THE GOOD FIGHT  2008

The Good Fight is a feature-length theatrical documentary about FSU football coach, Bobby Bowden, the winningest football coach in collegiate history, and his players during the course of one season — the seasons that his team’s luck would change. This was the first time a major collegiate football program allowed documentary cameras un-restricted access to its entire program, allowing an unprecedented portrait of a great sports team — and a chronicle of how a coach and his young men kept their fighting spirit alive when fortune deserted them.

THE LORD GOD BIRD  2007

The report in the spring of 2005, that the Ivory-billed woodpecker, supposedly extinct, had been discovered deep in the swamps of Arkansas made front-page news across the country and even around the world. The rarest of rare birds, the Ivory-bill is so spectacular that according to folk legend those who see it spontaneously cry out – “Lord God!”

While for the majority of Americans, the discovery came as a wholly unexpected piece of rare good news from the conservation front, to the inner circle of bird enthusiasts it was the latest installment in a very old, indeed legendary tale of hope and survival—and a story that evokes the fate of threatened species everywhere. It is the whole story, not just the recent headlines, that The Lord God Bird tells.

Made in association with The Nature Conservancy, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and National Geographic Feature Films.

ROVING MARS IMAX®  2006

For centuries human beings have gazed at Earth’s nearest planetary neighbor, Mars, dreaming of exploring its surface and divining its mysteries.

Now the impossible has become possible. Butler documented the remarkable NASA mission that sent two intrepid, death-defying explorers — the Mars Rovers Spirit and Opportunity — to the Red Planet. Produced with Academy Award®-nominated producer, Frank Marshall (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Seabiscuit, The Sixth Sense), and presented by Walt Disney Pictures, Roving Mars tells the thrilling story of one of humankind’s most remarkable feats of exploration, and of the Rovers who sent their stunning IMAX images.

Narrated by Paul Newman and Steve Squyres (the Principal Investigator of the Mars Exploration Rover Project).

National Academy of Science ‘Best Science Film’ Award, 2008

GOING UPRIVER: THE LONG WAR OF JOHN KERRY   2004

Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry takes an intimate, riveting look into moral leadership during a time of national crisis. The film places particular emphasis on the young Senator Kerry’s bravery during the Vietnam War and his courageous opposition to the war upon his return. George Butler interviewed all of the living Swift Boat veterans who were on Kerry’s two boats, thus rendering a comprehensive view of Kerry’s experiences in Vietnam.

Butler has known Senator Kerry since 1964 and in 1969 began photographing him to document his life and career. Drawing on this collection of images, the film, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, weaves together Butler’s photography with archival material, interviews with Kerry’s family and closest associates as well as contemporary footage of him at home and abroad.

More than a biography of John Kerry, Going Upriver is the story of an American generation that came of age in the tumultuous sixties, and which has now come to national leadership at the beginning of a new century — when issues of war and morality once again hold center stage.

OFFICIAL SELECTION OF THE 2006 WHITNEY BIENNIAL

SHACKLETON’S ANTARCTIC ADVENTURE IMAX®  2001

Shackleton’s Antarctic Adventure recounts the extraordinary true story of polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton’s 1914-1916 Trans-Antarctic Expedition, which many consider “the greatest survival story of all time.” Widely perceived today as a shining example of survival by leadership, this epic IMAX unfolds the drama of how Shackleton led the 27 expedition members to safety after nearly two years in the Antarctic after their ship, the Endurance, was caught in pack ice and eventually crushed.

The giant screen film features stunning images of Antarctica plus the remarkable original still photography and 35mm motion picture footage taken by Frank Hurley, the official photographer of Shackleton’s expedition.

Winner of the Giant Screen Theater Association 2001 Awards for Best Film and Best Cinematography.

THE ENDURANCE  2000

In August 1914, the renowned British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton set sail with 27 men on his ship, Endurance, bound for the Southern Ocean. His plan was to lead the first expedition across the Antarctic continent.

This dream was quickly shattered; freak ice conditions and an ill-timed storm trapped the Endurance in the ice, where powerful waves of pressure eventually crushed the ship, depositing Shackleton and his men as castaways at the ends of the earth. The ensuing drama of survival—on the ice, at sea—and in a last desperate trek across unmapped mountains, is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest known feats of survival.

Miraculously, much of the expedition was captured on film and in pictures by the ship’s photographer Frank Hurley, and these stunning images are interwoven with modern film that George Butler captured on location in the Antarctic—perhaps the most remote location shoot ever recorded.

Based on the best-selling book by Caroline Alexander, and narrated by Liam Neeson.

Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and the Telluride Film Festival. The Endurance was selected for over 30 international film festivals and was the highest grossing documentary in 2001.

National Board of Review Best Documentary of the Year.

PURCHASE LIMITED RELEASE DVD

IN THE BLOOD 1989

Venturing into the African grasslands, In The Blood follows a modern-day safari that was inspired by the 1909 big game hunt Theodore Roosevelt organized for his son. Butler’s modern film, however, is not a celebration of hunting per se, but a passionate argument for big-game hunting when it can benefit animal conservation efforts. An intimate and unflinching examination of the virtues of hunting and the traditions and values passed down among generations of hunters, In the Blood makes an unconventional and convincing case for wildlife conservation.

Shot on location in Kenya, Tanzania and Botswana, In the Blood premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and played at Toronto, Leningrad, Denver and many other film festivals, The film was a finalist in the IDA awards as one of the ten best documentaries of 1990.

National Board of Review Best Documentary of the Year.

Pumping Iron II: The Women   1985

Pumping Iron II follows five top female bodybuilders — Rachel McLish, Bev Francis, Lori Bowen, Carla Dunlap, and Lydia Cheng — each armed with an iron determination as they prepare for the Caesar’s Palace World Cup Championship. The heart of this wildly original film, however, is not the competition among the women, but lack of consensus among the all-male judges as to whether Bev Francis, an athlete “pound for pound stronger than Arnold Schwarzenegger,” as observed by Gloria Steinem, was “feminine” enough to be allowed to win. A riveting and occasionally hilarious examination of the boundaries of femininity, Pumping Iron II is even more timely today than when this pioneering movie was made.

Pumping Iron   1977

In 1972, George Butler was given a photo assignment by Life magazine to cover the Mr. Universe Contest in Baghdad, Iraq. Intrigued by what he saw, Butler spent the next few years following the scene of this obscure sport, including a then-unknown Austrian named Arnold Schwarzenegger.

This led to the publication of Pumping Iron: The Art and Sport of Bodybuilding, by Charles Gaines and George Butler (Simon and Schuster, 1974), a book that became an immediate bestseller and one of the most popular photography books ever published. Recognizing that Schwarzenegger, the charismatic main character of the book, could be a movie star, Butler embarked on the extremely difficult challenge of making his first film, Pumping Iron.

Pumping Iron introduced the world to the sport of professional bodybuilding. Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, the film depicts the world of bodybuilders competing for the Mr. Universe title in 1975. From muscle beach in Venice, California to the final showdown in Pretoria, South Africa, the film follows Arnold and fellow athletes Lou Ferrigno, Mike Katz, and Franco Columbu as they prepare and compete in the largest bodybuilding contest in the world.

A surprise commercial and critical success, Pumping Iron subsequently launched Schwarzenegger’s film career and helped make the physical fitness industry what it is today.