the Mekong to Angkor, premiered at Lincoln Center in April 2006. It was an official selection of the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
's "Directors Fortnight Expanded" in 2007 and was shown at the Royal Geographic Society in London, the Smithsonian in Washington, DC; and the Asia Society
Asia Society
The Asia Society is a non-profit organization that focuses on educating the world about Asia. It has several centers in the United States and around the world Hong Kong, Manila, Mumbai, Seoul, Shanghai, and Melbourne...
in New York, among other featured screenings.
Guthman's 2009 feature documentary, Skiing Everest (film), features the handful of skiers worldwide who climb Mt. Everest and other 8,000-meter peaks alpine style (without using supplemental oxygen, or hiring porters and guides), and click into their skis. Filmed around the world, it includes skiers Mike Marolt, who was also director of photography, Steve Marolt, Hans Kammerlander, Chris Davenport
Chris Davenport
Chris Davenport, of Aspen, Colorado, is considered one of the world's most accomplished big mountain skiers. He has been called "one of North America's top 25 skiers by Skiing Magazine" and is a "two-time extreme skiing world champion" -Background:...
, Laura Bokas, Mark Newcomb and Fredrik Ericsson
Fredrik Ericsson
Fredrik Ericsson was a Swedish mountaineer and extreme skier.He grew up in Umeå in the northern part of Sweden, but spent most of his time in Chamonix, in the French Alps.-History:...
. Skiing Everest was sold to ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
is July 2011 for broadcast in the United States and Europe. It debuted on ESPN Classic in November 2011 with six primetime broadcasts over the weekend of November 18-20.
His 2011 documentary Saturn's Embrace brings to the screen the Cassini-Huygens
Cassini-Huygens
Cassini–Huygens is a joint NASA/ESA/ASI spacecraft mission studying the planet Saturn and its many natural satellites since 2004. Launched in 1997 after nearly two decades of gestation, it includes a Saturn orbiter and an atmospheric probe/lander for the moon Titan, although it has also returned...
mission's exploration of Saturn and its moons through Cassini's unsurpassed photographs and radar images; and explores the stunning discovery of salt water, with its possibility of primitive life, on the moon Enceladus
Enceladus (moon)
Enceladus is the sixth-largest of the moons of Saturn. It was discovered in 1789 by William Herschel. Until the two Voyager spacecraft passed near it in the early 1980s very little was known about this small moon besides the identification of water ice on its surface...
. The film features, and is written and co-produced by, Dr. Carolyn Porco
Carolyn Porco
Carolyn C. Porco is an American planetary scientist known for her work in the exploration of the outer solar system, beginning with her imaging work on the Voyager missions to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune in the 1980s. She leads the imaging science team on the Cassini mission currently in...
, head of the Cassini-Huygens
Cassini-Huygens
Cassini–Huygens is a joint NASA/ESA/ASI spacecraft mission studying the planet Saturn and its many natural satellites since 2004. Launched in 1997 after nearly two decades of gestation, it includes a Saturn orbiter and an atmospheric probe/lander for the moon Titan, although it has also returned...
digital imaging team, and includes commentary by evolutionary biologist and author Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL , known as Richard Dawkins, is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author...
.
In 1996, Les Guthman made Corwin, a feature-length documentary about Norman Corwin
Norman Corwin
Norman Lewis Corwin was an American writer, screenwriter, producer, essayist and teacher of journalism and writing...
, the legendary writer, producer and director during the Golden Age of Radio. Corwin aired on PBS between 1996-99. Actor Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton was an English-American stage and film actor, screenwriter, producer and director.-Early life and career:...
, in the early 1940s, is quoted in the film as saying, "There is no actor in Hollywood or on Broadway, who would not drop what he is doing to be in one of Norman Corwin's radio plays. We all look up to him as a writer of the highest caliber and one of the most important writers in America today."
In 1999, Guthman won the National Academy of Sciences nationwide competition to select the best new series concept in science television, which resulted in his film, Three Nights at the Keck, hosted by actor John Lithgow
John Lithgow
John Arthur Lithgow is an American actor, musician, and author. Presently, he is involved with a wide range of media projects, including stage, television, film, and radio...
.
In 1991, he created and produced the Discover Magazine (TV series)
Discover Magazine (TV series)
Discover Magazine is a 1992-2000 documentary television series that aired on the Disney Channel from 1992-1994 and then on The Science Channel from 1996-2000. The series is named after the magazine of the same name, Discover Magazine. The Disney Channel series was narrated by actor Joseph...
television series at the Walt Disney Company, based on Discover Magazine. He produced Discover Magazine (TV series)
Discover Magazine (TV series)
Discover Magazine is a 1992-2000 documentary television series that aired on the Disney Channel from 1992-1994 and then on The Science Channel from 1996-2000. The series is named after the magazine of the same name, Discover Magazine. The Disney Channel series was narrated by actor Joseph...
for two seasons on The Disney Channel, and then, working with Disney President and CEO Frank Wells, moved the series to the Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
, where it became a signature series. At the same time, he developed an unproduced series with HBO based on a comedian’s view of science.
