David Parer

David Parer has been filming and producing wildlife documentaries since 1971. Together with his wife Liz, who is a producer/sound recordist, they have been working together making films since 1979 in the Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic, Papua New Guinea, Norway, Argentina, Canada and Alaska, the Galapagos Islands and Ecuador as well as many parts of Australia.

Up until 2008 they were with the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Natural History Unit when the unit was closed down. Since then, David has been working as a freelance specialist wildlife cameraman while Liz has been producing photo books about wildlife and wild places. They both spend a lot of time in the bush filming & photographing wildlife.

David and Liz's work has been shown on ABC Television and has been co-produced with many overseas networks including the BBC Natural History Unit, The National Geographic Society, Turner Broadcasting, Public Broadcasting Society in the USA, Canal Plus (France), WDR (Germany) and Discovery (USA).

Over the years they have won over 130 Australian and International awards for program achievement, cinematography, sound, editing and music, including an Emmy for Outstanding News and Documentary Program Achievement for “Wolves of the Sea”, a Gold Panda for Best Film at Wildscreen and a Panda for Best Cinematography for “Mysteries of the Ocean Wanderers” and “Wolves of the Sea”, a Gold Panda and two Emmies for “Dragons of Galapagos” and three ACS (Australian Cinematography Society) Milli awards and many Gold Tripod ACS awards for various programs.

In September 1992 “Wolves of the Sea” was broadcast on the ABC - a documentary about the natural history of killer whales and a co-production with National Geographic Television. It was narrated by David Attenborough.

Shooting began in 1990 and spanned 2 years using specially developed underwater camera techniques. The 58-minute programme looked at the cultural traditions of the killer whales around the world, including their hunting techniques, their eloquent use of sound and the way they teach their young. They filmed in Canada, Alaska, Norway, Patagonia and the sub-Antarctic Crozet Islands.

“Wolves” went on to win many awards including a Panda for Cinematography at Wilscreen, an Emmy for best News Documentary Production and an Emmy nomination for cinematography. 60,000 videos and DVD’s of this program have been sold in Australia alone. While National Geographic sold over 2 million in the USA, and internationally.