George Butler, Roving Mars

Though British-born, American-educated George Butler first became prominent as an anti-Vietnam war activist and AmeriCorp VISTA volunteer when he befriended and collaborated with John Kerry on The New Soldier and later directed a film about Kerry called Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry. Butler's real notoriety began when his documentary Pumping Iron launched Arnold Schwarzenegger's careers as actor and eventual politician. His 2000 trio of documentaries about Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton (The Endurance) is a master's example on maximizing your research: it became an IMAX feature, a two-hour TV special and a theatrical release. With Roving Mars, Butler has made what is easily the best IMAX documentary ever, starring two incredible roving robots that defied their makers and continued to work years after they were supposed to on the angry red planet.

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