Frank Shields - writer, producer, director

Australian film-maker Frank Shields has global experience in writing, producing or directing commercials, music videos, TV specials, documentaries and features, amassing a considerable list of credits along the way.

His first film, a documentary on "Breaker" Morant that he wrote, produced and directed won the Greater Union Awards for best documentary at the 1975 Sydney Film Festival.

Of his five feature films, "Hostage" played for three months in mainstream theatres and made the top twenty list for Australian films at the Oz box office. Another, "The Surfer", was selected for the prestigious Directors Fortnight in Cannes.

A career highlight was a retrospective of his work shown at the Le Cinemateque in Paris, May 1987, from where two of his films "Hostage" and "The Surfer" were invited to the Edinburgh International Film Festival. "The Surfer" was invited to the Berlin Film Festival in 1988.

In 1989, Shields directed the action feature "Fatal Sky", shot on location in Yugoslavia, starring Michael Nouri, Darlanne Fluegel and Charles Durning. Post production was completed at Universal Studios in Los Angeles and the film premiered in Cannes, 1990.

Shields spent altogether five years writing and developing a US feature "Santa Fe Chief". The film was green-lighted by Orion Pictures in 1994 but cancelled in 1995 due to a company collapse. During this period Shields developed several feature screenplays and worked on major music videos and commercials in the US.

Teaming up with Sydney artist Frantz Kantor who designed his characters, Shields developed a 3D animation project called "Capt Nemo Jr and the Guardians of the Reef".

In 1995 he also co-produced an amazing documentary "Bergen-Belsen" with a German company. The film was telecast in Germany on the 50th Anniversary of the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, May 1995.

In 1997, Shields directed the feature "Hurrah". The film was based on an off-beat novel "Bitters End" by Tasmanian author, David Owen and shot on location in Wentworth, NSW.

In August 2000, Shields completed his fifth feature, "The Finder" - an action drama shot on location around Sydney's northern beaches.

In April, 2003, Shields was a guest at the Buenos Aries International Film Festival where his first feature "Hostage" was included in a special section of the festival called, "The Secret History of the Australian Cinema".

Beside his film ventures, Shields co-founded an environmental organisation "Oceanguard Society" whose mandate is the preservation of the Great Barrier Reef. Go to www.oceanguard.com