LitmusFilms Robert Stern

This channel is the video history of producer/reporter/director Robert Stern and Litmus Films. The 130+ video archive starts with Robert's reports as CNBC Asia Shanghai Bureau Chief (95-97). In 2000 he started Litmus Films, turned to documentary, starting with self-funded films like The Mongolian Navy, detoured co-hosting a Chinese-language game show seen by 100M people, before a prolific 2003-12 period, creating dozens of 20-min docs on unsung European heroes for NHK, the BBC of Japan. Doc filmmaking is highly competitive, but speaking Japanese didn't half reduce the field. As Japan turned inward post-Fukushima, NHK work withered. 2012-13 Litmus blossomed as a crowdfunding pioneer, with 2 of the UK's top 10 crowdfunded docs, but that oasis soon became unfeasibly overcrowded. Charity videos were fun to make, but neither an impact nor a living made, so in 2021, Robert began See Through News (link below). Subscribe there for all Robert's new output, still just as eclectic, but shorter.