Bjorling & Grant

Culture Quest Emmy award winning television series that looks at life through the lens of the world's artists, artisans and keepers of culture.

Heading home after filming in Ukraine...

We can now be referred to as Emmy nominated Culture Quest!

We are really excited to let you know that Culture Quest has been nominated for an Emmy in cinematography! As many of you know, there were only two of us on the road: me (Ian Grant) and Ian Levasseur our sole photographer (yep, a two person crew - both named Ian).

My only direction for him at the beginning of this whole thing was that he should shoot the series however he wanted. And he did. And it was incredible work.

On a personal note, I would be hard pressed to find someone better to travel around the world with filming a television series.

The shot from the series that most likely got us the cinematography nod is the clip in this link below. The two eagle hunters in the photo below with Ian - Dalaikhan on the left and Tugelbai on the right -headed out with us for the afternoon to fly their eagles the day before the big Eagle Festival competition. Ian Levasseur somehow managed to both pilot the drone to film the eagle flying as well as shooting with his hand held camera to film the eagle landing on Dalaikhan's arm - and getting in my opinion the best action shot from the series.
https://fb.watch/cR4WB0DPuq/

Here is a photo of a rare moment of Ian Levasseur in front of the camera instead of behind it.

From Geisha to tattoos, Modern Art and Culture in Kyoto: Culture Quest - a travel/doc series on PBS We covered a range of topics in this episode: from artists Daijiro Hama's modern take on sumi ink, a surprising moment when one of the people we were with na...

Northern Territories of Australia, Arnhem Land - Culture Quest travel documentary series on PBS This episode encompassed everything I wanted in this series: an ancient culture keeping tradition alive by moving those traditions into the modern world. The...

East Timor Episode, Director's Cut - Culture Quest travel documentary series on PBS East Timor - Timor L'Este is at times a very difficult episode to watch and at times one of the most beautiful. If you end up watching the whole thing, you w...