Orlando von Einsiedel [1] (born in August 1980) [2] is a British film director. He directs mostly documentary films that investigate global social issues, and has filmed in various places around the world, including Africa, Asia, America and the Arctic. Von Einsiedel became known for his award winning film Virunga , produced with the cooperation of Virunga National Park director Prince de Merode.
Von Einsiedel is the grandson of Wittgo von Einsiedel (a second cousin to Heinrich Graf von Einsiedel, who descends from Otto von Bismarck) and Walburga von Obersdorff. [1] His father, Andreas Jean-Paul von Einsiedel, was a photographer specialising in architecture and interiors. [3] Von Einsiedel grew up in Forest Hill, London, with his mother (Harriet), a British music therapist. He attended Alleyn's, an independent school in East Dulwich, London. [4]
Von Einsiedel studied social anthropology at the University of Manchester [5] and an MSc in anthropology and development at the London School of Economics. [6]
Many of von Einsiedel's documentaries have been screened at some of the world's top film festivals. He directed Virunga (2014), which received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature, and The White Helmets (2016), which won for Best Documentary (Short Subject). Both nominations were shared with producer Joanna Natasegara. [7] [8] [9] [10] His 2018 film, Evelyn, about his late brother, launched at the London Film Festival [11] and won the BIFA for Best Documentary. [12] In 2020, Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (if you're a girl), a film he was an executive producer on, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject). [13] In 2006, he co-founded Grain Media, a production company based in London. [14]
Von Einsiedel spent several years as a professional snowboarder, [15] [4] [16] travelling the world promoting the brand names of various sponsors through media engagements, photo/video shoots and competitions. During this period, he was given the nickname 'Jill Dando', due to the rhyme connection between his name and hers. [4]
| Year | Title | Director | Producer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Skateistan: To Live and Skate Kabul | Yes | Yes | Documentary Short |
| 2012 | Aisha's Song | Yes | Yes | Documentary Short |
| 2012 | Radio Amina | Yes | Yes | Documentary Short |
| 2012 | Pirate Fishing | Yes | No | TV Series |
| 2013 | We Ride: The Story of Snowboarding | Yes | No | |
| 2013 | The Cure: Doctors on Everest - Investigating Intensive Care | Yes | No | TV Series |
| 2013 | Earthrise | TV Series | ||
| 2014 | Virunga | Yes | Yes | |
| 2014 | We Are Fire | Yes | No | Documentary Short |
| 2015 | King of the Mountain | Yes | No | Documentary Short |
| 2015 | SuperBob | No | Yes | Executive Producer |
| 2016 | The White Helmets | Yes | No | Documentary Short |
| 2018 | Evelyn | Yes | No | |
| 2018 | Bruce Lee And The Outlaw | No | Yes | Executive Producer |
| 2019 | Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You're a Girl) | No | Yes | Executive Producer |
| 2019 | Lost and Found | Yes | No | Documentary Short |
| 2019 | Into The Fire | Yes | No | Documentary Short |
| 2019 | The Seahorse | No | Yes | Executive Producer |
| 2020 | Still Human | Yes | No | Documentary Short |
| 2020 | The Lost Forest | Yes | No | Documentary Short |
| 2021 | Convergence | Yes | Yes | |
| 2021 | Death in Bollywood | No | Yes | Executive Producer |
| 2021 | The Phantom | No | Yes | Executive Producer |
| 2021 | Into Dust | Yes | No | Short Film |
| 2022 | From Devil's Breath | Yes | No | Documentary Short |
| 2022 | Bastille: Hope For The Future | Yes | No | Music Video |
| 2023 | Heart of Invictus | Yes | No | Documentary Series |
Louis Marie Malle was a French film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in both French cinema and Hollywood. Described as "eclectic" and "a filmmaker difficult to pin down", Malle made documentaries, romances, period dramas, and thrillers. He often depicted provocative or controversial subject matter.
The British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) is an organisation that celebrates, supports, and promotes British independent cinema and film-making talent in the United Kingdom. Nominations for the annual awards ceremony are announced in early November, with the ceremony itself taking place in early December.
Josh Ralph, known professionally as J. Ralph, is an American composer, producer, singer/songwriter and social activist who focuses on creating awareness and change through music and film.
Sean Harris is an English actor. He played Ian Curtis in 24 Hour Party People (2002), Micheletto Corella in The Borgias (2011–2013), Fifield in Prometheus (2012), Solomon Lane in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015) and Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018), Philip in Possum (2018), William Gascoigne in The King (2019) and Henry Peter Teague / Peter Morley in The Stranger (2022).
