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Robert Nixon (filmmaker)

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Robert Nixon
Born
Robert Henry Nixon

1954 (age 69–70)
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Film director, writer, conservationist
Years active1978–present
Board member ofEarth Conservation Corps
The Pearl Foundation
Wings Over America
SpouseSarah Thorsby Guinan
Children3
Parent(s)Robert Nixon
Agnes Nixon
AwardsAcademy Award nominee
National Geographic Hero of the Planet
President's Service Award (Clinton Administration)[1][2]

Robert Henry Nixon (born 1954) is an American film director, writer and conservationist. His films, often focused on the battles of tribal peoples and field biologists, include Amazon Diary, America The Beautiful, The End of the Game, Fossey's War, Gorillas in the Mist, Endangered Species, The Last Rivermen, American Heroes, Mission Blue, Great White Highway, The Lord God Bird, Peter Beard's Africa: Last Word From Paradise, The Flight Of Double Eagle II, So Long Lady and The Falconer.[3][4]

Early life and education

Nixon was born in 1954. His father, Robert, was an executive with Chrysler; his mother, Agnes Nixon, the creator of One Life to Live and All My Children, is regarded as a pioneer in bringing social consciousness to daytime television.[5]

Raised in a Philadelphia suburb, Nixon aspired to be a field biologist but academic challenges at Episcopal Academy led him to England, where he was an apprentice falconer to Master Falconer Phillip Glasier. He subsequently searched the rainforest of Guyana to study and photograph the little-known ornate hawk eagle and the harpy eagle.

Returning to America, Nixon established a Raptor education program at The Wildlife Preserve under the guidance of master falconer Jim Fowler, the co-host of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom.[4][6]

Career

Film

Often hired to "fly" raptors for feature films and television commercials, Nixon began his career in film as a professional falconer in the mid-70s. In 1976, he began producing adventure and environmental documentaries for ABC's American Sportsman series.[7][8] In 1979, Nixon led a film crew to Rwanda to produce a documentary about famed zoologist Dian Fossey. Nixon pressed Fossey to allow him to make a dramatic film about her life; she agreed to grant him the rights to her story, for free, provided that he spend a year dedicated to hands-on conservation. Film studios became interested in Fossey's life after she was murdered in 1985,[9] and her story was told in the feature film, Gorillas in the Mist, which Nixon co-produced.[10] The film, which starred Sigourney Weaver, was a critical and commercial success.[11][12] Nixon next wrote, produced and directed the dramatic film Amazon Diary, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 1990.[13] Shot in the Amazon, the film examined the story of the Kayapo Indians, their relationship with the harpy eagle and their battle to protect the rain forest.

Nixon's subsequent films continued to focus on themes related to conservation, ecology, and environmental activism, and included the 1990 documentary, America the Beautiful, which was hosted by Curt Gowdy and featured President George H.W. Bush.[14] In 2014, Nixon produced and directed Mission Blue, a biographical portrait of renowned oceanographer and eco-activist Sylvia Earle. The film's premiere served as the opening of the 2014 Santa Barbara International Film Festival.[15][16]

Nixon's film Amazon Diary was preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.[17]

Conservation

In the early 1990s, after he read a New York Times article about the garbage-choked Anacostia River, which runs through one of America's poorest neighborhoods in Washington, D.C., Nixon decided that engaging local unemployed youth to restore their river would be his environmental year in honor of Fossey.[18][19] Nixon moved from Malibu, California to Washington, D.C., and secured a $50,000 grant from the Coors Foundation to launch the Earth Conservation Corps, a stalled domestic policy initiative which Nixon had discussed with President George G.W. Bush during the production of America the Beautiful. He persuaded seven teenage boys and two teenage girls to volunteer to clean up the river, and together they hauled thousands of tires from the water; the program later expanded to include replanting wetlands, restoring river habitats, and creating parks and trails.[20] Since its launch, corps member have provided more than one million hours of service, mobilizing thousands of young people and fostering the involvement of the city and Federal government. Earth Conservation Corps has additionally established several environmental groups on the Anacostia River, including the Anacostia RiverKeeper, the Living Classroom Foundation, and the Pearl Coalition, an educational project centered on the Pearl, a schooner chartered for the largest recorded slave escape attempt in American history.[21][22][23] Considered a model for minority engagement in environmental service, Earth Conservation Corps members volunteer 1700 hours restoring the Anacostia River and in return receive a nominal bi-weekly stipend and a college scholarship through the federal AmeriCorps program.[4][24] Nixon, who originally intended to spend only a year on the project, has remained the group's leader for more than 20 years. "I came here because I thought, you know, point out the problem, and the cavalry would arrive and I'd go back to making feature films," he told CBS News correspondent Ed Bradley. "I'm still waiting for the cavalry, you know?"[25]

Inspired by the impact of the Earth Conservation Corps, Nixon founded Wings Over America, a non-profit which pairs adjudicated youth with injured birds of prey as part of the rehabilitation process. His work as a conservationist and activist has generated significant media attention, and has been covered by 60 Minutes, Now with Bill Moyers, PBS and NPR, among many other broadcast outlets. Nixon has been featured in publications including Time, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times and The New York Times..[26]

Personal life

Nixon and his wife, Sarah Thorsby Guinan, live in Washington, D.C., and Martha's Vineyard, where they own The Menemsha Inn and Cottages, the Beach Plum Inn and Restaurant, and the Home Port Restaurant.[27]

