HD EXPO March Speakers

David Vassar, Producer/Director/Writer, Back Country Pictures

David has been producing, writing and directing award winning films, destination films and television for more than three decades. He has consistently used innovative workflows and technologies creating projects for a variety of audiences and viewing environments.

His first documentary film, Yosemite, brought him to the attention of the National Park Service leading to a two year stint in Yosemite Valley working as a ranger/naturalist. After Yosemite, he moved to Washington D.C. to  work as a member of the Exhibits Motion Picture Unit of the Smithsonian Institution. David received a Silver Hugo from the Chicago International Film Festival at the age of 24  for his multi- media production Replenish The Earth. He raised independent financing to produce and direct his first feature length documentary, Generation On The Wind, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

David’s extensive television credits include a stint as primary director for the highly rated NBC television series Unsolved Mysteries, and he produced an episode about the Maya for the  series, Lost Civilizations which won the Emmy in 1995 for "outstanding informational series".  David completed the destination film for Yosemite National Park in 2001,  Spirit of Yosemite which utilized a then unique process of  35mm to HD to film, one of the very first films to originate in 35mm film exclusively for digital projection.  The film has been honored at a number of film festivals and was presented at the Cannes Film Festival for two consecutive years as an “outstanding achievement  in digital cinema”.  David has recently  finished the award winning Discover Hetch Hetchy with Harrison Ford,  the centerpiece film for the national campaign to restore the Hetch Hetchy Valley.

Currently, David is producing a series of three HD video programs for the new Visitor center, Grand Teton Video Rivers in Grand Teton National Park set to open in 2007. Grand Teton Video Rivers  will be projected from the basement onto the transparent floor of the museum – where visitors will walk upon aerial imagery capturing the magic of the Grand Tetons’ dramatic seasons. He is set to begin work on a Visitor’s Center Film for Death Valley.

His company, Backcountry Pictures is in development on  a documentary feature film with the Sierra Club that will highlight the lives of America’s greatest conservationists  -  Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Rachel Carson and Edward Abbey.

David Vassar on location with Host, Dave Salmoni and Adam the Bear for Animal Planet. Photo courtesy of Creative Differences & Animal Planet

Panel: Loud and Proud in Public