Trained as a designer-architect in Switzerland, Aellen
immigrated to Canada in 1953 and practiced his profession in Vancouver and
Montreal for eight years, designing, drafting and supervising construction of
numerous buildings, ranging from residences, schools to apartment and
commercial buildings. He taught design
at the Vancouver School of Art before gradually shifting his activities to his
interest in theatre and film.
In 1962 the B.C. Government appointed him as the
artistic director of the summer-long Centennial
Celebrations of the Barkerville Gold Rush in charge of developing stage
shows and street entertainment, designing costumes and stage sets. He also managed and performed in the shows.
After taking a film course at University of B.C, he
joined the National Film Board in
Montreal in 1963 as a writer, editor, and director and eventually as
producer. His credits are on a number of
NFB documentary productions.
In 1968, he was asked to head up the Canada Council
supported Intermedia Organization in
Vancouver, an experimental arts/technology organization, exploring new forms of
interaction of film, music, sound, video, dance, sculpture and the emerging
technologies of holograms and lasers. He
was co-founder of Metromedia,
supervising and participating in experiments with the first generation of
portable video recorders and teaching media literacy. He also established the Pacific Cinematheque.
Aellen formed his own production companies and has
been actively developing and producing documentaries, television and feature
films.
He also worked on Hollywood Productions in
Vancouver/British Columbia, primarily as location editor and post production
coordinator.
In order to eat regularly, he opened and operated the
very successful Swiss restaurant ‘La
Raclette’ and later bought the Galiano
Lodge on Galiano Island, both of which he later sold.
For EXPO 86, he and one of his companies designed and
produced two major displays, the ‘Land Plaza’ and the ‘Marine Plaza’.
Aellen worked for five years as development producer
for Vidatron in Vancouver and LA, now
called Peace Arch Entertainment for
whom he also designed and supervised the conversion of an office/warehouse
building into a film studio/sound stage.
Recent work includes an international co-production of
“Reduced Shakespeare” for CBC, PBS
and BBC. Preparation of budgets,
development and consulting work for numerous U.S. and Canadian production
companies.
He has also produced “Lord of the Brush”, a one-hour documentary TV portrait of the
Canadian artist John Howe, now living in Switzerland, who had received world
recognition through his illustrations of Tolkien stories which had inspired
Peter Jackson, the director of Lord of
the Rings who had hired Howe to work on the conceptual design of the highly
successful film trilogy. Our program was
premiered on BRAVO and has been shown on CBC, Radio Canada, TFO, KN and other
networks. It has now international
distribution.
He is presently working on a co-production with
Singapore Television and Hong Kong ‘A Dynasty of Dance’ about the remarkable
Goh family of classical ballet.
Aellen has served on various boards, including the
advisory board of the Canada Council of the Arts, the Canadian Film Development
Corp., (now called Telefilm Canada), the Vancouver Art Gallery (V.P. 1972) and
the Pacific Cinematheque. He has been a
member of the CIDA and Canada Council film juries and various film festival
selection committees.
Aellen has traveled all over the world, including,
many countries in Europe, Asia, Middle East, Africa and Central America. He speaks four languages.
PARTIAL
LIST OF CREDITS
Feature
Films
“By Design”, co-produced with Beryl Fox; Claude Jutra,
director; lead: Patty Duke; By Design Productions, Vancouver, Canada
“Sally Fieldgood & Co”; Producer; Boon Collins, dir.; Image Flow Productions, Vancouver, Canada
“The Wolfpen Principle”, Producer; Jack Darkus, dir.; Image Flow Productions, Vancouver, Canada
“Charlie Chan”,
editor; Daryl Duke, director; Universal Studios, Hollywood, Los Angeles
“The Grove”, editor; Bernard Gerard, director; Centennial Productions, Hollywood, Los
Angeles.
Television
“Lord of the Brush”,
co-producer, Basilea Entertainment Ltd., for BRAVO, CBC, TFO, KN, SCN, Radio
Canada
“Reduced Shakespeare”, co-producer with H.D.Thames
Ltd. London, England; for CBC and PBS
“Nobody on Stage”, producer, Raven Films; for BCTV
Documentaries
-
Twelve
productions for the National Film Board, Montreal, such as educational films,
films for federal departments and the International Labour Organization (ILO)
- Eighteen
independent private productions for different organizations, i.e.:
- The Government of British Columbia, Canada: a film
on “Alternative Energy”.
- The Workers Compensation Board of BC.
- The National Film Board of Canada: “”We call them
Killers”.
- The United Nations: “Introduction to the Habitat” for
a conference in Vancouver.
In
Development
In Canada
‘A DYNASTY OF
DANCE’ – a TV portrait of prima ballerina Chan Hon Goh and the Goh Academy of
Vancouver
‘HELL’S GATE’ –
a screenplay for a feature film about early racial discrimination in BC
In Switzerland
‘Adolf Portmann, biologist’ – (in 3 languages)
‘Tinguely Brunnen’ – doc about maintenance/artist Paul
Walder
“d’Oeli vo Münsige” – doc about 17th
century oil mill
“Barcode” – doc about inventor of the barcode
Production
Services
Budgeting, location scouting for Canadian and US
companies.
Translations film and other texts from German into
English.
A
complete list of credits and references available upon request.
