Thomas Goltz
Author and Academic Adventurer
VIDEOs & DOCUMENTARIES
In addition to being a print journalist, over the years Goltz has also engaged in other media. Historically, this meant TV.
His camera work has apppeared on American outlets such as ABC/Nightline and CBS/60 Minutes, the BBC as welll as Turkish, Japanese, Russian and EU channels, Subjects have been as varied as the search by Christian Fundamentalists for Noah's Ark atop Mount Ararat to the hard-core war reporting in Chechnya.
Along the video-way, Goltz has also produced some feel-good pieces such as 'Mugham in Montana' (basically making a music video about Azerbaijani art music touring the American West) and an 'academic' piece resulting from the First Ever Diplomatic Simulation of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Conference at (!) Montana State University, Spring 2010.
Here are some samples and Vimeo/YouTube links:
Chechnya/Samashki
With the assistance of legendary producer Danny Schechter ('The News-Dissector') Goltz's documentary about the Samashki Massacre during the so-called 'first' Russian-Chechen war aired on the PBS 'Rights & Wrongs' program and became a finalist in the Rory Peck Awards in London in 1996. This resulted in a one-man-band, follow-up assignment for the BBC to explore the aftermath of journalistic presence in an extreme conflict zone and how 'the observer effects the observed.' The brutal film, available on Vimeo/YouTube also served as the skeleton of Goltz's Chechnya Diary book. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6qr2uw-_bc
Azerbaijan/On Aggregate
More recently, Goltz produced On-Aggregate: Champions Without A Home, an award-winning film on the Qarabag-Agdam refugee football/soccer club from Azerbaijan. It became a runner-up (one of three) at the annual SporTel contest sponsored by Prince Albert of Monaco in 2015, and has won subsequent awards. Here is the web-site link with trailer: https://vimeo.com/152029246
It has a separate link because it is so cool.
Black Sea/BSEC
This delightful film concerns a debate class on the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation ('BSEC') that Goltz created at Montana State University. (See 'Academic' for more information on this unique learning experience!) which was shown in Turkey, Greece and elsewhere as part of 'real' BSEC activities. See also 'Academic' on the home page.) https://vimeo.com/12782603
Although a tough trip, with tempers burning and all manner of accusations flung, I truly hope that the participants will go to their graves remembering an extraordinary multicultaral educational experience.
Mugham in Montana
Apparently I have no file pictures associated with the video link below, so this will need to serve:
In 2008, Goltz invited a group of traditional Azerbaijani musicians to tour Montana to perform their traditional art music. The result was an extraordinary tour across The Treasure State that left Cowboys and Indians gasping. https://vimeo.com/11112867
An Oil Odyssey
Arguably, the wierdest film of the lot is a 'Music-Video' piece called 'An Oil Odyssey,' a fno-narration MTV-style treatment of a motorcycle trip down the so-called 'Pipeline To Nowhere' linking Caspian oil to international energy markets. Goltz and team brought the first symbolic barrel down the line via Soviet-era, side-car motorcycles. A photo-heavy book by the same name ('An Oil Odyssey') is available via Kindle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooAjLafg_NI
Lastly, there is A Private War, about the life a death of my dear friend Marie Colvin.
I had nothing to do with the production of this amazing piece, but was given a picture credit at the end because I had provided the London Sunday Times a photograph way back when that was used in her obit. The producers thus allowed me to show the film in Livingston on a special basis, and to use that platform to talk about war-reporting.
I have several other videos that I could share, but this bunch is good enough for a taste. Once I get the PayPal button working, it would be nice to get a donated buck or three in the coffer. I do so much of this risky stuff for almost free, and like to be patted on the financial back.