Sender Films

Sender Films is a leading producer of climbing/mountaineering and outdoor adventure films. We balance action with storytelling, passion with humor, and spectacular footage with compelling characters to create critically acclaimed films and TV programs. With each new production, we aim to inspire, enlighten and entertain.

Peter Mortimer

Peter Mortimer is the founder of Sender Films, which he started as a do-it-yourself rock climbing video production project in 1999. Peter was joined at Sender by his college friend Nick Rosen in 2004, and over the last decade, the two have enlisted an amazing team to help grow Sender into a leading global adventure film company that produces acclaimed feature-length documentaries, cutting-edge television series and a variety of commercials.

In 2006, Sender joined forces with Big UP Productions to found the REEL ROCK Film Tour, which has become one of the biggest climbing and adventure film tours in the world, with over 400 shows globally, and a brand new REEL ROCK TV Series.

Sender's productions have won numerous film festival awards and a Sports Emmy. Highlights of Sender's recent work include their collaborations with free soloist Alex Honnold, including the multi-award winning documentary Honnold 3.0, an emmy-nominated episode of Sender's First Ascent TV Series, a 60 Minutes special and a popular Citibank ad.

Peter received his BA from Colorado College, and his MFA from USC Film School. Peter, along with Joss Corkin, are proud parents to their daughter Pia, and their intrepid dog Macho.

(Claudia Lopez Photography)

Nick Rosen

Nick Rosen is a partner, writer, and producer at Sender Films. He is co-creator of the Emmy-nominated National Geographic Television Series, 'First Ascent,' and co-director of the award-winning film, 'The Sharp End'.

Nick began working as a writer/producer/director with Sender Films in 2005, and since then has created feature films and TV programs for NBC, The Weather Channel, National Geographic Channels International and The New York Times Online.

Over the years, his writing work has covered a broad range of subjects; economic policy, civil war, yoga, professional wrestling, and the Esoterica of Welsh Corgis.  Nick received his BA in political science from Colorado College, and his masters at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs.  

Nick has also developed a career as on-screen talent, starring in the yoga documentary, 'Enlighten Up!' (2008), and providing the voice-overs for The Sharp End and the First Ascent series.  Nick is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.  He is an avid climber and outdoor enthusiast.  

Victoria Bisharat

Victoria Bisharat is the Director of The REEL ROCK Film Tour. She studied Philosophy with a focus on Eastern Philosophy at a small liberal arts school just north of Manhattan. After her collegiate years her curiosity about rock climbing began to grow after an experience visiting her brother in Rifle Mountain Park, Colorado. She spent two years as a climbing gym rat until making the pilgrimage west to Boulder, where she was instantly drawn to the active lifestyle and opportunities to develop her skills on real rock (and REEL ROCK!).

Zac Barr

Zac Barr was featured in Pete's first climbing film, Scary Faces, and now joins the team as a producer, having previously spent nine years working in public media. He started out in documentary radio in NYC, managed the tour for the Peabody Award-winning NPR oral-history project StoryCorps, and then spent six years at Colorado Public Radio as a news producer and reporter. He is the co-author of Never Coming Home, which profiled the families of soldiers killed in the early years of the Iraq War. He holds a degree in history from Lewis and Clark College and a certificate in documentary radio from Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Maine. Zac lives in Boulder with his wife and two sons, and is super psyched to be back in the climbing world.

Iris Rankin

Iris is a Colorado native from the Western Slope who graduated from CU Boulder in Spring 2012 with a BA in English Literature. Previously, Iris led guided naturalist tours via boat and hiking on small islands in Southeast Alaska, as well as worked for a Boulder non-profit, Educate!, to help give Ugandan students self-sustaining educations. Since attending the small outdoor-oriented Colorado Rocky Mountain School for high school, she spends as much time as possible outside, from desert backpacking to off-piste telemark skiing. Iris is now happy to be settled back in Boulder working with Sender Films as the Office Manager.

Becca Saag

Becca is originally from Baltimore, Maryland, but headed west to California to study film. She graduated early from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. Her three loves in life are climbing, filmmaking, and peanut butter. While in school, she spent two summers interning with Sender and is excited to be back and join the team as an Assistant Editor.

