Category: Travel
Dog Biscuit and Noah’s Ark
In Fielding’s guide (Robert Young Pelton) to The World’s Most Dangerous Places, Eastern Turkey is described as “At Play In The Fields Of The Warlords”. It is a country where, within 100 miles of each other, you can find stealth fighters and people who live in caves. It took only one grainy photograph to convince me that I should go to Eastern Turkey to shoot the documentary, “The Quest for Noah’s Ark”. Notwithstanding the “off limits” status for access to Mt. Ararat by the Turkish government, for me like my first marriage, the attraction outweighed the risk of imprisonment. Think of it- to film the greatest biblical archaeological find in the history of man was too seductive.
Its night, I’m descending Ararat, my head won’t stop playing a song by Talking Heads – “And you may find yourself in another part of the world-And you may ask yourself-well…how did I get here?”. I redirect my thoughts and make-up a mantra in hopes of lifting my body and spirit beyond physical exhaustion and dehydration. “focus, focus, pacing, move forward, breath, don’t feel the pain, move, move breath, move, keep moving, one step at a time, G-d didn’t bring you this far to buy a cheap Turkish coffee cup from Istanbul’s airport gift shop. Keep moving”. “Shit that hurt!” My boot is wedged again, I stop to give a informal yank without more damage to my foot- suddenly I’m aware that a shadow is proceeding me across this field of ankle busting rocks, “But wait, there is no moon” I thought. The shadow moved in slow motion in an eerie pink light with deep shadows of black surrounding it. The shadow swayed slowly to the left of me then to the right. “Jesus Christ! Its my shadow”. I spin around and looked up behind me to the stars only to see a parachute flare floating to earth. Now, I hear the dogs. For the moment, I forget about the sixty-pound pack, my swollen tongue, parched throat and thrashed feet. The adrenaline shoots through my system and my heart rate increases. I can physically feel the hormone boosting the supply of oxygen and glucose to my brain and muscles. Hard-wired for “Fight or Flight” the firing of adrenaline and neuotransmitter hit my sympathietic nervous system, “Holy shit! I’m outta here”.
Choreographed like the Radio City Rockettes the five of us turn and haul ass across the stone field. Ahead, the Kurds never stopped and have disappeared beyond the pink light into the blackness. I hear my ski poles scraping against the boulders. It’s dark again, I stumble but keep moving to the horizon where I can make out the faint lights of Dogubeyazit . I am wearing summit boot which are so rigid they do not flex with the uneven stones but slip between the rocks and gets wedged. I yank my legs up with each step so as not to get my boots pinned between stones. My feet feel warm and soggy, a sure sign of blood.
It was only three nights ago that we left the town of Dogubeyazit (affectionately known as Dog Biscuit) under the cover of darkness and with the help of the local Kurdish Underground, I climbed the 16,854 foot summit of Mt. Ararat along with four Christian cowboys, two Kurds and two of the scrawniest horses I have ever seen. I could have stayed in L.A. picking up work shooting a mindless sitcom and watching a local celebutante with two soft protruding organs given us the local weather report. I could have…but.
ABOUT
Dave Banks is a highly experienced and award-winning photojournalist, cinematographer, documentary filmmaker, camera operator and published author. He has over 30 years experience in international news and documentary production, primetime television specials and series, late night, non-fiction and reality television series and specials. Discovery Channel, History Channel, Bravo, ABC Television Network, Cosmos Studios (legacy of Carl Sagan), Oprah Winfrey (Grand Canyon Trek),
Dave’s videography and cinematography work has been recognized with thirteen Emmy Award nominations—resulting in three Emmy Awards, two International Monitor Awards and one ADDY Award for commercial writing. Dave specializes in producing and creating images in remote and hostile locations throughout the Middle East, Russia, North Africa and Asia. His client list includes ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX News & Sports, Warner Brothers, Mark Burnett Productions, Jay Leno (personal projects), Capitol Records, Discovery Channel, Cosmos Studios, Networks, The History Channel, PBS, MPH Entertainment, Channel Nine Australia, London Weekend Television-UK, BBC 1 & 2, NHK Japan, German Television, and Canal Television-France.
Some of Dave’s highlighted credits include:
Profiles from the Front Line. With the beginning of the War on Terrorism in 2001, Dave served as a solo journalist-reporter-camera operator in Afghanistan for Jerry Bruckheimer’s primetime network series. Profiles Television produced this 13-hour non-fiction series in association with Warner Bros. Later, Dave expanded his responsibilities through being contracted by the United States Department of Defense to cover the war on location in Afghanistan through 2002.
Discovery Channel Eco-Challenge Australia. Mark Burnett Productions and the Discovery Channel contracted Dave to direct the six million dollar, five-hour prime time epic mini-series. Dave led a staff and crew of over 300, including fifteen camera crews and countless helicopters, aircraft, boats, and all-terrain vehicles. 200 competitors from fifteen countries participated in a 335-mile race over the most hostile terrain imaginable. Months in the preparation, the staff and crew were deployed for two weeks from the Australian Outback interior to the Great Barrier Reef. This immense project was brought in on time and on budget, and became the highest-rated Discover Channel mini-series of a five-year period.
Discovery Channel Adventure Race. With the success of the Eco-Challenge-Australia, Discovery Channel contracted Dave to direct their next flagship primetime mini-series in the Southern Alps of South Island, New Zealand.
The Quest for Noah’s Ark. Notwithstanding the Turkish government’s “off-limits” status for access to Mt. Ararat, Dave, as a solo filmmaker, covered a cast of modern day “Christian cowboys” as they braved possible Turkish prison sentences on their quest for Noah’s Ark. Under cover of darkness, carrying all of his own equipment, and with the guidance of the Kurdish underground, Dave climbed the 16,984-foot summit of Mt. Ararat in twenty-six hours. After summiting, he avoided capture by the Turkish Army by hiding in the plains and valleys of Eastern Turkey. The Turkish government is now considering a scientific expedition permit, allowing Dave and his associates to do further research on Mt. Ararat. Such research would include the use of Synthetic Aperture Radar, Ice Penetrating Radar and Thermal Infrared Sensor. The planned documentary feature will cover the history of Mt. Ararat and quests of the men who climbed her.
Marathon des Sables. In the area of technology, Dave has consistently pushed the envelope to combine story telling and digital media. Quokka Sports chose Dave to produce twenty-two documentaries and twenty-five vignettes in the heart of the Moroccan Sahara Desert for the premiere of Quokka’s broadband division. Still images, video clips and audio journals were sent via satellite back to the United States during the six-day Marathon des Sables race for immediate broadband viewing. Dave is currently writing his next book, “Atlantis of the Sands,” based on his experiences covering this amazing race and the cast of characters who participate.
Lost Dinosaurs of Egypt and Solar Sails. From 2001 to 2008, Dave was contracted by MPH Entertainment and Cosmos Studios as a Senior Producer to take the then-brand new Sony HDTV equipment on location into the heart of the Sahara Desert in Egypt and to the Barents Sea above the Artic Circle in Russian territory during the production of two A&E Network documentary specials.
2006 to 2013 – Dave was repeatedly booked as a guest lecturer on documentary film production by numerous colleges and universities throughout the United States, including the Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara, California.
February 2014: Cue the Camels book release and media tour. Dave’s book is a behind-the-scenes, first-person narrative of the mishaps and misadventures of a photographer-documentary filmmaker at large in remote and hostile locations. At present, Dave is writing his second book Atlantis of the Sands, and is researching and photographing Angelenos for his third book, Life in the City of Angels.
Further Credits List:
Roadies. Executive Producer, Documentary series based on the behind-the-scenes lives and day-to-day activities of rock & roll, pop and country musicians tour managers, road managers, road technicians, musical equipment technicians and support crews.
Through the Lens of Adventure. Producer/Shooter. A continuing series of exploration and adventure highlighting the people, places and beliefs from around the world.
Tomb Raiders. Stealing from the Dead. Producer/Shooter, Egypt and Israel, 2 hour Documentary for the History Channel. The theft of ancient antiquities.
Profiles from the Front Lines. Solo Journalist/Shooter, Afghanistan and Germany. 13 hour series for ABC Television Network. Profiles Television in association with Jerry Bruckheimer and Warner Bros. Dave’s images were used in the promotional material for the show.
The Amazing Race. Country Producer, CBS Television Network. World Race Productions in association with Jerry Bruckheimer.
The Essence of Islam. Director/Shooter, Middle East. Primetime documentary. History Channel.
Under One Roof. Senior Producer, Koro Island, Fiji. Reality program series. Endemol USA, UPN.
The Solar Sail Project. Sr. Producer/Shooter, Barents Sea, Arctic Circle, Russia. Two-hour primetime documentary. Cosmo Studios.
The Lost Dinosaurs of Egypt. Sr. Producer/Shooter, Sahara Desert, El Bahariya Oasis, Egypt. Two-hour primetime documentary. Cosmo Studios.
Digging for the Truth. Sr. Producer/Shooter, Golan Heights, Israel. Two-hour documentary. History Channel.
