Quick Facts
LibraBiography
Carroll Ballard (born October 14, 1937) is an American filmmaker. Originally a documentarian, he became known for directing sweeping, visually-striking films with natural and ecological themes. His body of work includes the films The Black Stallion (1979), Never Cry Wolf (1983), and Fly Away Home (1996).
Early life
Ballard was born in Los Angeles in 1937. After serving in the U.S. Army, Ballard attended film school at UCLA, where one of his classmates was Francis Ford Coppola. He made a well received student film called Waiting for May in 1964.
Career
Documentaries
His early credits include the documentaries Beyond This Winter's Wheat (1965) and Harvest (1967), both of which he made for the U.S. Information Agency. The latter was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film.
He directed a short subject called The Perils of Priscilla (1969), which was filmed from the point of view of a cat who escapes from home. Rodeo (1970) provided an intimate look at the 1968 National Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City.
He shot the title sequence of Coppola's 1968 musical Finian's Rainbow and was second unit cinematographer on Star Wars (1977), for which he handled many of the outdoor desert scenes.
Feature film director
Ballard finally got the chance to make a feature film when Coppola offered him the job of directing The Black Stallion (1979), an adaptation of the children's book by Walter Farley. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actor (Mickey Rooney). In 2002 the Library of Congress added it to the National Film Registry.
He then directed Never Cry Wolf (1983), based on Farley Mowat's autobiographical book of the same name, which detailed Mowat's experiences with Arctic wolves.
In the 1990s, he made two films: Wind (1992) and Fly Away Home (1996).
His most recent film is Duma (2005), about a South African boy's friendship with an orphaned cheetah. Duma had tested badly and Warner Bros. planned to not release this film in the United States theatrically, but the film received acclaim from influential film critics like Scott Foundas and Roger Ebert, and it led Warner Bros to reconsider. Warner Bros. finally gave Duma a limited theatrical release in the US.
Ballard has received acclaim from film critics. Pauline Kael was an early admirer. Kenneth Turan once wrote: "[Ballard] knows how to be both caring and restrained, minimizing a movie's saccharine content while maximizing the sense of wonder."
Filmography
As director
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1965 | Pigs! | Documentary short |
| Beyond This Winter's Wheat | ||
| 1967 | Harvest | Documentary |
| 1969 | Rodeo | Documentary short |
| The Perils of Priscilla | ||
| 1971 | Seems Like Only Yesterday | |
| 1974 | Crystalization | |
| The Hello Machine | ||
| 1979 | The Black Stallion | |
| 1983 | Never Cry Wolf | |
| 1986 | Nutcracker: The Motion Picture | |
| 1992 | Wind | |
| 1996 | Fly Away Home | |
| 2005 | Duma |
Other production credits
| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1964 | 3 Nuts in Search of a Bolt | Tommy Noonan | Production designer |
| 1968 | Finian's Rainbow | Francis Ford Coppola | Second unit cinematographer |
| 1977 | Star Wars | George Lucas | |
| 1995 | My Family | Gregory Nava | Cinematographer: River crew |
Awards and nominations
| Award | Year | Category | Work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Award | 1968 | Best Documentary Feature Film | Harvest | Nominated |
| Christopher Award | 1997 | Best Motion Picture | Fly Away Home | Won |
| Los Angeles Film Critics Association | 1980 | New Generation Award | The Black Stallion | Won |
| Western Heritage Award | 1984 | Best Theatrical Motion Picture | Never Cry Wolf | Won |