Chip Duncan (born January 3, 1955) is an American filmmaker, author, photographer, and President of the Duncan Group, Inc, a documentary and feature film production company established in 1984.
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Chip Duncan was born in Shenandoah, Iowa and later resided in Michigan and Wisconsin. Duncan graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Madison with a degree in English and Communication Arts. He began his career in media at an NBC affiliate as a news producer and photographer. Duncan also performed for several years in a bluegrass band called Broken Bow. The band released one album, Arrival, in 1981. Duncan co-wrote for The Twilight Zone in 1985 and began his production company the same year. Since that time, he has worked extensively as a writer, producer, director and photographer of numerous films and television specials. He has also authored two books including Enough To Go Around - Searching for Hope in Afghanistan, Pakistan & Darfur (Select Books, NYC, 2009).
Duncan has received numerous international awards for his work as a writer, producer, director and photographer. His documentary productions include PBS Special Landslide–A Portrait of President Herbert Hoover, the 2-part series Prayer In America, The Cost of Freedom–Civil Liberties, Security and the USA PATRIOT Act, Beyond the Gridiron–The Life & Times of Woody Hayes, The Magic Never Ends–The Life & Work of CS Lewis, In A Just World–Contraception, Abortion & World Religion, Wisconsin: An American Portrait and Rafting Alaska’s Wildest Rivers. Duncan was also a consulting producer on the HBO Sports Special The Rivalry and the PBS special Henry A. Wallace.
In 1999, Duncan produced and directed Through One City’s Eyes, an in-depth campaign on race relations in America’s heartland that included a nationwide public television broadcast, a seven-part public radio series, a two-part classroom series for middle school students, and a traveling photo museum.
Duncan’s production of the 13-part television series Mystic Lands featuring spiritual places of the world debuted on Discovery Networks and was distributed to more than 100 countries worldwide. Duncan was the series creator, executive producer, and director as well as the writer and photographer of numerous episodes.
In 1992, Duncan wrote, produced, directed, and photographed Tatshenshini: A Journey to the Ice Age for public television. Duncan’s 1993 production of Alaska’s Bald Eagle: New Threats to Survival was the winner of the “Best New Wildlife Filmmaker” award at the 1993 Jackson Hole Wildlife Festival. During his production of the 1994 public television special Positive Thinking: The Norman Vincent Peale Story, Duncan and co-producer David Crouse interviewed five American presidents–Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, George Herbert Walker Bush and Ronald Reagan.
Duncan’s feature film credits include producing Eden, a 1996 Sundance Film Festival Finalist. That same year, Duncan executive produced the movie Cadillac Ranch. He was also producer of the movie Row Your Boat featuring Jon Bon Jovi and co-executive producer of The Break Up featuring Kiefer Sutherland and Bridget Fonda.
Duncan’s 1986-87 production of the Is Anyone Listening? an educational series for teenagers is among the best-selling classroom series of all time.
Duncan is the co-author of two stories sold to the CBS network remake of the Twilight Zone in 1985. His first non-fiction book (penned under the name John Ryan Duncan), The Magic Never Ends–The Life and Work of C.S. Lewis was published in 2001 by Thomas Nelson Publishing. It was released in paperback by Augsburg Press in 2004.
Duncan serves as a board member for Los-Angeles-based not-for-profit group Relief International. He is an advisor to the World Peace Festival in Berlin. Duncan is also a member of the board of directors of Uprooted Theater in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Duncan’s work as a still photographer has been exhibited in numerous locations since 2009 including the World Peace Festival in Berlin (2011), the O Street Museum in Washington DC (2011) and the Crooked Tree Arts Center in Michigan (2009). Photographic works include an emphasis on people from Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Peru, Sudan, Pakistan and Kenya.