Carroll Ballard

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Carroll Ballard born October 14 1937 in Los Angeles is an American film director He started out making documentaries for the US information agency Beyond This Winters Wheat 1965 and Harvest 1967 the latter was nominated for an Academy Award He also made the documentaries The Perils of Priscilla 1969 and Rodeo 1970 He was second unit director on George Lucas Star Wars for which he handled many of the outdoor desert scenes His first solo directing job came when Francis Ford Coppola a former UCLA classmate offered him the job of directing The Black Stallion 1979 an adaptation from the novel of the same name by Walter Farley He went on to direct Never Cry Wolf 1983 a film based on Farley Mowats autobiographical book of the same name detailing his experiences with Arctic wolves He also directed the film Wind 1992 He later directed the film Fly Away Home 1996 which was nominated for an Academy Award for best cinematography His most recent film is Duma 2005 about a young South African boys friendship with an orphaned cheetah Most of Ballards films deal with man and his relation to nature and have a strong poetic streak Description above from the Wikipedia article Carroll Ballard licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia