Robert Lang

Robert Lang, founder and president of Kensington Communications, is an internationally recognized, award-winning documentary and interactive media producer and director with 40 years of production experience. Robert Lang's work in television includes a number of documentary and factual series: Museum Secrets, a 22-part television series that investigates the stories behind artifacts in great museums around the world for History, UKTV and BBC Worldwide; Shameless Idealists, a five-part series that profiles a number of prominent change-makers and social activists for CTV; Diamond Road, a three-part series about the diamond industry for TVO, ZDF Arte and Discovery Times; The Sacred Balance, a four-part miniseries for CBC and PBS based on the book by geneticist and environmentalist Dr. David Suzuki; 72 Hours: True Crime, a true crime factual series for CBC and TLC; and Exhibit A: Secrets of Forensic Science, a forensic crime series hosted by Graham Greene for Discovery and TLC. Most recently, Lang's productions include: Nature's Cleanup Crew for CBC's The Nature of Things and ZDF Arte, a one hour documentary about the busy urban scavengers who clean up the mountains of waste humans leave behind; The Shadow of Gold for TVO, Arte France and SVT, co-produced with Films å Çinq and CAPA in Paris, a feature documentary examination of the global gold industry from raw material to market; and between 2015 and 2017, Lang produced two one-hour documentaries,Champions vs Legends and The Equalizer, produced by Kensington Communications in co-production with Berlin Producers for broadcast on CBC's The Nature of Things, SRC Explora and ZDF/Arte. in 2017, he was director/writer/producer of a point-of-view 1-hour documentary for TVOntario and Canal D, called Risk Factor. In 2015, Lang produced a one-hour documentary for TVOntario and CPAC called The Drop: Why Young People Don't Vote. Before that he was responsible for several documentary films, including: as producer, co-writer of Raw Opium, which examines the failure of the War on Drugs through the lives of people involved in the international opium trade (TVO, ZDF Arte, SBS); as director/writer/producer of Return to Nepal, in which renowned musician Bruce Cockburn travels to the remote Humla district of Northwestern Nepal (CBC documentary); as co-writer / director, producer of Almost Home: a Sayisi Dene Journey, an intimate portrait of a Canadian aboriginal community in transition for CBC Nature of Things and APTN; as director/producer of River of Sand, which explores the ancient culture, popular music, and current struggles of the people of Mali, West Africa for Vision TV and TVO; as producer/co-director of Separate Lives, the Gemini-winning documentary which follows the lives of conjoined twins from Pakistan and the pioneering operation that gave them a chance at a new life for Discovery; as director/co-producer of The Biggest Little Ticket, a children's musical fantasy special for CTV which won several awards and Mariposa: Under a Stormy Sky, a documentary music special for CTV. He has produced many interactive digital projects over the years, from River of Sand interactive website (1998), to The Sacred Balance online (2003), Diamond Road interactive documentary (2007), Museum Secrets Interactive (2011), ScopifyROM, a mobile app to enhance the museum experience at the Royal Ontario Museum (2013) and Risk Navigator mobile app (2017). Lang was recipient of the Queen's Gold Jubilee Medal in 2002, was named North American Trailblazer of the Year by MIPDOC in 2009 and his work in film and television has garnered many national and international awards (see Awards section below for details). He's also been active in the production community as a founding member of the Documentary Organization of Canada, as a board member for The Real News since 2007 and as the founder of the Hot Docs CrossCurrents Fund in 2013.