Carroll Ballard

Carroll Ballard (born October 14, 1937 in Los Angeles, California) is an American film director.

He started out making documentaries for the U.S. information agency, "Beyond This Winter's Wheat" (1965) and "Harvest" (1966); the latter was nominated for an Academy Award. He also made the documentaries "The Perils of Priscilla" (1969), and "Rodeo" (1970).

He was second unit director on George Lucas' "Star Wars" for which he handled many of the outdoor desert scenes. His first solo directing job came when Francis Ford Coppola, a former UCLA classmate, offered him the job of directing "The Black Stallion" (1979), an adaptation from the novel of the same name by Walter Farley. He went on to direct "Never Cry Wolf" (1983), a film detailing Farley Mowat's experiences with Arctic wolves. He also directed the film "Wind" (1992).

He later directed the film "Fly Away Home" (1996), which was nominated for an Academy Award for best cinematography. His most recent film is "Duma" (2005), about a young South African boy's friendship with an orphaned cheetah. Most of Ballard's films deal with man and his relation to nature and have a strong poetic streak. They are often subtle and understated in their execution.

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