In 1989, Guthman brought the annual Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award
Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award
The Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award was created by the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial in 1984 to honour individuals around the world who show courage and have made a significant contribution to human rights in their country....
ceremony to PBS in a primetime broadcast hosted by Tom Brokaw
Tom Brokaw
Thomas John "Tom" Brokaw is an American television journalist and author best known as the anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News from 1982 to 2004. He is the author of The Greatest Generation and other books and the recipient of numerous awards and honors...
and featuring a welcoming address by Sen. Ted Kennedy
Ted Kennedy
Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy was a United States Senator from Massachusetts and a member of the Democratic Party. Serving almost 47 years, he was the second most senior member of the Senate when he died and is the fourth-longest-serving senator in United States history...
and a keynote speech by Polish Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa
Lech Wałęsa
Lech Wałęsa is a Polish politician, trade-union organizer, and human-rights activist. A charismatic leader, he co-founded Solidarity , the Soviet bloc's first independent trade union, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and served as President of Poland between 1990 and 95.Wałęsa was an electrician...
. The ceremony honored the Tienanmen Square protests of 1989 and the fall of the Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin...
the same year. The Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award
Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award
The Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award was created by the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial in 1984 to honour individuals around the world who show courage and have made a significant contribution to human rights in their country....
was given to Chinese dissident Fang Lizhi
Fang Lizhi
Fang Lizhi is a professor of astrophysics and former vice-president of the University of Science and Technology of China whose liberal ideas inspired the pro-democracy student movement of 1986-87 and, finally, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989...
, who was being protected inside the U.S. Embassy in Beijing at the time of the broadcast.
Guthman also co-created and produced the CableAce Award
CableACE Award
The CableACE Award was an award that was given from 1978 to 1997 to honor excellence in American cable television programming...
-nominated series 21st Century, which included the last interview with Dr. Jonas Salk
Jonas Salk
Jonas Edward Salk was an American medical researcher and virologist, best known for his discovery and development of the first safe and effective polio vaccine. He was born in New York City to parents from Ashkenazi Jewish Russian immigrant families...
, discoverer of the polio vaccine
Polio vaccine
Two polio vaccines are used throughout the world to combat poliomyelitis . The first was developed by Jonas Salk and first tested in 1952. Announced to the world by Salk on April 12, 1955, it consists of an injected dose of inactivated poliovirus. An oral vaccine was developed by Albert Sabin...
. 21st Century was co-created and hosted by NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
and KCRW
KCRW
KCRW is a public radio station broadcasting from the campus of Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California, carrying a mix of National Public Radio news, talk radio and freeform music format. The general manager of KCRW is Jennifer Ferro...
host Warren Olney
Warren Olney (journalist)
Warren Olney IV is an American broadcast journalist. He is the host and executive producer of the nationally syndicated Public Radio International program To the Point as well as the local affairs show Which Way, L.A.?, both of which originate at Santa Monica, California public radio station KCRW...
.
His credits include almost a decade at NBC News
NBC News
NBC News is the news division of American television network NBC. It first started broadcasting in February 21, 1940. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is...
in New York, where he was a producer and writer for Tom Brokaw
Tom Brokaw
Thomas John "Tom" Brokaw is an American television journalist and author best known as the anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News from 1982 to 2004. He is the author of The Greatest Generation and other books and the recipient of numerous awards and honors...
, as well as senior political writer and Manager of Election Analysis.
He was Story Editor and Story Consultant on Visions, the Peabody Award-winning landmark PBS series, which commissioned 80 scripts and produced 40 feature-length independent films and television stage productions over four seasons at KCET in Los Angeles. One of its films, Alambrista, won the Camera d'Or
Caméra d'Or
The Caméra d'Or is an award of the Cannes Film Festival for the best first feature film presented in one of the Cannes' selections ....
award at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
. He was a producer and writer for Norman Lear
Norman Lear
Norman Milton Lear is an American television writer and producer who produced such 1970s sitcoms as All in the Family, Sanford and Son, One Day at a Time, The Jeffersons, Good Times and Maude...
’s Tandem Productions, where he developed two feature film projects.
Guthman's other films are Paragliding Across America (2001), the expedition of world-record-holding paraglider Will Gadd
Will Gadd
Will Gadd is a prominent Canadian ice climber and paraglider pilot. He formerly held the paragliding world distance record, with a flight of 423 km in Zapata, Texas....
to become the first to paraglide across the United States; Marathon of the Sands (2000), the world’s most grueling ultra-marathon competition in the Moroccan Sahara; Eco-Sanctuary Belize (2001) and Ten Adventures of a Lifetime (2004).