Thomas Aiden Turgoose is an English actor, best known for his role as Shaun Fields in the film This Is England (2006), a role he reprises in the This Is England TV series This Is England '86 (2010), This Is England '88 (2011) and This Is England '90 (2015).
Sarah Gavron is a British film director. She has directed four short films, and three feature films. Her first film was This Little Life (2003), later followed by Brick Lane (2007) and Village at the End of the World (2012). Her film, Suffragette (2015) is based in the London of 1912 and tells the story of the Suffragette movement based on realistic historical events. Her most recent film is Rocks (2020) which she directed in a creative collaboration with the team and young cast.
Skateistan is a non-profit organization that uses skateboarding and education to empower children. Over 2,500 children, aged 5–17, attend Skateistan's programs in Afghanistan, Cambodia and South Africa. 50% of students are girls. Through their innovative programs, Outreach, Skate and Create, Back-to-School, Dropping In and Youth Leadership, Skateistan aims to give children the opportunity to become leaders for a better world. Skateistan has Skate Schools in Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan; Phnom Penh, Cambodia; and Johannesburg, South Africa. The international headquarters is in Berlin, Germany.
Skateistan: To Live and Skate Kabul is a short film that follows the lives of a group of young skateboarders in Afghanistan. Operating against the backdrop of war and bleak prospects, the Skateistan charity project is the world's first co-educational skateboarding school, where a team of international volunteers work with girls and boys between the ages of 5 and 17. The short documentary film follows the lives of young skateboarders in Afghanistan, directed by UK filmmaker Orlando von Einsiedel. The film team includes cinematographer Franklin Dow and editor Peta Ridley.
We Ride: The Story of Snowboarding is a 2013 British documentary film about snowboarding. It was directed by Orlando von Einsiedel and John Drever, and produced by Paz Parasmand for Grain Media.
Virunga is a 2014 British documentary film directed by Orlando von Einsiedel. It focuses on the conservation work of park rangers within the Congo's Virunga National Park during the rise of the violent M23 Rebellion in 2012 and investigates the activity of the British oil company Soco International within the UNESCO World Heritage Site. Soco International ended up officially exploring oil opportunities in Virunga in April 2014. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on 17 April 2014. After airing on Netflix, it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Grain Media is a British film, television and commercials production company in South London, established in 2006 by Jon Drever and Orlando von Einsiedel.
The Syrian National Orchestra for Arabic Music was a Syrian orchestra dedicated to the performance of classical Arabic music, as well as experimental work based on traditional music from the Middle East. The orchestra played regular concerts in the Damascus Opera House since its opening in 2004. Due to the ongoing Syrian civil war, most of its members, like its principal conductor and oud virtuoso Issam Rafea, or Moslem Rahal, a notable ney player, have left Syria for exile in Europe, the US or other countries.
The White Helmets is a 2016 British short documentary film. The film follows the daily operations of a group of volunteer rescue workers of the Syria Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets. The film was directed by Orlando von Einsiedel and produced by Joanna Natasegara. It won the Best Documentary at the 89th Academy Awards.
Joanna Natasegara is an English film director and producer. She produced Virunga (2014) and The White Helmets (2016), for which she received nominations for Academy Award in the categories of Best Documentary Feature and Best Documentary, respectively; she won the latter. Both nominations were shared with director Orlando von Einsiedel. She also worked on The Price of Kings, a documentary film series with each film focusing on a specific world leader.
Patrick Jonsson is a Swedish film composer and music producer based in London. His credits include the documentaries Virunga (2014) and The White Helmets (2016), and the feature Bends (2013), for which he was nominated for Best Original Score at the Golden Horse Awards.
Evelyn is a 2018 documentary film directed by and starring Orlando von Einsiedel. The premise revolves around Orlando's own family dealing with the effects of a suicide that took place 13 years earlier by Orlando's brother Evelyn, by taking a series of long walks visiting landscapes Evelyn liked to walk when he was alive.
Walk Run Cha-Cha is a 2019 American documentary short film directed by Laura Nix of The New York Times, which distributed the film.
Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (if you're a girl) is a 2019 British documentary short film directed by Carol Dysinger and produced by Elena Andreicheva. It won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject at the 92nd Academy Awards.
In the Absence (Korean: 부재의기억) is a 2018 South Korean–American short documentary film that depicts the sinking of the MV Sewol in 2014, in which three hundred people – mostly school children from Danwon High School – lost their lives.
Jon Giuseppe Drever is a British director, producer and screenwriter, mostly working in comedy genre. He is best known for his collaborations with comedian Brett Goldstein, which include the low-budget feature film SuperBob (2015).
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