Peter Byck

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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. . Website: http://www.carbonnationmovie.com/Trailer on site
Garbage, 1996. Independent
Short Documentary Films * produced in collaboration with ASU.
*Herd Impact, 2019. Earth School Educational Foundation, Inc. (23:26)
*Time Will Tell, 2019. Earth School Educational Foundation, Inc. (11:57)
*This Farm is Medicine, 2018. Earth School Educational Foundation, Inc. (9:14)
* During the Drought, 2017. Earth School Educational Foundation, Inc. (12:00)
* I Sell Water & Sunshine, 2017. Earth School Educational Foundation, Inc. (13:00)
* Givers and Takers, 2017. Earth School Educational Foundation, Inc. (19:21)
* A Fence and an Owner, 2017. Earth School Educational Foundation, Inc. (9:39)
*One Hundred Thousand Beating Hearts, 2016. Earth School Educational Foundation, Inc. 15 minutes.
* The Luckiest Places on Earth, 2016. Earth School Educational Foundation, Inc. (25:00)
*Hybrid Law, 2016. Earth School Educational Foundation, Inc.
*Soil Carbon Curious, 2015. Earth School Educational Foundation, Inc. 6 minutes.
*Soil Carbon Cowboys, 2014. Earth School Educational Foundation, Inc. (12:21)
Louisville Waterfront Park- An Uncommon Commons, 2012. Smithsonian Museum. (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
Paper Cut,2002. Blairmore Pictures.
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

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