In 2004, he created XPLR Productions
XPLR Productions
XPLR Productions is a New York-based film production and webcasting company founded by producer-director Les Guthman in 2004. It has produced two feature-length documentaries, written, directed and edited by Mr. Guthman, Churning the Sea of Time: A Journey Up the Mekong to Angkor and Skiing...
, based in New York. XPLR Productions
XPLR Productions
XPLR Productions is a New York-based film production and webcasting company founded by producer-director Les Guthman in 2004. It has produced two feature-length documentaries, written, directed and edited by Mr. Guthman, Churning the Sea of Time: A Journey Up the Mekong to Angkor and Skiing...
has partnered with Snagfilms
SnagFilms
SnagFilms is a website that offers advertising-supported documentary films. Films are streamed on the website, which contains a library of around 2,000 films. Filmmakers can submit documentaries for consideration as well...
to create the webcasting channel XPLR for environmental and adventure documentaries, including many of the films listed above. Selected XPLR-distributed films also stream on Hulu
Hulu
Hulu is a website and over-the-top subscription service offering ad-supported on-demand streaming video of TV shows, movies, webisodes and other new media, trailers, clips, and behind-the-scenes footage from NBC, Fox, ABC, and Obstacle on October 20th 2011 Nickelodeon and CBS and many other...
, Roku
Roku
Roku , is an American, privately held, consumer electronics company that sells home digital media products. The Company is based in Saratoga, California.- Company profile and products :...
, EPIX
Epix
Epix may refer to:* Epix , a US premium television channel.* Epix , a Samsung mobile phone.* Epix , an Italian horror/fantasy book series.* EPIX Pharmaceuticals Inc, a drug company....
and Comcast
Comcast
Comcast Corporation is the largest cable operator, home Internet service provider, and fourth largest home telephone service provider in the United States, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers in 39 states and the...
Xfinity.
Guthman edited three books by three-time Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist Paul Conrad
Paul Conrad
Paul Francis Conrad was an American political cartoonist from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. During college, Conrad started cartooning at the University of Iowa for the Daily Iowan. While serving with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, during World War II, Conrad received a B.A. in art in 1950...
: The King and Us, Pro and Conrad and Paul Conrad: Drawing the Line.
He is a member of the Explorers Clubhttp://www.explorers.org/ in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and was head of the Explorers Club Film Festival in 2008.
Filmography
| Year | Film | Functioned as | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Director Film director A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:... |
Producer Film producer A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The... |
Writer Screenwriter Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:... |
Editor | |||
| 1989 | The Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award on PBS | |||||
| 1993 | The Ten Great Unanswered Questions of Science | |||||
| 1995 | 21st Century: Jonas Salk | |||||
| 21st Century: Ed Stone | ||||||
| 21st Century: Bran Ferren | ||||||
| 1996 | Corwin | |||||
| Krakauer and Brokaw | ||||||
| 1998 | The Hudson Riverkeepers | |||||
| Three Nights At the Keck | ||||||
| Three Great American Adventures | ||||||
| 1999 | The Bihac, Bosnia Kayak Club | |||||
| A Life of My Choice | ||||||
| Marathon of the Sands | ||||||
| Liquid Off the Throne of Shiva | ||||||
| High Mountain Wilderness | ||||||
| 2000 | The Waterkeepers | |||||
| Marathon of the Sands 2000 | ||||||
| Rivers Into the Unknown | ||||||
| Conquering the Turrialba Volcano | ||||||
| Eco-Sanctuary Belize | ||||||
| 2001 | The Rain Forest Teachings of Moises Chavez | |||||
| On the White Nile: Trouble on the River That Roars | ||||||
| Liquid Cubed: Spawning Grounds | ||||||
| Paragliding Across America | ||||||
| 2002 | Into the Tsangpo Gorge | |||||
| Messner | ||||||
| Ice Challenger | ||||||
| In the Shadow of the Condor | ||||||
| Fire on Ice | ||||||
| 2003 | Yunnan Great Rivers Expedition | |||||
| Farther Than the Eye Can See | ||||||
| Into the Thunder Dragon | ||||||
| Elements of Adrenaline (Burning Time) | ||||||
| 2004 | Never Ending Thermal | |||||
| Ten Adventures of a Lifetime | ||||||
| 2006 | Churning the Sea of Time: A Journey Up the Mekong to Angkor | |||||
| 2007 | Explore: China | |||||
| 2008 | The Wave 3D | |||||
| 2009 | Skiing Everest | |||||
| 2010 | The Waterkeepers, With Robert F. Kennedy Jr. | |||||
| 2011 | Saturn’s Embrace | |||||