Adrian Cowell (2 February 1934 – 11 October 2011) was a British filmmaker, born in Tongshan or

Tangshan, China Tangshan () is a coastal, industrial prefecture-level city in the northeast of Hebei province. It is located in the eastern part of Hebei Province and the northeastern part of the North China Plain. It is located in the central area of the Boha ...

. He was best known for producing documentaries about

Chico Mendes Francisco Alves Mendes Filho, better known as Chico Mendes (; 15 December 1944 – 22 December 1988), was a Brazilian rubber tapper, trade union leader and environmentalist. He fought to preserve the Amazon rainforest, and advocated for the h ...

and deforestation in the Amazon and the opium/heroin trade out of the

Shan States The Shan States (1885–1948) were a collection of minor Shan kingdoms called '' muang'' whose rulers bore the title ''saopha'' in British Burma. They were analogous to the princely states of British India. The term "Shan States" was fi ...

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

(Myanmar). While a student at Cambridge, Cowell planned (but was unable to take part in) the 1954 Oxford and Cambridge Trans-Africa Expedition, and took part in the 1955-6

Oxford and Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition The 1955-56 Oxford and Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition was a publicity effort by Land Rover in support of the 1956 Land Rover Series I Station Wagons. The station wagons were very different from the previous Tickford model, being built with bolt ...

to Singapore and the 1957-8

Oxford and Cambridge Expedition to South America The Oxford and Cambridge Expedition to South America took place in 1957-8, when teams from Oxford and Cambridge Universities drove overland across South America in three Land Rovers. The expedition was the third in a series of overland expedition ...

. It was on the latter expedition team that Cowell met the

Villas-Bôas brothers Orlando (1914–2002) and his brothers Cláudio (1916–1998) and Leonardo Villas-Bôas (1918–1961) were Brazilian brothers who worked in indigenous activism. In 1961 they succeeded in getting the entire upper Xingu legally protected, making i ...

and left the Oxford and Cambridge Expedition to join them on the Centro Geographico Expedition to find the geographical centre of Brazil. This was the beginning of his connection with South America and, in particular, Brazil. Cowell was awarded the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

Cherry Kearton Medal and Award The Cherry Kearton Medal and Award is an honour bestowed by the Royal Geographical Society on "a traveller concerned with the study or practice of natural history, with a preference for those with an interest in nature photography, art or cinemato ...

in 1985, and in 1991 won the Founders Award at the International Emmys. In his obituary in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'',

Anthony Hayward Anthony Hayward (born 26 October 1959) is a British journalist and author. He is a regular contributor to ''The Guardian'', ''The Daily Telegraph'' and ''The Independent'', and has written more than 20 books about television and film. The subje ...

wrote that he was "one of the most successful" documentary makers of his generation. His documentaries about the rain forest brought the subject significant political attention.

Family

Cowell married Pilly Chamberlayne in 1960; they divorced in 2008. Their union produced a daughter, Boojie, and a son, Xingu. Cowell formed an extramarital relationship with Barbara Bramble in 1987. Xingu Cowell died in a canoeing accident in 1986.

Works

* The Heart of the Forest, 1960 * Carnival of Violence, in 3 parts: 1960, 1962, 1966 * Raid into Tibet, 1966 * The Unknown War, 1966 * The Opium Trail, 1966 * The Tribe That Hides from Man, 1970 * The Kingdom in the Jungle, 1971 * The Opium Warlords, 1974 * Opium, 1978 * The Ashes of the Forest, 1984 * Banking On Disaster, 1987 * The Crusade for the Forest, 1990 * * The Heroin Wars, 1996 * * The Last of the Hiding Tribes, 1999 * Fires of the Amazon, 2002

References

External links

Official Adrian Cowell web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cowell, Adrian 1934 births 2011 deaths British documentary filmmakers International Emmy Founders Award winners