Carroll Ballard
Encyclopedia
Biography
Carroll Ballard started out making documentaries for the U.S. Information Agency, Beyond This Winter's Wheat (1965) and HarvestHarvest (film)
Harvest is a 1967 documentary film produced by Carroll Ballard. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.The film portrays the American farm and farmer at harvest time, beginning in Texas with the first cutting of winter wheat, and following the season north to the...
(1967); the latter was nominated for an Academy Award
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
. He also made the documentaries The Perils of Priscilla (1969), and Rodeo (1970).
He was second unit director on George Lucas' Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
, for which he handled many of the outdoor desert scenes. His first solo directing job came when Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...
, a former UCLA
UCLA School of Theater Film and Television
The UCLA School of Theatre, Film, and Television , is one of the twelve schools within UCLA. It is located in Los Angeles, California, USA, and is unique in that it combines all three of these aspects into a single school. The graduate programs are usually ranking within the top 3 nationally,...
classmate, offered him the job of directing The Black Stallion
The Black Stallion (film)
The Black Stallion is a 1979 American film based on the 1941 classic children's novel The Black Stallion by Walter Farley. It tells the story of Alec Ramsey, who is shipwrecked on a desert island, together with a wild Arabian stallion whom he befriends...
(1979), an adaptation of the novel by Walter Farley
Walter Farley
Walter Farley was an American author, primarily of horse stories for children. Educated at Columbia, where he received a B.A. in 1941, his first and most famous work was The Black Stallion...
. In 2002, the Library of Congress added The Black Stallion to the National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
.
Ballard's second film was Never Cry Wolf
Never Cry Wolf (film)
Never Cry Wolf is a 1983 American drama film directed by Carroll Ballard. The film is an adaption of Farley Mowat's 1963 autobiography of the same name and stars Charles Martin Smith as a government biologist sent into the wilderness to study the caribou population, whose decline is believed to be...
(1983), based on Farley Mowat
Farley Mowat
Farley McGill Mowat, , born May 12, 1921 is a conservationist and one of Canada's most widely-read authors.His works have been translated into 52 languages and he has sold more than 14 million books. He achieved fame with the publication of his books on the Canadian North, such as People of the...
's autobiographical book of the same name
Never Cry Wolf (book)
Never Cry Wolf is a book by Canadian author Farley Mowat, first published in 1963 by McClelland and Stewart. It was adapted into a film of the same name in 1983. It has been credited for dramatically changing the public image of the wolf to a more positive one. It is presented as a first-person...
, detailing Mowat's experiences with Arctic wolves
Arctic Wolf
The Arctic Wolf , also called Polar Wolf or White Wolf, is a subspecies of the Gray Wolf, a mammal of the family Canidae. Arctic Wolves inhabit the Canadian Arctic, Alaska and the northern parts of Greenland....
.
In the 1990s, he directed two films: Wind
Wind (film)
Wind is a film released in 1992. The movie was directed by Carroll Ballard and starred Matthew Modine, Jennifer Grey, and Cliff Robertson.- Plot summary :...
(1992) and Fly Away Home
Fly Away Home
Fly Away Home is a 1996 drama and comedy film directed by Carroll Ballard, the director of The Black Stallion . The film stars Anna Paquin, Jeff Daniels and Dana Delany. The story follows a young girl from New Zealand who survives a car crash that results in the death of her mother...
(1996). The latter was nominated for an Academy Award for best cinematography.
His most recent film is Duma
Duma (film)
Duma is a 2005 drama adventure film, directed by Carroll Ballard. It stars Alexander Michaletos, Eamonn Walker, Hope Davis and Campbell Scott...
(2005), about a young South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n boy's friendship with an orphaned cheetah
Cheetah
The cheetah is a large-sized feline inhabiting most of Africa and parts of the Middle East. The cheetah is the only extant member of the genus Acinonyx, most notable for modifications in the species' paws...
.
Most of Ballard's films deal with man and his relation to nature and have a strong poetic streak. Film critic Kenneth Turan once wrote that Ballard "knows how to be both caring and restrained, minimizing a movie's saccharine content while maximizing the sense of wonder."
Filmography
- The Black StallionThe Black Stallion (film)The Black Stallion is a 1979 American film based on the 1941 classic children's novel The Black Stallion by Walter Farley. It tells the story of Alec Ramsey, who is shipwrecked on a desert island, together with a wild Arabian stallion whom he befriends...
(1979) - Never Cry WolfNever Cry Wolf (film)Never Cry Wolf is a 1983 American drama film directed by Carroll Ballard. The film is an adaption of Farley Mowat's 1963 autobiography of the same name and stars Charles Martin Smith as a government biologist sent into the wilderness to study the caribou population, whose decline is believed to be...
(1983) - Nutcracker: The Motion PictureNutcracker: The Motion PictureNutcracker: The Motion Picture , is a 1986 film produced by Pacific Northwest Ballet in associates with Hyperion Pictures and Kushner/Locke. It is a film adaptation of the ballet The Nutcracker by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky as well as based on the short story by E.T.A. Hoffmann...
(1986) (referred to in the actual credits as Pacific Northwest Ballet's "Nutcracker" ) - WindWind (film)Wind is a film released in 1992. The movie was directed by Carroll Ballard and starred Matthew Modine, Jennifer Grey, and Cliff Robertson.- Plot summary :...
(1992) - Fly Away HomeFly Away HomeFly Away Home is a 1996 drama and comedy film directed by Carroll Ballard, the director of The Black Stallion . The film stars Anna Paquin, Jeff Daniels and Dana Delany. The story follows a young girl from New Zealand who survives a car crash that results in the death of her mother...
(1996) - DumaDuma (film)Duma is a 2005 drama adventure film, directed by Carroll Ballard. It stars Alexander Michaletos, Eamonn Walker, Hope Davis and Campbell Scott...
(2005)