Leo Dickinson is a pioneer film maker of extreme sports in a class of his own. Described by the American Alpine Journal as ".... unquestionably the world's leading adventure film-maker." Leo Dickinson is probably the most highly acclaimed adventure sports cinematographer of our time, if not the most intrepid!

For three decades now, Leo has been at the forefront of extreme adventure sports, travelling the world to capture adventures on film as they happened. He has made over 50 films of his own and has helped in many others. His films have been shown all over the world and have won major awards in every mountain and adventure film festival world wide. If his name is not immediately familiar, it's probably because he instinctively eschews publicity for himself. Whether mountaineering, ballooning, skydiving, kayaking or cave diving, Leo has traveled the world to record many historic 'firsts'. He has filmed Messner's first ascent of Everest without oxygen; canoed down the raging torrent of the world's highest river, the Dudh Kosi; hauled a sledge across the desolate Patagonian ice-cap; acted as ballast in Julian Nott's successful attempt to break the balloon altitude record; floated over the Sahara dangling from a cushion of hot air. He has also taken part in hundreds of highly intricate formation freefall sky-dives.

The historic "Firsts" filmed by Leo Dickinson:

Climbing was Leo's first adventure sport. In 1966, as a teenager, he ventured on his first alpine climbing trip in the Dolomites, climbing with Layton Kor, among others. Shortly after graduating from art school in 1968, where Leo distinguished himself as a prize winning photographer, he decided that there would be more scope for his artistic and creative talents in movies.

Not short on ambition or confidence, he decided that his first film would be nothing less than a first hand view of climbing the North Face of the Eiger. With infectious optimism and in spite of his lack of experience, he managed to persuade Yorkshire Television to back him. In 1970, where other cameramen failed, he succeeded with a team of three other climbers in scaling the Eiger's vicious North Face in appalling conditions. Leo brought back the first ever film of this notoriously dangerous climb. He made history with his debut film and went on to win over 30 major international film awards thereafter.

Leo later branched out into other adventure sports - from sky diving in thin air to cave diving in deep waters. His head for heights was to prove a useful asset. In situations that look insanely dangerous to most people - dangling from balloons or helicopters, or strung in a Tyrolean traverse across a precipitous gorge above treacherous white water - he has the amazing ability to calmly carry on filming in what he likes to call "completely controlled circumstances."

Over the years, the world's leading adventurers have sought him out for his special talent. Leo's special talent lies not only in his expert skills in cameramanship and in his creativity and ingenuity in where to put his cameras. And you mustn't forget that Leo is as much an adventurer as he is a film maker. Leo has an intuitive alertness to those moments of unexpected poignancy that so characterizes adventure documentaries. Like a master story teller, Leo also has that rare talent of being able to communicate to the audience in subtle ways the spirit that moves behind the physical and mental ordeals undertaken by those who test themselves to the limit in the remotest places on earth. This is probably what distinguishes Leo's films from other action films.

Leo's adventures are far from over. For now, Leo is busy scheming his next film project. Like all passionate adventurers and artists, Leo will always be busy doing what he loves to do the most.

If you want to find out more about Leo's extraordinary career as an adventure sports filmmaker, see for yourself how he does it and let him tell you the story himself. We have two "Diary of an Adventure Film Maker" titles available in our Leo Dickinson's Adventures series:

Filming the Impossible 38 minutes
Anything is Possible     52 minutes

Click on the title for more details.

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