After seeing a story about injured veterans in Afghanistan, their son, Jack, helped to conceive and organize the American Heroes Fishing Challenge. The challenge, which brings severely wounded active duty military from Walter Reed and Fort Belvoir military hospitals to New England to compete with 3,000 others in the Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby, was the subject of a documentary Nixon and Guinan Nixon produced and directed.[28][29]

Filmography

Year Title Credit Medium
2016 "Blue Serengeti" / "Shark Week" Director, Producer, Writer Television documentary (episode)
2014 Mission Blue Director, producer Feature documentary
2013 American Heroes Saltwater Challenge Director, producer Television documentary
2012 Great White Highway/Shark Week Director, producer Television documentary (episode)
2007 The Lord God Bird Producer Feature documentary
2004 Endangered Species Director, producer Feature documentary
1991 The Last Riverman Director, producer Feature documentary
1990 America the Beautiful Director, producer Television documentary
1989 Amazon Diary Director, producer Live action short film
1988 Gorillas in the Mist Co-producer Feature film
1988 Sea Turtles: Ancient Nomads Director, producer Television documentary
1988 Elephant Diary Director Live Action Short Film
1988 With Peter Beard in Africa: Last Word from Paradise Director Documentary
1987 If I Can Do This... I Can Do Anything Director Documentary
1982 On the Trail of the Giant Panda Director Documentary
1980 Fossey's War Director Documentary short subject
1980 Japanese Long Line Tuna Fishing Producer Television documentary
1978 So Long Lady Writer Television documentary

References

  1. ^ "The Board of Directors". 2014. Pearl Coalition. Archived from the original on March 20, 2014. Retrieved March 5, 2014.
  2. ^ "Bob Nixon biography". 2014. IMDb. Retrieved March 5, 2014.
  3. ^ Martin, Michael. "Environmentalists Struggle to Preserve Their Lives". May 3, 2007. NPR. Retrieved February 22, 2014.
  4. ^ a b c "Robert Nixon Biography". 2014. Encyclopedia of World Biography. Retrieved February 22, 2014.
  5. ^ McMurran, Kristin. "The Mother of 'All My Children,' Agnes Nixon, Gives Birth to a Prime-Time Irish 'Roots'". October 5, 1981. People. Retrieved March 3, 2014.
  6. ^ "ECC – Page Three". 1999. DC Online. Archived from the original on April 20, 2005. Retrieved March 7, 2014.
  7. ^ Richard, Jerome. "Eagle Scout". August 11, 2977. People. Retrieved February 22, 2014.
  8. ^ Madigan, Sean. "A bird's-eye view Film producer Bob Nixon turned an obscure and unfunded federal pipe dream into a savior for the Anacostia River and those who live along it". April 29, 20094. The Washingtonian. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
  9. ^ Lovgren, Stefan. "Dian Fossey's Gorillas Exhumed for Investigation". October 28, 2010. National Geographic. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
  10. ^ Wennerstein, John R. (June 20, 2008). Anacostia: the Death & Life of an American river. New York: Chesapeake Book Company. p. 209. ISBN 978-0963515964.
  11. ^ "Gorillas in the Mist Summary". 2014. Starpulse. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
  12. ^ "Gorillas in the Mist". 2014. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
  13. ^ "Nominees & Winners for the 62nd Academy Awards". 1990. oscars.org. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
  14. ^ "America the Beautiful". 2014. Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
  15. ^ Harvey, Dennis. "Film Review: 'Mission Blue'". February 4, 2014. Variety. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
  16. ^ Deadline Team. "'Mission Blue' To Open Santa Barbara International Film Fest; Full Lineup Unveiled". January 7, 2014. Deadline. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
  17. ^ "Preserved Projects". Academy Film Archive.
  18. ^ Smith, Harry. "Life from a Dead River". November 4, 2005. CBS News. Retrieved February 22, 2014.
  19. ^ Schindehette, Susan. "River of Dreams". August 1, 2005. People. Retrieved February 22, 2014.
  20. ^ Moyers, Bill. "The Earth Conservation Corps". July 6, 2007. PBS. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
  21. ^ Goodman, Christy. "Pearl Coalition wants to boost awareness of escape attempt". March 14, 2010. Washington Post. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
  22. ^ "Embassy of Australia joins with National Geographic to CLEAN UP THE WATERFRONT" (PDF). September 11, 2008. US Embassy (Press release). Archived from the original (PDF) on March 5, 2016. Retrieved February 22, 2014.
  23. ^ Senser, Kelly L. "Saving a River, Saving Lives". April 1, 2009. National Wildlife. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
  24. ^ Birch, Eugenie L., Wachter, Susan M. (August 13, 2008). Growing Greener Cities: Urban Sustainability in the Twenty-First Century. Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 134. ISBN 978-0812220377.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  25. ^ Bradley, Ed. "Saving Their Community". April 25, 2005. CBS News. Archived from the original on March 20, 2014. Retrieved February 22, 2014.
  26. ^ National Geographic News. "D.C. River Project Dedicated to Terrorism Victims". November 13, 2001. National Geographic. Retrieved February 22, 2014.
  27. ^ Garfinkel, Perry. "Martha's Vineyard B&B&D (Dinner)". August 31, 2007. New York Times. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
  28. ^ "This Memorial Day, National Geographic Channel Highlights the Journeys of Injured Soldiers Moving Forward and Fishing in "American Heroes Fishing Challenge"". May 14, 2013. National Geographic. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
  29. ^ Lovewell, Mark Alan. "Fishing Derby Welcomes Veterans, Kids". September 15, 2011. Vineyard Gazette. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
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