Discovery Channel’s Adventure Race. Director, New Zealand, South Island. Four-hour primetime miniseries. Six-day expedition race across the Southern Alps.
Marathon Des Sables. Producer/Writer/Director, 25+ mini documentaries for broadband webcasting. Six-day foot race in the Western Sahara Desert, Morocco. Quokka Sports, Intel, Alta Vista,
The Quest for Noah’s Ark. Director/Shooter, Mt. Ararat, Dogubayazit, Eastern Turkey. Two-hour syndicated documentary.
The Discovery Channel Eco-Challenge. Director, Australia. Queensland, Australia. Five-hour primetime miniseries for The Discovery Channel. Mark Burnett Productions.
The Discovery Channel Eco-Challenge. Director, Morocco. Atlas Mountains, Morocco. Pre-event video for The Discovery Channel. Mark Burnett Productions.
World Afoot. Producer/Director, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Total Entertainment Productions
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Dedication, Production Coordinator, for Georgetown Productions.
Beirut L.A. Journalist, One-hour video journal of the 1992 LA riots. Independent, Dave Banks Media.
The Ultimate Challenge. Director, Five one-hour primetime reality and stunt specials for Fox Network. Trans-World International.
American Detective. Producer/Shooter, ABC-TV primetime reality series. Lorimar Television
Women of Valor. One-hour ABC-TV primetime special. Lorimar Television.
Oprah Winfrey Show. Producer/Shooter, Hiking the Grand Canyon. One-hour syndicated special for series. Harpo Productions.
Light the Darkness. Production Coordinator, World broadcast benefit for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent. BBC.
The Late Show. Production Coordinator, John Lee Hooker and Friends In Concert., Ninety-minute special. BBC, UK and the A&E Television Networks.
The Sea Shepard. Production Coordinator, One-hour documentary for the BBC.
The Cesar Chavez Funeral March. Journalist. Chavez Family independent production.
In Search of Tarzan. Shooter, One-hour documentary. London Weekend Television, UK
In Search of James Bond. Production Coordinator, One-hour documentary. London Weekend Television.
In Search of Dracula. Production Coordinator, One-hour documentary. London Weekend Television.
Eye Spy. Production Coordinator, Half-hour documentary. London Weekend Television.
ABC Wide World of Sports. Director of Photography, Technical Director. Live broadcast and tape segments, Expeditions, rock climbing, iron man marathon and Olympic events.
Geographic Assignments:
Afghanistan: Kabul, Kandahar, and Bagram.
Australia: Sydney, Cairns, Mareeba, Atherton, Gordonvale, Undara, Chillagoe, Mt. Bartle Frere, and Queensland Outback.
Egypt: Saqqare, Giza, Red Sea, The Nile River, Cairo, Valley of Kings, Hatshepsut, Abu Simbel, Armant, Aswan, Luxor, White Desert, Thebes, Safaga, Marsa al Alam, Karnak, Al Harrah and Baharia Oasis
Fiji: Suva and Koro Island
France: Paris, Le Mans, Nice, Cannes, Toulon, Marseille, Toulouse, Montpellier and Corsica
Greece: Athens, Thessalonique and Island of Patmos.
Israel: Jerusalem, Golan Heights, Ramallah, Bethany, Jericho, Temple Mount, Nazareth, Gethsemane, Kasr el Yahud, Allenby Bridge, Caphernaum, Sepphoris, West Wall Tunnels and Judea.
Italy: Rome, Naples, Florence, Solerno and Island of Ischia.
Jordan, Mount Nebo, Tell Mar Elias, Mukawer and Amman Citadel.
Morocco: Quarzazate, Sahara Desert, Oued Amsailikh, Tagounite and Atlas Mountains.
Mexico: Chihuahua, Sierra Madre Occidental and Barrancas Del Cobre
New Zealand: North Island, South Island, Southern Alps, Mt. Cockayne, Lake Catherine, Lake Coleridge, Black Hill, Glenfalloch, Potts River. Mt. Peel, Forest Creek and Lake Tekapo.
Russia: Moscow, Murmansk, Severmorsk and Barrents Sea Artic Circle.
Scotland: Edinburgh, Inverness, Orkney Islands, St. Andrews Highlands.
Turkey: Istanbul, Van, Doğubayazıt, Tabriz, and Erzurum.
