Burton Buller, a native of Nebraska, now living in Virginia, began working with film in an international non-profit agency. His subsequent work has included being an Underwriting Officer at Nebraska Public Television, CEO of Family Life Network in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Director of Third Way Media, Harrisonburg, Virginia and now managing partner of Buller Films LLC. He formerly chaired the Electronic Programming Committee of the National Council of Churches and sat on the board of the National Interfaith Cable Coalition (the founder and operator of VISION Television, now Hallmark Channel). While owning photography, film, video and printing businesses, he served on the boards of a number of non-profit agencies. His films have won numerous awards, including the Cine Golden Eagle, and have been broadcast on CBS:60 Minutes, by ABC and NBC affiliates, TLC, Discovery and Hallmark Channel. He has hosted several radio programs and presented workshops on Parenting in a Media Age. One of his recent highlights was serving as a juror at the Montreal International Film Festival.
Hi. I’m Burton Buller.
The social documentary genre fascinates me. The ability of the moving image to tell powerful stories of human endeavor helps connect us as a world community. I may act as producer, director, screenwriter, narrator, cinematographer, videographer, or editor on my films. It is not unusual for me to take multiple roles. My films and videos have found their way onto Discovery, TLC, Hallmark Channel, CBS:60 Minutes and on both NBC and ABC affiliates nationwide.
Filming the stories of people in over 30 counties, I have come to see just how different, yet how similar, both the stories and the peoples of the world really are. People everywhere aspire to much the same thing. They long for peace and prosperity for themselves and their children. Those things that stand in the way are all too similar for each of us – war, economic malaise or collapse, drought and flood cycles, corruption, political instability – the stories tend to get repeated over and over.
Bringing these stories to light so that we can all understand more fully the important roles that a just peace, strong economies, responsible land use programs, non-violent political transitions, and responsible citizenship play in creating a world where all can thrive stands as one of the important roles of the documentary film. It’s what keeps me behind the camera.
Awards
My films have been entered in international and North America festivals, garnering a variety of distinguished awards. I’ve been able to attend a few of the festivals where they have been entered, and always benefit from seeing the vision other filmmakers express in their productions.
Received Awards
Filmography
One of the benefits of documentary production is that the filmmaker has the opportunity to learn something about a great many topics. This has challenged me to see the world – its peoples and its cultures – for sympathetically. Here’s a list of the titles of some of the documentaries with which I have been associated on the following page.