CV

ALUN HUGHES – Director / Cameraman and Producer.
Tan yr Allt, Fachwen, Llanberis, Gwynedd, Wales, LL55 3HB, U.K.

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* Bafta Wales Award 2002, Best Cameraman. Byd Pws S4C

* Grierson nomination in 2007 for 'Massacre in Malta' an S4C commissioned programme on wildlife crime. - Natur Anghyfreithlon 6 x 1hr

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Producer and Director cameraman based in Wales specializing in adventure and adventure travel documentaries for UK and foreign networks. Producer of many multi award winning programmes including:

Stone Monkey, C4, 1987
“Possibly the greatest climbing film of all time? Original, funny, breathtakingly exciting. Stone Monkey inspired a generation and defined a lifestyle.” Leo Houlding.

Waterfall Kayak, S4C. 1990
“Makes climbers look like whimps.” Jerry Moffat.

From Nowhere to the Middle of Nowhere
Winner of 8 international awards and reversioned into a successful National Geographic documentary.

Zanskar, The Frozen River Trek
(Best film, Mountain Environment 2001 Kendal)

'Dringo ir Eitha' (Climbing to the Limits)
Best climbing film GRAZ, AUSTRIA, NOV 2008
Special mention Kendal Film Festival, NOV 2008

Upsidedown Wales
Honorary Mention at GRAZ, AUSTRIA, NOV 2008

Early CV

First broadcast commission, 'Stone Monkey' for Channel Four Television, (1988). This programme was repeated twice on the channel and was seen by 1 million viewers on Boxing Day that year. It won awards at many international mountain film festivals including Trento in Italy, Graz in Austria, Les Diablerets in Switzerland and Teplice, Slovenia.

1988 to 1990, shot, edited and produced ten or so commissions for S4C, all adventure/sport or travel documentaries. Many of these programmes have been sold to other European networks eg. 'Waterfall Kayak' has been seen on TV1 France, ORF Austria, and on Spanish and Swiss networks. This film also won awards at Les Diablerets film festival (Switzerland) and at Torrello in Spain. It was recently sold to National Geographic Television.

Won the 1990 Captain Scott Adventure Film Awards, for HTV, with a film on mountain travel shot in the coast Range of British Columbia, Canada. Mystery Mountain, a traverse of Mt. Waddington.

1991, contributed to the BBC1 series 'Classic Adventure' shooting a mountaineering story in Mongolia.
Both these programmes were shot 'alone' but as part of an adventure using HI8 cameras.

Main cameraman for the HTV’s four part series on the history of mountaineering in Wales, 'On The Edge'.
Shot on single Beta this involved many interviews, re-enactments as well as action sequences. (1991).

Cameraman on the 1991 Everest "High Adventure" Expedition. This was an attempt to climb the N.E. Ridge of Everest from Tibet and descend from the summit by parapente, with Harry Taylor and Russell Brice. Shooting 16mm. Aarton, and on Hi8.

Director/cameraman on the 'British Makalu Expedition' to Nepal and sponsored by B.T. which sent over 40 transmissions by satellite to BBC Breakfast Time, Newsround and People Today programmes, including a live interview from advanced base camp at 18,000 ft, to NBC's Sunday Today programme in the U.S.

1993, produced a one hour documentary for S4C celebrating the fortieth anniversary of the first ascent of Everest and its Welsh connections (May 93). The last part of the programme involved a journey to Everest Base Camp, shooting and directing on HI8.

Director/cameraman on the 'Reebok Everest Marathon' held in Nepal in November 1993. Documentaries and News items produced for many U.K. and foreign networks.

Shot and directed five one minute cameos titled 'Landmass', for BBC WALES on Saint David's' Day, 1994.

Produced 'Hiraeth Y Pwyliaid' for S4C, May 94. (‘Longing to Return’ -To Poland).

Produced 'They Milk Horses Don't They', a promotional tourist video for Kyrgyztan, in Central Asia, aimed a western tour operators, funded by the E.B.R.D. bank and handled by Touch Ross management consultants for the Kirgiz Government.

Produced 'Hen Yr Ynys Hir' for S4C. (The Western Isles Challenge 1995, a relay race for teams of four along the length of the Outer Hebridies. A co-production between S4C, Grampian Television and Trans World International).

Directed and shot a series of six worldwide adventure/travel programmes for S4C, titled Dei a Tom, broadcast in Feb 1996. A second series has been commissioned for broadcast in 1997.

Climbing / mountain cameraman for the American sports network E.S.P.N.'s production Antartic Adventure, shot in January 1996, aired in April 96. Produced a welsh language version for S4C.

Alun Hughes is an experienced climber and mountaineer and holds the International Guides Carnet.