Additional information can be seen at:
Blog: www.davebanksmedia.com,
Book: www.cuethecamels.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/davidnbanks Demo Reel: https://davebanks.wordpress.com/2014/09/22/daves-demo-reel/On Camera Interview: http://youtu.be/oGjuTAvQRms Vroman’s Bookstore: Book Reading and Signing Cue The Camels, https://davebanks.wordpress.com/2014/07/16/cue-the-camels-book-signing-at-vromans-bookstore-pasadena-california/
Sunday Morning Tune: Whooping It Up For Patmos In Dothan, Alabama
Memories of events and misadventures are happening more frequently as I pour over thousands of slides from my analog era. I recently came across several plastic boxes of transparencies marked “Greece, Island of Patmos.” I had been hired to shoot a documentary on the Apostle John which took me on a large plane from L.A. to Athens, then a smaller plane to the city of Thessaloniki and finally a ten-hour hydrofoil to the tiny island of Patmos.
The backstory on the Apostle John is that he was one of the twelve disciples who followed Jesus during His earthly ministry. In 95 A.D. John was banished by the Roman authorities to the island of Patmos, but not before being thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil where he miraculously survived. The story goes that after witnessing this mind-boggling event the entire Coliseum converted to Christianity immediately. Deep in a cavern on Patmos, John had a profound and disturbing vision. It was the vision of the world to come and wrote the 27th and final chapter of the Holy Bible known as the Book of Revelation. 
The first time I realized the connections between the island of Patmos, the Apostle John and the Book of Revelations was in a Baptist church in Dothan, Alabama. How did I end up as the only white guy in an all black church on a Saturday night? I was invited as a result of a near collision with three well-dressed black men. Half naked and soaking wet, I darted from the motel pool to my room when the four of us meet head-on as I rounded a corner. Skidding to a stop, I quickly made an apology and wrapped the towel around my waist. Each of the gentlemen held tattered bibles with gold print on the leather covers. They were preachers in Dothan for a revival at a local Baptist church. I surprised myself by asking if I could attend the revival and to my good fortune they said yes.
For those who don’t know, “whooping” (pronounced hooping) is a celebratory style of preaching that pastors typically use to make sure the congregation can feel his sermon. In many ways, it is nothing short of a biblical opera performed by the man at the pulpit. His overture usually starts with a calm, reflective introduction to a topic such as temptation or adultery and magically transforms the characters from the bible into another misguided member of his personal flock. The tempo begins its steady rise as the pastor plays out the roles on stage. There is constant pacing back and forth from the podium as his voice slips into a falsetto that bellows out over the church’s speaker system. The pastor is accompanied with interludes from the organist and shouts of holy affirmations from those in the pews. Wiping his brow with his white handkerchief, then waving it high into the air as if surrendering to the Lord, he then bellows out his crescendo.“ We all can make our own Patmos!” he shouts, “just as the Apostle John was sentence to the island of Patmos by the Romans”. The minister pauses for a good 30 seconds as the assembled worshippers sit silently in their seats.Then, in the finale the pastor whispers “We too can sentence ourselves to our own island of Patmos.”
While the Apostle John was destined to write about the apocalypse over 2,000 years ago, Nicholas Negroponte currently writes about a brighter and a more enlighten world through technology. Mr. Negroponte is one of the early disciples of computer technology and Chairman Emeritus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab. He is also the progressive founder of the One Laptop per Child Foundation which aims to provide each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop. He believes that with access to the computer, children are more engaged in their own education.
For over 25 years, Mr. Negroponte and his wife have had a home on Patmos and have selflessly provided the island’s 3,000 plus residents with free wireless broadband web access. In spite of being isolated on the eastern borderline of the Aegean Sea and being the northernmost island of the Dodecanese island group, the world is only a key-stroke away for the citizens of this remote and rocky island. Unfortunately, the Negroponte’s were not home when I was there, but I did manage to invite myself to a Greek Orthodox wedding.
Greek Orthodox weddings are always on Sunday. They aren’t performed after Easter and Christmas, nor during periods of fasting or the day preceding a Holy Day. Vows aren’t exchanged since marriage is considered a union between two people in love, not a contractual agreement. Wedding bands are traditionally worn on the right hand, not the left. The bride may throw a pomegranate instead of the bouquet (duck if you’ve had too many uzos). The many seeds of the pomegranate symbolize the fertile possibilities between the two young lovers. At the reception, plates are broken on the dance floor (or some other hard surface) for good luck. A member of the immediate family begins and others quickly join in with much yelling and laughing as the plates shatter.
Patmos covers only 34 square kilometers (13.1 sq. miles) with its greatest length of about 25 kilometers (9.6 miles). For such an isolated little island, the poet Peter Porter said it best in his poem “Saint John on Patmos”: “For the right visions you need a desert or an island.”
Exposure and Other Worldly Morsels 