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[x] Collaborating independent directors

Werner Aellen Erich Busslinger Regula Hurter Judith Lichtneckert Albena Mihaylova Daniel Ott Franz Schnyder Rita Ziegler

Werner Aellen
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E-Mail: agelessproductions(at)bluewin.ch

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 17^th 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.