ACES Presents The William A. Nitze Community Lecture: Forty Years Of Wildlife Filmmaking with Sir David Attenborough

Alastair is the co-founder of Silverback Films and has been at the forefront of natural history programming for over 30 years. After studying zoology at the University of Durham, he joined the BBC Natural History Unit in 1983, where he worked on diverse programs including ‘The Really Wild Show’ and ‘The Trials of Life’ with Sir David Attenborough. He produced ‘Life in the Freezer’ before serving as Head of the BBC Natural History Unit for six years. Alastair eventually stepped down to focus on hands-on filmmaking, serving as Series Producer for ‘The Blue Planet’ and ‘Planet Earth,’ and Executive Producer for ‘Frozen Planet.’ His cinematic credits include directing ‘Deep Blue’ and ‘Earth,’ along with many Disneynature titles. Since co-founding Silverback Films in 2012, Alastair has executive produced many films and series. His work extends to Netflix’s first major natural history series, ‘Our Planet,’ and co-directing the film ‘David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet.’ A Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society and 2012 Gold Medal recipient, Alastair holds several honorary doctorates and won the 2017 BBC Grierson Trustees’ Award. In 2019, he was awarded an OBE for his services to film.