Robert Bilheimer is the director, writer, and producer for Worldwide Documentaries, Inc, a not-for-profit film production company he founded in 1989 with his partner, longtime colleague, and executive producer Heidi Ostertag. Robert has directed critically acclaimed films for 40 years that focus—although not exclusively—on global human rights and social justice issues. In 1989, Robert was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary for Cry of Reason, a feature-length film that profiles the South African anti-apartheid leader Dr. Beyers Naudé. In 1992, Robert made the definitive film version of Nobel Laureate Samuel Beckett’s play Endgame, working from a script prepared especially by the author for the Smithsonian series Beckett Directs Beckett. Over the past fifteen years, two of Robert’s films—A Closer Walk, about the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, and Not My Life, about global human trafficking —have been seen by hundreds of millions of people across a broad set of global demographics, platforms, and networks, and remain the “go-to” films on their respective issues to this day. In 1996, Robert also directed I’m Still Here, about families whose sons and daughters suffer from serious mental illness, especially schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. 

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​Robert’s 2021 film, Oh Mercy- Searching For Hope In The Promised Land focus is about the thousands of refugees and asylum seekers from Central America who awaited court dates and immigration hearings in the US under the policy of Migrant Protection Protocol (MPP) or “Remain in Mexico”—many for well over a year.
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Robert’s current film Running to Stand Still- Migrants Search For Hope In The Promised Land was released in November, 2024 as a follow up to Oh Mercy. Running is a 25-minute documentary film that focuses on the fraught and divisive issue of forced migrants seeking safety and asylum at the U.S./Mexico border. Running seeks to put a human face on the realities of immigration today by telling stories about the migrants themselves: courageous, dignified human beings whose lives stand as a powerful rebuke to a narrative often fraught with alarmist rhetoric, dehumanizing stereotypes.
 
​Robert was educated at the International School in Geneva, Switzerland; Hamilton College, where he received his B.A.; and Indiana University where he received his Master’s Degree in theatre and film. Before launching into his career as a documentary filmmaker, Robert worked as a freelance journalist, reporting for AFP and TIME from East and South Africa; as director in professional regional theatre, notably the Nairobi National Theatre; the Manitoba Theatre Center in Winnipeg; and the Rochester Shakespeare Theatre, which he founded. From 1968 – 1970, he also served a tour in the US Army, where he earned the Army commendation medal.   
 
At 80, and a doting grandfather, and feels as though he is “just getting started”. Robert spends as much time as he can hiking the trails in the Finger Lakes area of upstate New York where he lives with his family and Golden Retrievers, Mia and Eli. 

One would be hard-pressed, anywhere in the international documentary filmmaking community, to find a producer as respected, admired, and beloved as Heidi Ostertag. During her 38-year career at Worldwide Documentaries, she has established lasting personal and professional relationships with hundreds of individuals from all walks of life who are part of the documentary filmmaking process which she manages and oversees: funders, participants in, and subjects of, the films themselves; distribution partners, including NGOs and their staffs all over the world; production team members, advisors, consultants, board members…. The list goes on and on.

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Heidi is also a brilliant researcher, incredibly hard worker, and a deeply compassionate human being.  But perhaps the one thing everyone would say that best characterizes Worldwide’s Senior Producer: she is a person of enormous integrity and honesty, and you will always get a “good listen” from her, as well as a straight and thoughtful answer. It is difficult to overstate the contribution Heidi has made to Worldwide’s reputation and accomplishment over the years just by being the true professional she is. 

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In addition to her daily work responsibilities, Heidi has been married to Worldwide’s President and Director, Robert Bilheimer, for over 30 years, at times a challenge in and of itself!  But the family’s two Golden Retrievers, Eli and Letta, are a great distraction, as only goofy Goldens can be. She also finds renewal in the Adirondack mountains every chance she gets!

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Jim has been fortunate enough to have spent the last 4 decades creating award-winning work as an illustrator and graphic designer, living out a dream that has gone from crayons to computer screens. His work has been recognized by regional and national organizations including The Rochester Advertising Federation, The Society of Illustrators and Print Magazine. After spending 35 incredible years as part of a creative team, Jim has spent the last 4 discovering the freedoms that come with being his own boss. One of the great benefits of that change has been the opportunity to focus more of his creative energy and talents to partners and projects like Worldwide Documentaries and Oh Mercy. Jim has had the privilege of working with Bob and Heidi on two of their acclaimed films, A Closer Walk and Not My Life and is once again thrilled to be a small part of their latest contribution to the world.  

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“My work has always been about two things, discovering the essence of something through creative exploration and then capturing and communicating it in a way that is meaningful and beautiful to myself and others. Never boring, always challenging, I'm still learning new ways every day to try and make it happen.”

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In his spare time, which he has a bit more of these days, Jim enjoy’s growing as a photographer, spending time with family and friends, listening to his music collection and exploring the outdoor world with his adventurous wife of 26 years. You can find them paddling across the water, peddling down the road, trudging up a mountain or gliding over the snow anywhere they can get to these days. 

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Oh Yeah, Go Bills!