Documentary filmmaker Aron Xantus descends from a long line of explorers and storytellers. His body of work spans vanishing cultures, underserved or underrepresented communities around the world, threatened wildlife, and delicate ecosystems alike. He views film as a powerful tool to preserve history and challenge deep-rooted misconceptions and prejudices. The foundation of his work as a filmmaker is establishing deep trust with people. His documentaries almost never use narrators; instead, his subjects tell their own stories. His style involves avoiding storyboards and emphasizing improvisation.

Expeditions

Aron has been conducting expeditions in extreme climatic environments for more than two decades. Over the years, he has gained intimate insight into his subjects’ lives by immersing himself fully in their worlds. These subjects have included teenage gangs in Milan; Dayak headhunter tribes in Borneo (From Headhunting to Riots in Borneo); political prisoners; convicted war criminals; veterans of war; Holocaust survivors; children of dictators (Our Father Petru Groza); climate refugees in Ethiopia, Jordan, and Burma (the Padaung/Kayan/Karenni long-necked tribes are refugees who have lived in Thailand since 1992 due to political problems in their countries); survivors of Pol Pot’s regime in Cambodia (The Killing Fields); township residents in South Africa (Day Zero – Cape Town Water Crisis); the Himba and San (Bushmen) people in the Kalahari Desert; Navajo Indians; residents of slums in India (Dharavi); 2004 tsunami survivors in Sri Lanka; Sea Gypsies (the Sama-Bajau, several Austronesian ethnic groups of Maritime Southeast Asia); life on an active volcano (Devil’s Gold – The Sulphur Miners of Eastern Java); uranium miners involved in the Soviet Union’s nuclear program during the Cold War; and the residents and medical staff of Europe’s last leper colony (Tichilești Hospital).

Conservation and Animal Rights At the personal request of English primatologist and anthropologist Dr. Jane Goodall, Aron organized Roots & Shoots in Romania—a program of the Jane Goodall Institute. Roots & Shoots is a global movement empowering youth to use their voices and actions to make compassionate decisions and lead change in their communities. https://rootsandshoots.org/areas/cluj-napoca-romania/

Aron holds a PhD in Arts and has worked as an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Theatre and Television. He is a member of the International Documentary Association (IDA), the Documentary Association of Europe (DAE), Reporters Without Borders (RSF), and the Romanian Filmmakers Union (UCIN). He co-founded Xantus Film in 2005, founded the Xantus Foundation, and co-founded the Museum of the Moving Image in 2022.

Awards His work has been recognized with some of the most prestigious awards, including the Academic Merit of the Romanian Academy and two prizes from the Romanian Filmmakers Union (UCIN), including the Award for Best Television Film.