WED, OCT 3 / 7 pm
DIR. GEORGE UNGAR | 1995 | CANADA | 100 MIN.
KEVIN NIKKEL INTRODUCES: THE CHAMPAGNE SAFARI
Wealthy businessman, glamorous playboy, daring adventurer – Charles Bedaux was all these and more. This acclaimed documentary tells the true story of Bedaux, who captured fame and fortune in the 1920s by inventing a new method for modernizing industry. Before long, Bedaux was hobnobbing with the rich, powerful and famous all over the globe – including Nazi Germany. In his leisure he planned an elaborate expedition – a “champagne safari” – through the Canadian Rockies, documented for posterity by legendary cameraman Floyd Crosby (cinematographer of High Noon). But Bedaux’s world was about to collapse, as charges of collaboration and treason enveloped him. Long lost archival footage and interviews with historians, writers and relatives illuminate the story of this enigmatic, megalomaniacal American industrialist whose alliance with the Nazis helped them rise to power.
Kevin Nikkel is a writer, curator, teacher and filmmaker. He completed a Bachelor of Education at University of Manitoba and an MFA from St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia. His dramatic, animated and documentary films have played internationally at festivals, on television and on the web. He is currently filming and researching On the Trail of the Far Fur Country, a documentary about the fate of a silent feature film called The Romance of the Far Fur Country.
