Peter Byck

'Bold text' Peter Byck is an American film director who specializes in films with environmental themes. His first feature film, Garbage, won the South by Southwest film festival in Austin, TX. His 2011 documentary Carbon Nation, narrated by Bill Kurtis, received critical acclaim and was screened around the world, broadcast on Current TV, and streamed on Netflix, Amazon, AppleTV and more. Most recently, in 2020, he released a series of short films, Carbon Cowboys about regenerative grazing practices. One of these short films, One Hundred Thousand Beating Hearts, won Best Short Documentary Film at the prestigious Cleveland Film Festival.

Byck is a professor of practice at Arizona State University, in both the School of Sustainability and the Cronkite School of Journalism. He is currently helping to lead a large research project focused on Adaptive Multi-Paddock (AMP) grazing; collaborating with 20 scientists and 10 ranchers, focused on soil health & soil carbon storage, microbial/ bug/bird biodiversity, water cycling and much more. He is in production on a long-form documentary on the AMP grazing research project.

Life and career
Byck was born in Louisville, Kentucky. He now lives in Phoenix, AZ.

Awards
Garbage


 * Winner, Best Documentary, South by Southwest Film Festival, 1996

Carbon Nation


 * Winner, IVCA Clarion Chairman’s Award, 2011
 * Nominated, EMA, Best Documentary, 2011
 * Honorable Mention, Princeton Environmental Film Festival, 2011
 * Honorable Mention for Best Feature Documentary, Short Film Festival- Artist for a Better World, 2011
 * Winner, Green Me Global Festival, Berlin, Grand Jury Prize, 2017

One Hundred Thousand Beating Hearts


 * Winner, Best Short Documentary, Cleveland International Film Festival, 2017
 * Winner, Best AZ Short Documentary, Phoenix Film Festival, 2017
 * Winner, Best Short Documentary, Philadelphia Environmental Film Festival, 2017
 * Winner, Best Short Documentary, Macon Film Festival, 2017
 * Winner, Best Short Documentary, Oxford Film Festival, 2017
 * Winner, Audience award for Best Short Documentary & Special Jury Commendation for Best Short Documentary, Port Townsend Film Festival, 2017
 * Winner, Prize for Environmental Advocacy, Ekotopfilm – Envirofilm 2017
 * Honorable Mention, Salute Your Shorts Fest, 2017

Career Achievement


 * Wild & Scenic Festival John de Graaf Environmental Filmmaking Award

Filmography
Feature Documentaries

Carbon Nation, 2010. Earth School Educational Foundation, Inc. [Editor, writer, producer, director, cinematographer]. Website: http://www.carbonnationmovie.com/Trailer on site

Garbage, 1996. Independent [Director, editor, writer, producer, cinematographer]

Short Documentary Films * produced in collaboration with ASU.

*Herd Impact, 2019. Earth School Educational Foundation, Inc. [Writer, producer, director, camera](23:26)

*Time Will Tell,  2019. Earth School Educational Foundation, Inc. [Writer, producer, director, camera] (11:57)

*This Farm is Medicine, 2018. Earth School Educational Foundation, Inc. [Writer, producer, director, camera](9:14)

* During the Drought, 2017. Earth School Educational Foundation, Inc. [Writer, producer, director, camera](12:00)

* I Sell Water & Sunshine, 2017. Earth School Educational Foundation, Inc. [Writer, producer, director, camera](13:00)

* Givers and Takers, 2017. Earth School Educational Foundation, Inc. [Writer, producer, director, camera](19:21)

* A Fence and an Owner, 2017. Earth School Educational Foundation, Inc. [Writer, producer, director, camera](9:39)

*One Hundred Thousand Beating Hearts, 2016. Earth School Educational Foundation, Inc. [Writer, producer, director] 15 minutes.

* The Luckiest Places on Earth, 2016. Earth School Educational Foundation, Inc. [Writer, producer, director, camera](25:00)

*Hybrid Law, 2016. Earth School Educational Foundation, Inc. [Writer, producer, director, camera]

*Soil Carbon Curious, 2015. Earth School Educational Foundation, Inc. [Writer, producer, director] 6 minutes.

*Soil Carbon Cowboys, 2014. Earth School Educational Foundation, Inc. [Writer, producer, director, editor] (12:21)

Louisville Waterfront Park– An Uncommon Commons, 2012. Smithsonian Museum. [Writer, producer, director, editor] (11:30).

Short Narrative Films – Director, Producer, Writer, Editor

I-Nasty, 2007. pbfm.

Ralph the Roadie, 1998-2001. pbfm.

Feature Films - Editor

Borderline, 2002. HBO [Editor, additional second unit director]

Paper Cut,2002. Blairmore Pictures. [Editor]

Television – Producer, Presenter

Brain Trust, 2019. Pilot with Van Jones

Publicity
TV and Radio Appearances

Real Time with Bill Maher, August 17, 2012 and April 12, 2013. On Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/66145213

‘Carbon Nation’ Tackles Climate Change, By Ignoring It, Science Friday, National Public Radio, August 24, 2012. On Science Friday website: http://www.sciencefriday.com/guests/peter-byck.html#page/full-width-list/1

Education
Byck holds a BFA degree from California Institute of the Arts, 1986

Academic Publications
The role of ruminants in reducing agriculture’s carbon footprint in North America - 2016

W.R. Teague, S. Apfelbaum, R. Lal, U.P. Kreuter, J. Rowntree, C.A. Davies, R. Conser, M. Rasmus- sen, J. Hatfield, T. Wang, F. Wang, and P. Byck

Potential Mitigation of Midwest Grass-Finished Beef Production Emissions with Soil Carbon Sequestration in the United States of America-2016

Jason E. Rowntree, Rebecca Ryals, Marcia S. DeLonge, W. Richard Teague, Marilia B. Chiavegato, Peter Byck, Tong Wang, Sutie Xu