Kelsey Taylor

Kelsey is the youngest in an active family of five, and her parents wasted no time instilling in her a love for adventure and nature. She was backpacking by two, white water canoeing at five, surfing and cliff jumping by eight. A lover of documentaries, Kelsey moved to Los Angeles and graduated just three years later with a degree in Cinematic Arts from the University of Southern California. While in school, Kelsey worked as associate producer on the controversial documentary, America the Beautiful 2: The Thin Commandments. Upon graduation, she moved to Chicago to work on America the Beautiful 3, but it was only a matter of time until she found her way back to her adventurous roots. Kelsey is happy to be in Boulder, working at Sender and surrounded by her beloved mountains.

Jocelyn Corkin

Jocelyn Corkin is a producer who lives in Boulder, Colorado.

She is the founding director of the REEL ROCK Film Tour, overseeing its growth from a small operation to the biggest climbing film tour in the world with over 150 events in 2010.

Jocelyn is a graduate of the film program at the University of Colorado, and is also a certified Bikram Yoga Instructor. She and Pete proudly welcome their new daughter Pia into the world.

Rob Frost

Rob Frost (aka Frosty) grew up in New England, and has carved out a reputation for his ability to film in some of the world's most uninhabitable locations such as Alaska's Mount Saint Elias, the north face of Thalay Sagar in the Himalaya, and recently the famous 1,000 mile dogsled race, the Iditarod in Alaska. He has worked with some of the world's most gifted skiers and climbers and has been an associate producer for the Resort Sports Network's program "Reel Thrills". He has filmed / produced content for Nat Geo TV, American Adventure Productions, NBC Sports, ESPN2, Discovery Channel, and RedBull Productions. Rob has also been on the International Jury Committee for the Banff International Mountain Film Festival. Now teamed up with Sender Films, Frosty has been working on numerous projects ranging from filming climbing in Tasmania, Yosemite, and the high Sierras, to a bunch of commercial work for Clif Bar. He moved to Boulder at the beginning of 2010 and has never  been busier since joining his old Colorado College buddies, Pete and Nick. Frosty works with Sender as a cinematographer, director and editor.

Barry Thompson

Barry Thompson is Founder of Barndance Inc., a creative motion design studio based out of Minnesota.  Barndance produces compelling visual designs for high definition videos, independent films, documentaries, and entertainment.

Barry has been working with Sender Films to produce the main title sequences, trailers, and composites for Between Light and Shadow (2002), First Ascent (2006), King Lines (2007), The Sharp End (2008) and First Ascent:The Series (2010).

If Barry is not in the studio working, you can catch up to him and his family hiking or cross-country skiing in the Minnesotta outback.  You can't miss him, he's the sweaty dad carrying the baby backpack desperately trying to keep up with his wife Melissa.

Wade Johnson

Wade Johnson, a star producer, director, editor and cameraman at Sender Films, was lost to an avalanche on Mt Edgar in China in May, 2009, along with friends Micah Dash and Jonny Copp.  At the time, Wade was filming Jonny and Micah's adventures in China for our Nat Geo series First Ascent.  After three weeks of waiting through bad weather at base camp, the team was hiking up a gulley near camp when they were hit by an avalanche that came from thousands of feet above their heads, and all were killed instantly.

Wade was a graduate of Carlton College in Minnesota, where he excelled in chemistry.  He was primed for an illustrious career in the sciences, having been offered scholarships to the finest grad school programs in the country.  Encouraged by his mother Susan, he deferred for one year to pursue his climbing and filming passions as an intern at Sender.  Recognizing his prowess, we turned his internship into a full-time job after one week, and convinced him to defer for a second year.  His trip to China was his to be his swan song at Sender before returning to grad school.

Wade's relationship with his long-time beloved Erin Addison was an inspiration to us all at Sender.  His tireless work-effort and his cool under pressure lead us through heavy work periods, and his sense of humor and friendship made him a part of our family.  We remain forever inspired by Wade, and think of him when we need that extra encouragement to make our work as good as it can possibly be.