Chip
Duncan is a filmmaker, author, lecturer and President of The Duncan
Group, Inc., a documentary and feature film production company formed
in 1984. Duncan is also a partner with publisher Bob Kendall in
Thunder House LLC, a development company dedicated to large format
films for IMAX® theaters as well as Broadway and off-Broadway theater
projects. Duncan is also a partner in the motion picture production
company BiPolar Pictures LLC.
Duncan
has received numerous international awards for his work as a writer,
producer, director, and photographer. His most recent production,
Prayer In America, began airing nationwide on public television
in late November, 2007. The project included a 20-city community
outreach campaign and 5-part classroom series on historical and
constitutional issues related to prayer. Duncan was also a consulting
producer for the 2007 HBO Sports production of The Rivalry
featuring the longstanding competition between the Ohio State and
Michigan football programs.
Duncan’s
production of The Cost of Freedom - Civil Liberties, Security
and the USA PATRIOT Act aired nationwide on public television
in September, 2004. His production of Beyond The Gridiron - The
Life & Times of Woody Hayes also premiered nationwide on
public television in 2004. Duncan also worked as the Consulting
Producer and Director of Photography for the PBS biography on Henry
Wallace (produced in association with Iowa Public Television).
The film, Henry A. Wallace, premiered nationwide on PBS during
April, 2005.
In
September, 2003 PBS launched the nationwide premiere of In A
Just World - Abortion, Contraception & World Religion.
The Magic Never Ends - The Life & Work of C.S. Lewis
began broadcast nationwide on PBS in September, 2002. Duncan's
production of Rafting Alaska's Wildest Rivers premiered on
PBS in July 2001. Through One City's Eyes, an in-depth campaign
on race relations in America's heartland, included a nationwide
public television broadcast in February 2001. As part of the Through
One City's Eyes campaign, Duncan also initiated a 7-part public
radio series, executive produced a 2-part classroom series for middle
school students, and co-designed a traveling photo museum.
Wisconsin: An American Portrait premiered nationwide on
PBS during March, 2000. Duncan's production of Worth Fighting
For - People Protecting the Great Lakes, a one-hour public television
special on endangered habitat (narrated by James Taylor) premiered
nationwide on public television in 1998. In 1996, Duncan completed
production of Mystic Lands, a 13-part documentary series
on spiritual places of the world (narrated by Edward James Olmos).
A co-production with Discovery Networks, Mystic Lands is
presently being broadcast in more than 100 countries around the
world. Duncan was the series creator, executive producer, and director
as well as the writer and photographer of numerous episodes. The
Mystic Lands Collector’s Edition was released in October,
2005 and is distributed by Chicago-based Questar, Inc.
As
a producer/director, Duncan supervised the production of all projects
produced through the Duncan-Landaas Limited Partnership including
the EMMY award-winning children's series Astrodudes™
as well as eleven travel documentaries broadcast on The Discovery
Channel between 1991-1994. His 1986-87 production of the Is
Anyone Listening? educational series for teenagers is among
the best-selling classroom series of all time.
In
1992, Duncan wrote, produced, directed, and photographed Tatshenshini:
A Journey to the Ice Age for public television. Duncan's 1993
production of Alaska's Bald Eagle: New Threats To Survival
(narrated by Richard Kiley) was the winner of the "Best New
Wildlife Filmmaker" award at the 1993 Jackson Hole Wildlife
Festival. During his production of the 1994 public television special
Positive Thinking: The Norman Vincent Peale Story, Duncan
and co-producer David Crouse interviewed five American presidents
-- Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, George Bush & Ronald
Reagan.
In
1996, Duncan produced the feature film Eden, a Sundance Film
Festival finalist. That same year, Duncan executive produced the
movie Cadillac Ranch. Cadillac Ranch was released
theatrically in 1997 and was later broadcast on HBO. Eden
was released theatrically in March, 1998 and continues to be distributed
worldwide by Lakeshore Entertainment. Eden was licensed
by both HBO and the Lifetime Network. Both films are available
on home video and DVD.
In
1998, Duncan produced the feature film Row Your Boat (starring
Jon Bon Jovi and Bai Ling). He also co-executive produced The
Break Up (starring Bridget Fonda & Kiefer Sutherland) that
premiered on Showtime in 1999 and aired nationwide on UPN in 2003.
More recently, Duncan executive produced the Kevin McCarey feature
film Coyotes (winner of the 1999 Savannah Film Festival)
that is available through Porchlight Entertainment.
Duncan
is the co-author of two stories sold to the CBS network remake of
The Twilight Zone in 1985. His first non-fiction book, The
Magic Never Ends – The Life & Work of C.S. Lewis was published
by Thomas Nelson Publishing in November, 2001 and re-released by
Augsburg Fortress Press in 2005 (penned under the name John Ryan
Duncan). Duncan's first play, The Dying Art, premiered at
the Bloomington Playwright's Workshop at the University of Indiana
during July, 2000. Duncan also writes frequently for the Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel.
Current
feature film projects in development include Eric Berg’s adaptation
of Aldous Huxley's The Genius and the Goddess (featuring
Nick Nolte and Isabelle Huppert) and Kevin McCarey’s Tropic of
Angels. Duncan is also in development with Joslyn Barnes and
Danny Glover on several productions including Touti In Harlem
and an untitled project on the relationship between Albert Einstein
and Paul Robeson. He is also the screenwriter and producer with
Danny Glover, Joslyn Barnes and Salim Amin for the upcoming feature
film based on the life of African photographer Mohammed Amin.
On
the Thunder House Pictures front, Duncan is currently developing
Amazing Butterfly Quest and River of Doubt - Theodore
Roosevelt's Greatest Adventure as co-productions with MacGillivray
Freeman Films, producers of Everest and Mysteries of the
Nile.
Duncan’s
current public television productions include Myth, Imagination
& Faith and Landslide – The Rise, Fall & Rise of
Herbert Hoover. Myth, Imagination & Faith includes
interviews with notable scholars, theologians and mythologists from
around the world and looks specifically at the literature and spiritual
beliefs of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. Landslide is being
produced in association with Iowa Public Television and Stamats
Communications for a fall, 2009 release.
The
Duncan Group is also in development on various projects including
The Milwaukee Poverty Initiative, Rwanda - Genocide, Reconciliation
& Hope and an untitled project on human anatomy (in association
with the University of South Carolina School of Medicine).
Duncan
also serves as a board member for Los Angeles-based not-for-profit
group Relief International. Recent location work
includes filming in Afghanistan (2005), Pakistan (2006) and Darfur,
Sudan (2008). Duncan is also an advisor to the annual Denali
Film & Culture Festival in Denali Village, Alaska.
During
his free time, Duncan guides annual trips on Peru's Inca Trail to
Machu Picchu. He is an avid still photographer, kayaker, and skier
and spends considerable time in the Alaskan wilderness. In January,
2006 Duncan climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro with a group of friends from
the United Arab Emirates.
Chip
Duncan can be contacted via e-mail through The Duncan Group web
site at Chip@DuncanEntertainment.com
or by calling (USA) 414-223-1060
