William Bemister(1948-2008)
- Writer
- Producer
- Director
William Bemister is an Emmy award-winning documentary film maker and
journalist. He started his broadcast career with RBC and RTV, the
public broadcasting and television services in pre-independence
Rhodesia. After working in journalism with Southern African, New
Zealand and Australian newspapers, he joined the Australian
Broadcasting Commission and then the Australian Ten Television Network
as Special Investigative Producer.
As an independent television journalist, Bemister's first film was 'The Confessions of Ronald Biggs', directed by Barry Sloane, a documentary about the fugitive British train robber Ronald Biggs, who was then living in Brazil. Bemister's 90-minute film 'The Hunter and the Hunted', about Nazi war criminals, their whereabouts, and the Nazi hunters who sought their arrest and prosecution, was commissioned by the Australian Seven Network and filmed on location in South America, France, Germany, Israel and the UK.
A 58-minute version of the film was later co-produced with WQED and telecast on PBS in the United States, for which Bemister won the 1981 Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Journalism on U.S. Network Television. Included in the film were scenes identifying the then whereabouts of two of the most wanted Nazi criminals, SS Captain Klaus Barbie and SS Colonel Walter Rauff, and the only interview with Rauff. SS Lieut Colonel Adolf Eichmann's son Horst also controversially discusses the case against his father in the film.
Bemister's other producer credits include a two-hour feature documentary, 'Spy Trap: The True Story of Vladimir Petrov and Kim Philby', broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Commission; 'Moscow's Man' on Thames Television in Britain, Sveriges Television, WDR-Fernsehen in Germany, and the Discovery Channel worldwide.
His productions for Australian commercial television networks include the one-hour documentary special 'Psychic Visions Of The Future', about the world's leading psychics for the Australian Ten Television Network, and 'Warriors Of The Deep', a docudrama about the audacious Japanese midget submarine attack into the heart of Sydney harbor in 1942, then the base for American and Australian warships, telecast by the Australian Seven Network.
He was Investigative Reporter for Grundy-Fremantle Media Group's 'The Seven Million Dollar Fugitive', and Producer-Correspondent for the Home Box Office documentary special 'America Undercover: The Search for Dr Josef Mengele'. Bemister was educated at St George's College, Weybridge, England. He received the Undergraduate Diploma in Film Studies at the University of Oxford and is reading for a Masters in European Cinema at the University of Exeter.
As an independent television journalist, Bemister's first film was 'The Confessions of Ronald Biggs', directed by Barry Sloane, a documentary about the fugitive British train robber Ronald Biggs, who was then living in Brazil. Bemister's 90-minute film 'The Hunter and the Hunted', about Nazi war criminals, their whereabouts, and the Nazi hunters who sought their arrest and prosecution, was commissioned by the Australian Seven Network and filmed on location in South America, France, Germany, Israel and the UK.
A 58-minute version of the film was later co-produced with WQED and telecast on PBS in the United States, for which Bemister won the 1981 Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Journalism on U.S. Network Television. Included in the film were scenes identifying the then whereabouts of two of the most wanted Nazi criminals, SS Captain Klaus Barbie and SS Colonel Walter Rauff, and the only interview with Rauff. SS Lieut Colonel Adolf Eichmann's son Horst also controversially discusses the case against his father in the film.
Bemister's other producer credits include a two-hour feature documentary, 'Spy Trap: The True Story of Vladimir Petrov and Kim Philby', broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Commission; 'Moscow's Man' on Thames Television in Britain, Sveriges Television, WDR-Fernsehen in Germany, and the Discovery Channel worldwide.
His productions for Australian commercial television networks include the one-hour documentary special 'Psychic Visions Of The Future', about the world's leading psychics for the Australian Ten Television Network, and 'Warriors Of The Deep', a docudrama about the audacious Japanese midget submarine attack into the heart of Sydney harbor in 1942, then the base for American and Australian warships, telecast by the Australian Seven Network.
He was Investigative Reporter for Grundy-Fremantle Media Group's 'The Seven Million Dollar Fugitive', and Producer-Correspondent for the Home Box Office documentary special 'America Undercover: The Search for Dr Josef Mengele'. Bemister was educated at St George's College, Weybridge, England. He received the Undergraduate Diploma in Film Studies at the University of Oxford and is reading for a Masters in European Cinema at the University of Exeter.
