Robert Chappell – Cinematographer, Director
Bob became passionate in the Vietnam anti-war movement and joined what would become the Alternate Media Movement. Continuing his education at the New York University School of Film and Television, he photographed throughout the world ranging from the civil war in Lebanon, to a documentary series for HBO with director Elliot Erwitt, In Our Water, nominated for an Academy Award. And Errol Morris’s film The Thin Blue Line, which created a since much-imitated film style.
He directed a handful of feature films with Jakarta, bringing him to Indonesia beginning what became a 12-year life changing experience where he co-founded the largest full-service Production House in Indonesia, Grandview/Katena Films working with an endless number of the most talented Indonesian artists on a wide variety of projects both Indonesian and international.
Returning to the US, he collaborated with director Errol Morris on The Fog War which won an Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary (2003). Politics continue to be a driver of many of his subsequent projects, Standard Operating Procedure, about the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, The Unknown Known, portrait of Donald Rumsfeld, both with Errol Morris; Countdown To Zero, about nuclear disarmament with Lucy Walker, Bobby Fischer Against The World, about the fateful US-Russian chess match, with Liz Garbus, Generation Wealth with Lauren Greenfield, and Gringo:The Dangerous Life Of John Mcafee and the mini-series, HILLARY, both with Nanette Burnstein, MLK/FBI with Sam Pollard, as well numerous other notable feature length documentaries.
