Pete Chelkowski

Pete Chelkowski has spent the last 20 years shooting, producing and directing long-and short-form content around the world. He tells stories that go beyond entertainment, changing the way people think about themselves and the world around them. The more remote the location the greater the fulfillment, from the frozen Tundra of Alaska, up to the peaks of Kyrgyzstan’ s Tian Shan mountains, down to the ocean depths of the Blue Corner of Palau. A multi-award winning producer and director, Chelkowski’s latest project, “Life Below Zero: First Alaskans,” airs on Nat Geo, the only nonfiction series with an all-Native-American cast. He has worked on numerous television series, including “Dark Desire” for Netflix, “Who Runs the World” for TNT, “Ocean Warriors” and “Fighting Tuna,” both for Discovery. He co-wrote the award-winning feature Patang, which Roger Ebert called a masterpiece. Chelkowski was a producer of I Learn America, a documentary film about newly arrived immigrant teenagers in high school. His first feature film was Carnival Roots, which explored the clash between Europe and Africa through the lens of Carnival in Trinidad. He regularly works undercover for Ecostorm, an environmental detective agency, while at the same time shooting commercials for brands like Coca Cola, Abercrombie & Fitch and Puma. He co-directed One with the Whale (Mountainfilm 2024) along with Jim Wickens.