John Adrian Cowell (2 February 1934 – 11 October 2011) was a British filmmaker, born in Tongshan or Tangshan, China. He was best known for producing documentaries about Chico Mendes and deforestation in the Amazon and the opium/heroin trade out of the

Shan States The Shan States were a collection of minor Shan people, Shan kingdoms called ''mueang, möng'' whose rulers bore the title ''saopha'' (''sawbwa''). In British rule in Burma, British Burma, they were analogous to the princely states of Britis ...

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

(Myanmar). Cowell was educated at Ampleforth College and St Catharine's College, Cambridge, where he studied history. While a student at Cambridge, he 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 to Singapore and the 1957-8 Oxford and Cambridge Expedition to South America. It was on the latter expedition team that Cowell met the Villas-Bôas brothers 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's Cherry Kearton Medal and Award 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 Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', Anthony Hayward 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 Alumni of St Catharine's College, Cambridge British documentary filmmakers International Emmy Founders Award winners