This 1977 documentary film introduced the world to the sport of professional body-building and to Arnold Schwarzenegger.  The film focuses on Schwarzenegger and his competitors, Lou Ferrigno and Franco Columbu as they prepare for the 1975 Mr. Olympia bodybuilding competition. The documentary was co-directed by Robert Fiore and George Butler and is based on the book of the same name by Charles Gaines and George Butler.  A surprise commercial and critical success, Pumping Iron subsequently launched Schwarzenegger's film career and helped make the physical fitness industry what it is today.

Sponsored by Rob's Executive Wellness

Following the success of Pumping Iron, Butler turned his attention in 1983 to the world of female bodybuilding, still in its infancy.  This documentary focuses on five top bodybuilders - Rachel McLish, Bev Francis, Lori Bowen, Carla Dunlap, and Lydia Cheng as they prepare for the 1983 Caesars Palace World Cup Championship.  The film captures the debate—perhaps still not resolved—over whether a female bodybuilding champion’s body should be the most muscular (Bev Francis) or more in keeping with a societal view of an ideal woman’s figure (Rachel McLish).

Premiering at Sundance in 1989, this film “provocatively responds to the arguments against big-game hunting while generating new questions of its own. Director George Butler takes a journey into the African grasslands, following a modern-day safari inspired by the 1909 big game hunt Theodore Roosevelt organized for his son. The film, however, is not a sensationalized or exploitative account of hunting. Passionately arguing that big-game hunting benefits animal conservation efforts, this film examines the virtues of hunting, its relationship to conservation, and the traditions and values passed down among generations of hunters. Considerable pain is taken by Butler to provide an articulate and responsible tone that would be foolish to dismiss."

This award-winning epic documentary re-tells the story of Ernest Shackleton’s failed 1914-1916 expedition to Antarctica.  Based on the best-selling book by Caroline Alexander, The Endurance is considered by many experts to be the greatest of all survival stories and one of the greatest adventures of all. Miraculously, much of the original expedition was captured on film and in pictures by the ship's photographer. To make The Endurance, George Butler and his film crew went to all of the original locations to capture this astonishing story in color in perhaps the most remote location shoot ever recorded.  Narrated by Liam Neeson.

This delightful movie will please both science nerds and those who are simply wowed by space.  The film tracks the incredible thinking and preparation necessary to create and successfully launch two exploratory machines for Mars, a feat that one commentator compared to “shooting a basketball from L.A. to New York and having it swish the net.”  The animation is truly breathtaking.  Produced for Disney by Frank Marshall (Steven Spielberg's producer), with narration by Paul Newman and music by Philip Glass.

The ivory-billed woodpecker was once common throughout the Southeast, frequenting hard-to-reach old growth cypress swamps. Admired and coveted for its beauty and size as long as it had been known, the ivory-bill vanished and was believed extinct by the end of WWI.  Then, in the 1920s the ivory-bill was credibly sighted in Louisiana, and thus begun the determined, relentless pattern of the bird's assertion of its existence. In the 1930s, the 40s, the 50s - in every decade up to the present, the ivory-billed woodpecker has been written off only to appear again. Some of the reappearances have been caught, clearly and unambiguously, on film; sometimes only its distinctive voice has been recorded. At each sighting, the bird has reawakened hope for threatened species and environments everywhere.  A must-see film for all conservationists. 

Loosely based on Douglas Brinkley's best-selling book Tour of Duty, this incredibly intimate film delves into the life of John Kerry and focuses on the key events that made him a national figure and the man he is today. The film places particular emphasis on his bravery during the Vietnam War and his courageous leadership in opposition to the war upon his return. Butler interviewed all of the living Swift Boat veterans who were on Kerry's two boats, thus rendering a comprehensive view of Kerry's experiences in Vietnam. 

The Good Fight is a feature-length theatrical documentary about FSU football coach, Bobby Bowden, the winningest football coach ever, and his players during the course of one season. This is the first time a major college football program has allowed documentary cameras complete access to the whole program.  The Good Fight is still a work in progress. 

This first film project of Butler’s walks us through
the 30-tool process of digging a grave, as dug by 85
year old Queechee, Vermont farmer Thuron Boyd
and his octogenarian friend. A rare visual record of a
millenia-old process, this film also gives your ear a
true taste of Yankee dialogue. The film will be
shown on 16 mm.