Dave Banks—Photojournalist/Documentary Filmmaker With 30 years of international documentary, news and reality program experience, Dave Banks, who never traveled without his still camera, is now turning his cache of still images into an eclectic and inspirational collection of both prints and paintings. He had his first one-man show in 2004 at the grand opening of Source on Lake in Pasadena, California. Shortly thereafter he was a featured artist at the Beverly Hills Affaire in the Garden. Dave Banks has been recognized with 13 Emmy Award nominations, 3 Emmys, 2 International Monitor Awards and 1 ADDY Award for writing. Over the course of his long career, he has covered the most notable studio/television productions and has specialized in remote and hostile locations in the Middle East and North Africa. Banks's client list includes "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," Mark Burnett Productions, Discovery Channel, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX Networks, Warner Bros, History Channel, PBS, MPH Entertainment, Channel Nine Australia, Cosmos Studios, London Weekend Television-UK, BBC 1 and 2 UK, NHK-Japan, German Television, and Canal Television-France. After 9/11 and with the beginning of the War on Terrorism, Banks served as a hands-on field producer in Afghanistan for "Profiles from the Front Lines," a 13-hour documentary produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. In that capacity, Banks supervised 2 field producers and 4 crews covering the war on terrorism in Afghanistan. Mark Burnett Productions, MPH Entertainment and the Discovery Channel contracted Banks to direct a multi-million dollar, five-hour prime time epic, "Eco-Challenge-Australia." Banks lead 15 camera crews, four helicopters, two airplanes, two boats, and 20 Land Rovers which were deployed over ten days in a race with 192 competitors from 15 countries covering 335 miles from the Outback interior to the Great Barrier Reef. With the success of the Eco-Challenge-Australia, Discovery Channel contracted Banks to direct their new flagship show, The Discovery Channel Adventure Race series -the first of which took place in the Southern Alps of South Island, New Zealand. As an ongoing project, Banks is producing and directing a two-hour documentary “The Quest for Noah’s Ark”. Ignoring the “off limits” status for access to Mt. Ararat by the Turkish government, Banks set out in September of 1999 under the cover of darkness and with the help of the local underground and climbed to the 16,984-foot summit of Mt. Ararat in 26 hours. “I wanted to show the viewer what risk looks like,” he said. The Turkish government is now considering a scientific expedition permit to allow Banks and a research team to revisit Mt. Ararat - this time legally, without the threat of a trip to a Turkish prison. Research will include Synthetic Aperture Radar, Ice Penetrating Radar and a Thermal Infrared Sensor. The documentary covers the history of Mt. Ararat and the men who climbed her. In the area of technology, Banks has pushed the envelope to combine story telling and digital media. In early 2000, Quokka Sports chose Banks to produce 22+ mini-documentaries and 25 + vignettes for the premiere of Quokka’s broadband division. Video clips, audio journals and still images were satellite back to the States during the races for immediate broadband viewing of "The Marathon Des Sables,” a 6-day foot race across the Sahara Desert in Morocco. In 2001, Banks was contracted by MPH Entertainment and Cosmos Studios to take HDTV on location into the Sahara Desert of Egypt and to the Barents Sea in the Artic Circle (Russia). PARTIAL CREDITS: TOMB RAIDERS, STEALING FROM THE DEAD - Senior Producer, Egypt and Israel, 2 hour documentary for the History Channel. The theft of ancient antiquities. PROFILES FROM THE FRONT LINES - Senior Producer, Afghanistan and Germany. 6-hour series for ABC Television Network. Profiles Television in association with Jerry Bruckheimer and Warner Bros. THE AMAZING RACE - Country Producer, CBS THE ESSENSE OF ISLAM - Director, Middle East. Primetime documentary. MPH Entertainment and History Channel UNDER ONE ROOF - Senior Producer, Koro Island, Fiji. Reality series. Endemol USA, UPN THE SOLAR SAIL PROJECT - Barents Sea, Arctic Circle, Russia. Two-hour primetime documentary. Cosmos Studios and MPH Entertainment THE LOST DINOSAURS OF EGYPT - Sahara Desert, El Bahariya Oasis, Egypt. Two-hour primetime documentary. Cosmos Studios and MPH Entertainment DIGGING FOR THE TRUTH - Golan Heights, Israel. Two-hour documentary. MPH Entertainment and History Channel DISCOVERY CHANNEL'S ADVENTURE RACE - New Zealand, South Island. Four-hour primetime miniseries. Six-day expedition race across the Southern Alps. MARATHON DES SABLES - 25+ mini documentaries for broadband web casting. Six-day foot race in the Western Sahara Desert, Morocco. Quokka Sports, Intel, Alta Vista, THE QUEST FOR NOAH'S ARK - Mt. Ararat, Dogubayazit, Eastern Turkey. Two-hour syndicated documentary THE DISCOVERY CHANNEL ECO-CHALLENGE AUSTRALIA - Queensland, Australia. Five-hour primetime miniseries for The Discovery Channel. Mark Burnett Productions and MPH Entertainment, Inc. THE DISCOVERY CHANNEL ECO-CHALLENGE MOROCCO - Atlas Mountains, Morocco. Pre-event video for The Discovery Channel. Mark Burnett Productions and MPH Entertainment, Inc. WORLD AFOOT - Documentary Pilot, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Total Entertainment Productions THE RONALD REAGAN PRESIDENTAIL LIBRARY DEDICATION - Live worldwide broadcast. Georgetown Productions. BEIRUT, L.A. - One-hour video journal of the 1992 LA riots. Independent, Team Banks Productions THE ULTIMATE CHALLENGE - Five one-hour primetime reality and stunt specials for Fox Network. Trans-World International AMERICAN DETECTIVE - ABC primetime reality series. Lorimar Television WOMEN OF VALOR - One-hour ABC primetime special. Lorimar Television OPRAH WINFREY SHOW: HIKING THE GRAND CANYON - One-hour syndicated special for series. Harpo Productions LIGHT THE DARKNESS - World broadcast benefit for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent. BBC THE LATE SHOW: JOHN LEE HOOKER AND FRIENDS IN CONCERT - Ninety-minute special. BBC, UK and the A&E Television Network THE SEA SHEPPARD - One-hour documentary for the BBC THE CESAR CHAVEZ FUNERAL MARCH - One-hour news & documentary special. Chavez Family independent production IN SEARCH OF TARZAN - One-hour documentary. London Weekend Television, UK IN SEARCH OF JAMES BOND - One-hour documentary. London Weekend Television IN SEARCH OF DRACULA - One-hour documentary. London Weekend Television EYE SPY - Half-hour documentary. London Weekend Television ABC WIDE WORLD OF SPORTS - Technical Director. Live broadcast and tape segments. Expeditions, rock climbing, iron man marathon and Olympic events KTUL-TV, KVOO-TV, KGTV-TV, Network affiliated stations. News Director, Documentary Producer, Journalist.