Les Guthman created and produced the DISCOVER MAGAZINE series at the Walt Disney Company, and Outside Television, the production division of Outside Magazine. In these multi-year series and as owner of XPLR PRODUCTIONS, he has produced 35 feature documentaries. His productions include "FARTHER THAN THE EYE CAN SEE," by director Michael Brown, which was nominated for two national Emmys: Outstanding Sports Documentary and Outstanding Sports Cinematography (on Everest).
His first major primetime production after leaving NBC News was the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award on PBS in November 1989. Hosted by Tom Brokaw, the event honored the Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing and the fall of the Berlin Wall in that climactic year. Featured speakers were Sen. Ted Kennedy and Polish Solidarity leader and future president of Poland, Lech Walesa. Brokaw flew back from NBC News' coverage of the fall of the Berlin Wall literally on the day of the live broadcast. In his pocket, he brought Walesa a piece of the Berlin Wall.
Banff Film Festival World Tour, "IN THE SHADOW OF THE CONDOR"
Other Notable Productions:
"THE BIJAC BOSNIA KAYAK CLUB" - Filmed in the late 1990s in Bijac, Bosnia at the end of the Bosnia civil war, "The Bihac, Bosnia Kayak Club" tells the story of American Olympic kayaker Scott Shipley's support for a kayak club and the young kayakers of this muslim town, which had suffered a years-long siege by Serbian troops. Shipley met their coach when he was airlifted out of a wartime trench in 1996 to compete in the Altanta Games. Shipley came to Bihac after the Games and returned there three years later, bringing kayaks and equipment along with his friendship and encouragement to these young people, who had no other place to find recreation in a city filled with land mines, except to kayak on the magnificent Una River. Directed by Carl Ginsburg and Helen Demeranville.
"ICE CHALLENGER"- The first crossing of the frozen Bering Strait, from Alaska to Russia, in a land-based vehicle. The third and final attempt by British adventurer Steve Brooks in his Snowbird 6 vehicle — the ultimate SUV, capable of traversing the wild ice flows, the perilous stretches of flat ice pans, and the open icy sea. An Explorers Club Flag Expedition. Written and Produced by Celia Carey. Directed and Edited by Sean Davison.
"21st CENTURY" - Nominated for a Cable Ace Award in 1996, the series focused on the science of the upcoming 21st Century. Its episodes included the last interview with Dr. Jonas Salk, discoverer of the polio vaccine, who was a leading AIDS researcher at the end of his career. Hosted by Warren Olney, esteemed Los Angeles journalist and NPR host. Other episodes included
Dr. Ed Stone, head of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Bran Ferren, head of Walt Disney Imagineering.
"A DISCOVERY THAT SHOOK THE WORLD" - Nine-part award-winning web series on the LIGO Nobel Prize winning discoveries, funded by the National Science Foundation and MathWorks.
