Gary Caganoff is an award winning documentary filmmaker of twenty years, being one of the first single camera operators in the early 90‘s starting with the then new Hi8 handycam format.
He specialised filming in remote locations, mainly the Tasmanian World Heritage Wilderness and the unprotected Tarkine wilderness in the State’s North West. Gary has made documentaries for some of Australia’s peak environment groups. In 2002 he won the Grand Prize at the Banff Mountain Film Festival with his film, ‘The Second Step’, on double above-knee leg amputee Warren Macdonald’s epic journey to Federation Peak, in the heart of SW Tasmania. The film also screened on the ABC.
Gary was the originator and organiser if the Wild Spaces Environmental and Social Justice Film Festival for five years from 1996 the first Australian festival totally dedicated to the environment and human rights. The festival screened across the country and was instrumental in inspiring activist filmmaking in Australia.
His trip to Afghanistan in 2003 with friend and documentary subject, permaculturalist Rosemary Morrow was a journey that had deep and profound effects on them both.
Gary has a Masters of Applied Science in Social Ecology, a Graduate Diploma of Transpersonal Psychotherapy, and a Permaculture Design Certificate. He lives in the Blue Mountains of NSW.