Basil Gelpke
Directing
Biography
Basil Gelpke was born September 10, 1962 in Basel, Switzerland. After his studies in Social Anthropology, Economics and in the production of scientific films Basil soon became fascinated by all kinds of moving images. He is Managing Director of his production house Lava Production AG, www.lavatv.com He started his career in advertising but soon changed profession to become one of the youngest journalists to ever work for national Swiss Television. Among his first assignments was a highly acclaimed interview with Lisa Minelli. 1990 he moved to Cologne to become the producer of Tacheles, a weekly political talkshow on German television. There he worked closely with host Johannes Gross, a legendary figure in German journalism. Whilst in Cologne he also compiled his first one hour documentary “The Artificial Paradise” on behalf of Germany’s WDR channel. This film, about the history of LSD and its Swiss inventor, Albert Hofmann later got nominated for Germany’s prestigious Grimme awards. Basil has won a series of awards for his documentary filmmaking such as the 2007 Sol d’Or of Barcelona, the Film Prize 2006 by the City of Zurich, the 2007 Best Doc Award of the Palm Beach Film Festival, and the 2006 Best of Fest Award at Lake Tahoe Film. Festival amongst others His documentary “A Crude Awakening–The Oil Crash” was the only film shortlisted twice with the 2007 Grierson Awards – Britain’s foremost Documentary Awards and got invited to more than 50 film festivals. In the US it was bought by Robert Redford to launch his “Green” programming strand on Sundance Channel and got sold to over 20 territories.
Known For
No description available.
Kulturplatz
On the basis of the hardy perennial "boss-assistant" relation, "The Mortal Fortune" depicts the passion of worldly existence. The anonymous hero of the story, to which the spectator is introduced, attempts at freeing himself from his enslaved life. He finally has to realize the transience of the creature man and whithdraws from the constraints of worldly existence.
The Mortal Fortune
Basil Gelpke and Ray McCormack's nonfiction treatise Crude Awakening joins Maxed Out, An Inconvenient Truth, and other recent documentaries devoted to unearthing and exploring forces that are untying the connective threads of contemporary society. The subject at hand is crude oil - specifically, the depletion of petroleum from the Earth, in an era when consumption threatens to exceed supply.
A Crude Awakening
For the Balinese there are more important things than the accumulation of material wealth in one lifespan: They think it is better to lead their lives well and so acquire what they call Karma Pala. Good Karma ensures them rebirth into a new and potentially higher level of existence. The film looks at how the beliefs and occult ceremonies of these long bygone times have survived so well. The viewers witness some of the most mysterious rituals still to be found with one foot in the traditions of the past, the other firmly striding into the future.
Sacred & Secret
No description available.
Mensch 2.0 – Die Evolution in unserer Hand
No description available.