Michael Brown

When asked what separates Michael Brown from other adventure filmmakers, Erik Weihenmayer (the first blind person to summit Mount Everest) remarks that the award-winning director has an incomparable level of focus, skill and commitment. “There are only a handful of candidates with the athletic ability and tireless drive to pull off what Michael accomplishes routinely,” says Weihenmayer. “The pool of candidates narrows even further when you consider Michael's eye for assembling the subtle pieces of a story.”
Brown’s tenacity and upbeat attitude have brought him to the summit of Mount Everest four times—once while shooting and directing Farther Than the Eye Can See which documented Weihenmayer’s historic ascent. The acclaimed film marked the first time a high-definition (HD) video camera was brought to the mountain’s peak. On Brown’s most recent summit in 2007 he co-directed MacGillivray Freeman Films' Return to Everest in 3D IMAX. Outside the Himalaya, he’s made first kayak descents of wild rivers in places like Bhutan and Chile and summited remote peaks on all seven continents, all with the camera rolling.
Brown, a pioneer of adventure filmmaking, founded Serac Adventure Films in 1992 both to make original documentaries and to lend his production and adventuring skills to filmmakers like MacGillivray Freeman Films, for whom he was Director of Mountain Photography on the award-winning IMAX film Alps: Giants of Nature. Brown was also a specialty cameraman on the critically-acclaimed film BLINDSIGHT; on A&E’s show “Touch the Top;” and on a number of feature films.
Since starting Serac, Brown has received over 40 international film festival and industry awards, including three national Emmys from five nominations. But making films is about more than winning awards and exploring uncharted territories. Serac is committed to “giving back” to their subjects in some profound way while capturing the intense emotion that make their films so powerful. Few who have seen them forget the poignant moment in Light of the Himalaya after the bandages are removed from the eyes of a Nepalese woman once blind with cataracts; or the elated exhaustion of 10 women in 3 Peaks 3 Weeks as they push beyond pain to achieve their goal.
While Brown has always loved telling stories (he grew up in family of adventure filmmakers), he also has a passion for science–especially climate, weather and geography, all of which he studied at the University of Colorado at Boulder while working at the National Snow and Ice Data Center. He’s put that knowledge into practice during productions for National Geographic Television, NBC, CBS, ABC, ESPN, OLN, the BBC, Rush HD, and the Discovery Channel.
With camera in hand, Brown goes into some of the world’s most hostile environments—where there’s little room for error—and comes away with stunning visual footage and stirring stories that remind us of our shared humanity. He believes that if you can imagine a goal, you can achieve it, and he brings that spirit, intensity, and invaluable expertise, to every project that Serac takes on.
“He's the only guy I know who can tell a funny joke at 26,000 feet, beat all of his teammates in chess, carry a 25-pound camera to the summit of Mount Everest, create an award-winning documentary, and through it all, remain just one of the guys, pouring every bit of his heart and soul into getting his team to the top,” says Weihenmayer. “[He] is the most accomplished filmmaker with whom I've ever worked.”

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