1998/1999.
Director / cameraman for a third adventure series for S4C. 6 x 30min.
Venues:
1. Totem Pole, Tasmania. Climbing ‘The Candlestick’.
2. Zanskar frozen river trek, Ladakh, Northern India, part 1
3. Zanskar frozen river trek, Ladakh, Northern India, part 2
4. East Greenland, first ascent of the south ridge of Ruuterknaeken near Angmaslik (now Tasilak) with Caradoc Jones and Michael Johannsen.
5. Picos De Europa, Spain, an ascent of the Narjancha De Bulnes.
6. Wales. a 'This is your life' for Caradoc.
All these adventures were with Caradoc Jones, the first Welshman to summit Everest.
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1998 / 99, director / cameraman for a presenter led travel series with Dewi 'Pws' Morris. for S4C. The 'reluctant' traveller, on a mission. TX winter 1999/2000. 6 venues focusing on visits to 'main cultures'.
1. Inuit of N.W. Greenland, a visit to Siorapaluk, the most northerly native community on earth.
2. Cowboys. A visit to The Pitchfork, Meetseesee near Cody, the oldest working ranch in Wyoming.
3. 14 peaks Wales.
4. Crocodile Dundee, part 1. A journey to meet 'the original', Rod Ansell, at his home at Urapunga, Northern Territories. Australia.
5. Crocodile Dundee, part 2
Rod was killed in a shoot out with police in mysterious circumstances in August 1999
6. Everest Base camp trek.

'From Nowhere to the Middle of Nowhere'. May 1999.

The first crossing of western Nepal by paraglider, with top British pilot John Silvester. An aerial trek in a tandem glider, shot on a Sony PC1 mini DV Cam, across the very remote far west of the Himalaya. 50 min. - a pioneering aerial trek across Nepal that has been very successful in winning 8 awards at international mountain film festivals world wide, including a Grand Prix at Graz in 2000 and a special mention at Banff that year.
A recut version was sold to National Geographic Television and to P.B.S. stations in the US.

2000 to 2002.

'Zanskar', the frozen river trek, won the Award for the best programme on the Mountain Environment at the Kendal Mountain Film Festival, (prize sponsored by Patagonia), in year 2000. Alun was both Director and cameraman.

Two more very successful series of 'Byd Pws' completed for S4C, same theme, - the reluctant traveller on a mission, one series looking at Zulu, and Sami cultures, also with visits to Guatemala finding out about ' Maximon', and the pagan culture on the shores of lake Atitlan, and a pilgrimage to Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, USA.

In the third series we visitited the Khum Mela Hindu festival, to witness the greatest gathering of people ever in one place at one time, over 20 million on one day at the Sangam on the shores of the Ganges in India in febuary 2001, and also visited and took part in the 'Carnival', the Rio festival. Other venues included Vietnam and Japan.

2002 Bafta Wales awarded for best cameraman, for the Khum Mela documentary for S4C

Spring 2003, - directed the Everest 50th anniversary programme for S4C

Also in 2003/4 two one hour specials of adventure / nature programmes.

1. A look at the triangle of dependency between the puma the guanaco and the condor in Patagonian Chile.

2 A visit to St Kilda, an island in the north atlantic off N.W Scotland to look at its bird life and to tell the story of the evacuation of the last remaining natives in 1933. Both with presenter Iolo Williams.

Spring 2003, - directed the Everest 50th anniversary programme for S4C, .

2004, Helwyr Planhigion for s4c, a doco on ‘The Plant Hunters’, a year in the life of the couple who run Crug Farm specialist nursery near Caernarfon, Wales and who go abroad every year in order to bring new exotic plant species back to the U.K.

2005 /2006 Natur Anghyfreithlon ( Illegal Nature).
Directed 6x1hour docos for S4C,
Illegal persecution of Birds of Prey in Malta,
Overfishing in UK waters,
Palm Oil Plantation and persecution of Orang Utans in Kalimantan Borneo.
Tiger persecution in Russia Far East.
Bird of Prey persecution in UK.

Filmed by Steve Phillips, presented by Iolo Williams.

Nominated for the Grierson Award 2007 for the Malta programme.

Recent productions,

*UpsideDown Wales.
George Smith - upsidedown guru and arch obsessive leads us on a remarkable journey into his wonderful world - a journey with attitude and character. 'Like salad after chips' .

*Interview with Joe Brown.
A rare interview with the greatest rock climber of all time, Joe Brown, 'The Human Fly'. A relaxed Joe tells George Smith the story of his sixty year love affair with Welsh rock, from his first ascents on Cloggy in the fifties - putting up routes that redefined the sport of rock climbing in Britain - to his more recent Welsh explorations at Tremadog, Gogarth and Dinorwic quarry. Using first ascent photos that have never been published before Joe chats candidly with George about his motivation and his spirit of adventure.

*Dringo I’r Eitha’ 2007. S4C ( Climbing To The Limits )
A portrait of a very talented young Welsh climber, Ioan Doyle, age 16, as he races through the grades to reach E5 in his first summer of rock climbing. His obsession gives his mother Catrin nightmares, but despite her inability to ‘let him go’, he climbs his first 8a sports climb in Kalymnos Greece, and then continues on to the big walls of Yosemite
With his partner Mills, a climber who has a fear of heights.

In production 2008.

‘Dringo I’r Eitha 2. 2008. S4C in production.

‘The Birdman of the Karakoram’ The incredible pioneering aerial adventures of John Silvester

alun hughes,
august 2008.

 

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