The Producers
Mark Johnston - Director
Mark is a versatile and highly adaptable executive producer and documentary filmmaker who is known for tackling a full range of near-impossible production challenges with a proven track record of creative development in complex and cross-functional multicultural environments. Mark has invested all his savings to make documentaries: he once moved into a mini-van to save money to film a documentary. Mark's passion for the work takes him to the farthest places on the globe and he always strives to do what he can to help each project realize its full potential.
Big budget or big challenge, domestic or around the globe, Mark has worked on all kinds of projects, from feature documentaries, TV campaigns, brand funded content; he has also produced work for the Lanzarote Iron Man, En Svensk Klassiker, Vasaloppet,and the Stones 100k Ultra Marathon.
Mark is a graduate of the University of Southern California.
Mark Ryan - Director
A deep-rooted love for adventure and documenting the world around him led Mark towards his career. Over the past two decades, Mark has been a producer. director, and cinematographer on five continents - as well as the North Pole.
Early in his career, Mark was part of a film crew that was the first in thirty years to be given unprecedented access to the Hopi Tribe of Arizona. This experience cemented Mark's desire to sensitively tell the stories of others.
Mark has a number of film credits under his belt, including the James Bear Award-winning short films The Scent of Black and Stewards of the Land. He's also served as a producer on MTV's Pimp My Ride.
Mark is a graduate of the University of Southern California; he also has a postgraduate school from Central St. Martins School of Fine Art.
Michael Karam - Author
Michael is a British-born and educated Lebanese wine writer and journalist. He has held newspaper and magazine staff positions, and written for Esquire, The Spectator, The Times, Monocle, The National, Harpers and Decanter. He is the author of, among other titles, The Wines of Lebanon, which won the Gourmand Award for Best New World Wine Book, 2005, and which inspired Wine and War.
Woven into Lebanon’s ancient history is a rich tradition of wine-making. Unravelling the story of the world’s first wine merchants, this is a complex testament to the Lebanese people’s courage in the face of adversity, and a deep dive into the history of a nation which has bred masters of crisis management; a skill personified by the winemakers, who for thousands of years have gone about their work in war, famine, occupation.
(95/56 mins, Ref 8097)
