Ben Shapiro | |
|---|---|
 Ben Shapiro in 2013 | |
| Born | 1959 (age 64–65) |
| Occupation(s) | director cinematographer public radio producer |
| Notable work | Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters Radio Diaries |
Benjamin Shapiro (born 1959 [1] ) is an American documentary director, cinematographer, and independent public radio producer.
Shapiro is co-director/producer (with Sam Pollard) and cinematographer of the documentary Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes , which explores the life and career of the master drummer, bandleader, activist across seven decades. The film premiered at the 2023 South by Southwest Film Festival, and had its broadcast premiere on the PBS series American Masters. [2] [3]
Shapiro directed and was cinematographer of the documentary Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters , which follows the photographer over a decade as he creates his images. [4] Brief Encounters premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival and is screening theatrically at festivals and on television internationally. The New York Times rated the film as a "Critics' Pick," and Variety described it as "must see." [5] [6] [7]
Shapiro's work as a cinematographer and producer includes projects for PBS (American Masters, PBS Arts, EGG), National Geographic, The Sundance Channel, and independent filmmakers including Katy Chevigny, Barbara Kopple, the feature "Paul Goodman Changed my Life," among others.
Shapiro's radio stories have been featured on such programs as NPR's All Things Considered and Morning Edition. He has been a member of Radio Diaries since the series began in 1996, as an editor, mix engineer, and producer. [8] Shapiro has collaborated on projects with many producers including American Radioworks, The Kitchen Sisters, WNYC and the BBC.
For his work, Shapiro has received an Emmy award, [9] two Peabody Awards, [10] [11] and two Dupont Awards. [12]
Shapiro has been published in the Journal of Popular Film and Television and Transom.org. [13] [14] He has taught at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, the New School University Graduate Media Studies program, and the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.
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The George Foster Peabody Awards program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor what are described as the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in all of television, radio, and online media. Because of their academic affiliation and reputation for discernment, the awards are held in high esteem within the media industry.
Maxwell Lemuel Roach was an American jazz drummer and composer. A pioneer of bebop, he worked in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in history. He worked with many famous jazz musicians, including Clifford Brown, Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Abbey Lincoln, Dinah Washington, Charles Mingus, Billy Eckstine, Stan Getz, Sonny Rollins, Eric Dolphy, and Booker Little. He also played with his daughter Maxine Roach, a Grammy nominated violist. He was inducted into the DownBeat Hall of Fame in 1980 and the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1992.
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The Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award honors excellence in broadcast and digital journalism in the public service and is considered one of the most prestigious awards in journalism. The awards were established in 1942 and administered until 1967 by Washington and Lee University's O. W. Riegel, Curator and Head of the Department of Journalism and Communications. Since 1968 they have been administered by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City, and are considered by some to be the broadcast equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize, another program administered by Columbia University.
Gregory Crewdson is an American photographer who makes large-scale, cinematic, psychologically charged prints of staged scenes set in suburban landscapes and interiors. He directs a large production and lighting crew to construct his images.
László KovácsASC was a Hungarian-American cinematographer who was influential in the development of American New Wave films in the 1970s, collaborating with directors including Peter Bogdanovich, Richard Rush, Dennis Hopper, Norman Jewison, and Martin Scorsese. Known for his work on Easy Rider (1969) and Five Easy Pieces (1970), Kovács was the recipient of numerous awards, including three Lifetime Achievement Awards. He was an active member of the American Society of Cinematographers and was a member of the organization's board of directors.
Bill Moyers Journal was an American television current affairs program that covered an array of current affairs and human issues, including economics, history, literature, religion, philosophy, science, and most frequently politics. Bill Moyers executive produced, wrote and hosted the Journal when it was created. WNET in New York produced it and PBS aired it from 1972 to 1976.
Jay Allison is an American public radio producer and broadcast journalist. He's executive director of Atlantic Public Media (APM). Through APM, he created platforms for independent audio producers, including Public Radio Exchange (PRX) and the educational website Transom.org. Through APM, he also founded the public radio stations WNAN and WCAI, serving the Cape Cod region of Massachusetts.
Theodore Michael Shapiro is an American composer best known for his film scores.
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Renee Tajima-Peña is an American filmmaker whose work focuses on immigrant communities, race, gender and social justice. Her directing and producing credits include the documentaries Who Killed Vincent Chin?, No Más Bebés, My America...or Honk if You Love Buddha, Calavera Highway, Skate Manzanar, Labor Women and the 5-part docuseries Asian Americans.
Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters is a 2012 American documentary film directed, produced, and shot by Ben Shapiro. It premiered March 10, 2012 at the South by Southwest Film Festival and is distributed by Zeitgeist Films.
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Richard Rowley is a documentary filmmaker. His films and TV shows have received three Emmy awards, an Oscar nomination, and other awards and nominations, as well as recognition at film festivals around the world.
William Brangham is an American journalist who is currently a correspondent, producer, and substitute anchor for the PBS NewsHour. Before, he worked as a producer for several other television programs, mostly for PBS. He has won two Peabody Awards and three News & Documentary Emmy Awards.
Samuel D. Pollard is an American film director, editor, producer, and screenwriter. His films have garnered numerous awards such as Peabodys, Emmys, and an Academy Award nomination. In 2020, the International Documentary Association gave him a career achievement award. Spike Lee, whose films Pollard has edited and produced, described him as being "a master filmmaker." Henry Louis Gates Jr. characterizes Pollard's work in this way: "When I think about his documentaries, they add up to a corpus — a way of telling African-American history in its various dimensions."
Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes is a 2023 documentary film about the drummer, bandleader, and activist Max Roach. The film was directed by Sam Pollard and Ben Shapiro, edited by Russell Greene, with cinematography by Shapiro. The film premiered at the 2023 South by Southwest Film Festival.