Renny Bartlett

Renny Bartlett was born and raised in Ottawa and Montreal, Canada. Receiving an Elizabeth Greenshield Sculpture Award brought him to London, England in 1978. There his art work became increasingly involved with experimental film, resulting in him being the first person ever to be awarded a 1st Class Honours Degree in Film from St. Martin's School of Art. His innovative approach to filmmaking soon resulted in a number of stunning shorts such as Dula (1984) and Between Heaven and Earth (1981) This developed into longer films such as his 1991 film Arktikos (1991). Shot in Montreal, Russia, Italy and the Canadian arctic, Arktikos was a highly praised hybrid essay film using archive, narrative and documentary. During Renny's years in Britain he was nominated twice for the British Film Institute's Greirson Award (1988-89) for writing, directing and producing the best documentary series on British television: Moving Stills (1989) and The Cold War Game (1988) made with Noam Chomsky. His 20 years experience working and visiting the USSR led him to work closely with director Sally Potter in 1991-92 on the double Academy award nominated Orlando (1992) He then began research on Eisenstein (2000), a feature film inspired by the life of the Russian revolutionary filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein. His research and writing of Eisenstein became an epic voyage from Mexico to Kazakstan that lasted eight years. Meanwhile Renny was director of the Praxis screen-writing centre in Vancouver, worked in script development with British Screen and the European Media Development Agency and produced 2 weekly film shows for Britain's Channel 5 TV network. Eisenstein was shot on location in Russia, Ukraine and Mexico in 2000. Written and directed by Renny, the Canadian-German co-production stars Simon McBurney as Eisenstein. Festivals include Toronto, Berlin, Moscow, Tai Pei, Sao Paulo etc. It was released in Canada in September 2001. It opened at New York's Film Forum on January 2nd 2002. Since completing Eisenstein, Renny has written and presented an hour-long documentary on Eisenstein's film The Battleship Potemkin, part of a major BBC2 Arts series entitled Art That Shook The World. It was broadcast in Britain April 28th 2001, being hailed by the Sunday Times as 'as minor masterpeice in its own right'. Written and presented by the most prominent intellectuals and critics in the arts today, the series was sold worldwide and spawned a second series. At the 2001 St. Petersburgh International Film Festival Renny was awarded the Prize of the City "for creative contribution to world cinema and activites in international cultural cooperation". The only people to have won this prize before are directors Francois Ozon, Leos Carax, Alexander Sokurov and Krysztof Zanussi. Eisenstein was nominated for 5 'Genies' (Canadian Academy Awards) including Best Picture, with Renny being personally nominated for both Best Director and Best Screenplay awards. Since then Renny has made five hour-long programmes for The Discovery Channel Europe: - Zero Hour: Chernobyl, (2004) a minute-by minute recreation of the last hour before the world's worst nuclear accident at Chernobyl; - Warrior Women: Joan Of Arc and Boudica (2003) two of a 5-part series presented by Lucy Lawless of 'Xena Warrior Princess' fame. The series has become an international hit with a total audience of over 20 million. - Most recently Renny has completed True Horror: Demons and Zombies (2004) presented by Anthony Head of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' fame, a series sold to over 50 countries. Renny has two feature-films in development with both British and Canadian producers.