Robert Bilheimer
Encyclopedia
Robert Bilheimer, President of Worldwide Documentaries, Inc., is a director, writer, and producer with an international background in film, theatre, journalism, and creative writing, focusing on subjects of cultural, social, and humanitarian interest. As a filmmaker, his subjects range from the plays of Samuel Beckett
to the vast complexity of the global AIDS epidemic, and its underlying causes. Among the many recognitions and awards for his work, Robert has received his profession's highest honor—an Academy Award nomination—for Best Documentary Feature for Cry of Reason, a feature-length documentary that tells the story of South Africa
n anti-apartheid leader Beyers Naude
.
Robert is currently producing, writing, and directing the Worldwide Documentaries’ production, Not My Life, a feature-length documentary film that comprehensively depicts the global affliction of modern-day slavery and human trafficking. Not My Life follows the release, in 2003, of A Closer Walk, the acclaimed documentary about global AIDS that Robert also directed and produced.
Born in New York City
, Robert was educated at the International School in Geneva, Switzerland; Hamilton College (BA, Honors, English Literature); and Indiana University
Graduate School (MA, Theatre and Film). He received the Army Commendation Medal for his work as Chaplain's Assistant in the US Army Special Services, 1968-1970. He has also taught at the Eastman School of Music, served as a consultant for the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and was a Resident Scholar at the Anson Phelps-Stokes Institute for Black American and Native American Studies in New York City.
Early in his career, Robert worked as a freelance journalist. Based in Nairobi, Kenya, he was a stringer for Time magazine and filed regularly for the Nairobi Daily Nation, and Agence France Presse. Robert has also written theatre and opera criticism and, as a college student, won the American Academy of Poets Award for his trilogy of poems, "Going Into The Desert."
Robert’s experience in theater includes the direction of more than 30 professional regional productions in the US and Canada, including four seasons at The Rochester (NY) Shakespeare Theatre where Robert was Founder and Artistic Director, and a landmark interracial production of Brecht's "Mother Courage" at the Kenya National Theatre. At the Manitoba Theatre Centre, he was Tony Award winner Len Cariou's Associate Artistic Director, and was named Director of the Year by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for his direction of Samuel Beckett's "Endgame" and Arthur Miller's "The Price”.
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
to the vast complexity of the global AIDS epidemic, and its underlying causes. Among the many recognitions and awards for his work, Robert has received his profession's highest honor—an Academy Award nomination—for Best Documentary Feature for Cry of Reason, a feature-length documentary that tells the story of 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 anti-apartheid leader Beyers Naude
Beyers Naudé
Christiaan Frederick Beyers Naudé was a South African cleric, theologian and the leading Afrikaner anti-apartheid activist...
.
Robert is currently producing, writing, and directing the Worldwide Documentaries’ production, Not My Life, a feature-length documentary film that comprehensively depicts the global affliction of modern-day slavery and human trafficking. Not My Life follows the release, in 2003, of A Closer Walk, the acclaimed documentary about global AIDS that Robert also directed and produced.
Born in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Robert was educated at the International School in Geneva, Switzerland; Hamilton College (BA, Honors, English Literature); and Indiana University
Indiana University
Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...
Graduate School (MA, Theatre and Film). He received the Army Commendation Medal for his work as Chaplain's Assistant in the US Army Special Services, 1968-1970. He has also taught at the Eastman School of Music, served as a consultant for the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and was a Resident Scholar at the Anson Phelps-Stokes Institute for Black American and Native American Studies in New York City.
Early in his career, Robert worked as a freelance journalist. Based in Nairobi, Kenya, he was a stringer for Time magazine and filed regularly for the Nairobi Daily Nation, and Agence France Presse. Robert has also written theatre and opera criticism and, as a college student, won the American Academy of Poets Award for his trilogy of poems, "Going Into The Desert."
Robert’s experience in theater includes the direction of more than 30 professional regional productions in the US and Canada, including four seasons at The Rochester (NY) Shakespeare Theatre where Robert was Founder and Artistic Director, and a landmark interracial production of Brecht's "Mother Courage" at the Kenya National Theatre. At the Manitoba Theatre Centre, he was Tony Award winner Len Cariou's Associate Artistic Director, and was named Director of the Year by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for his direction of Samuel Beckett's "Endgame" and Arthur Miller's "The Price”.