BIOGRAPHY
During the more than 25 years that Pieter Stathis, CSC has been directing photography, he has crafted award-winning imagery for features, television and commercials.
While grounded in film (he’s shot more than a dozen features on 16mm and 35mm film), Pieter’s deep understanding of modern raw cameras and post workflow has given him great creative power, reflected by recent cinematography awards for intimate features like ‘Hit-n-Strum‘ (Best Cinematography – Canadian Film Fest) and ‘3 Days in Havana’ (Leo – Best Feature Film Cinematography), while also enabling him to control large sets and satisfy robust productions as the 2nd unit DP for recent seasons of Lifetime’s ‘Witches of East End‘ (season 1) and CBC’s ‘Arctic Air‘ (season 1 and 2).
His favourite film projects are films that both entertain and galvanize positive change – he’s been able to do just that, filming in dozens of countries around the world.
Pieter’s four-part mini-series “Secret Files of the Inquisition” was shot in Canada, Spain and Italy, receiving a Leo Award for best cinematography (and a Gemini nomination). He traveled through England, Australia and New Zealand to shoot the Leo and Gemini award winning mini-series, “Captain Cook: Obsession and Discovery,” for the History Channel. He revisited those areas and more for “Darwin’s Brave New World,” a mini-series that aired on CBC’s “The Nature of Things”. Travelling to South Africa in 2012, Pieter lensed the feature documentary, “Song for Mandela” which was released internationally just after Mandela’s death. Pieter’s work on the theatrical feature film “3 Days in Havana”, shot during multiple trips to Cuba, earned him a 2nd Leo Award for best cinematography. Travelling with a small team across urban and rural China, he was able to capture compelling footage for the feature documentary “Shimming”. Pieter’s most recent cinematography was for “Journey Back To Christmas”, which was released on Thanksgiving 2016 and has become the 2nd most-watched program in the history of Hallmark channel.
Well-liked by productions and crew – and audiences – Pieter enjoys giving back; in recent years IATSE Local 669 enlisted him to teach workshops throughout Western Canada. He’s also taught cinematography and film production at the University of British Columbia.
