Sebastian Junger is an American journalist, author and filmmaker who has reported in-the-field on dirty, dangerous and demanding occupations and the experience of infantry combat. He is the author of The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea (1997) which was adapted into a major motion picture and led to a resurgence in adventure creative nonfiction writing. He covered the War in Afghanistan for more than a decade, often embedded in dangerous and remote military outposts. The book War (2010) was drawn from his field reporting for Vanity Fair, that also served as the background for the documentary film Restrepo (2010) which received the Grand Jury Prize for best documentary at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Junger's works explore themes such as brotherhood, trauma, and the relationship of the individual to society as told from the far reaches of human experience.
Dolores Clara Fernández Huerta is an American labor leader and civil rights activist who, with Cesar Chavez, is a co-founder of the National Farmworkers Association, which later merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee to become the United Farm Workers (UFW). Huerta helped organize the Delano grape strike in 1965 in California and was the lead negotiator in the workers' contract that was created after the strike.
Barbara Kopple is an American film director known primarily for her documentary work. She is credited with pioneering a renaissance of cinema vérité, and bringing the historic french style to a modern American audience.
Luis Miguel Valdez is an American playwright, screenwriter, film director and actor. Regarded as the father of Chicano film and playwriting, Valdez is best known for his play Zoot Suit, his movie La Bamba, and his creation of El Teatro Campesino. A pioneer in the Chicano Movement, Valdez broadened the scope of theatre and arts of the Chicano community.
The Downtown Community Television Center or DCTV is a community media center located in the former Engine Company 31 firehouse in Manhattan's Civic Center on Lafayette Street. It was founded in 1972 by spouses documentary film director Jon Alpert and Keiko Tsuno.
Elizabeth Freya Garbus is an American documentary film director and producer. Notable documentaries Garbus has made are The Farm: Angola, USA,Ghosts of Abu Ghraib,Bobby Fischer Against the World,Love, Marilyn,What Happened, Miss Simone?, and Becoming Cousteau. She is co-founder and co-director of the New York City-based documentary film production company Story Syndicate.
Hitler Lives is a 1945 American short documentary film directed by Don Siegel, who was uncredited. The film won an Oscar at the 18th Academy Awards in 1946 for Documentary Short Subject. Earlier the same year, Siegel made his directorial debut on another short film Star in the Night (1945), which also won an Academy Award. The film's copyright was renewed.
Number Our Days is a 1976 American short documentary film about a community of elderly Jews in Venice, California. It was directed by Lynne Littman and aired on KCET's news show 28 Tonight. The Academy Film Archive preserved Number Our Days in 2007.
Defending Our Lives is a 1993 American short documentary film directed by Margaret Lazarus, Stacey Kabat and Renner Wunderlich. It won an Oscar at the 66th Academy Awards in 1994 for Documentary Short Subject.
Jonathan David Stack is an American documentary filmmaker. He is also a co-founder of World Vasectomy Day.
Marshall Curry is an Oscar-winning American documentary director, producer, cinematographer and editor. His films include Street Fight, Racing Dreams, If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, Point and Shoot, and A Night at the Garden. His first fiction film was the Academy Award-winning short film The Neighbors' Window (2019).
The Farm: Angola, USA is a 1998 award-winning documentary set in the notorious and largest American maximum-security prison, Louisiana State Penitentiary, known as Angola. Loosely based on articles published in Life Sentences, drawn from the prison magazine, The Angolite, the film was directed and produced by Jonathan Stack and Liz Garbus. Wilbert Rideau, a life prisoner who had been editor of the magazine since 1975, also participated in direction and was credited on the film.
The Final Inch is a short documentary about the effort to eradicate polio. It was directed by Irene Taylor Brodsky and focuses on health workers on the front lines of the fight to eliminate the disease. It was filmed on location in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India, and received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Documentary at the 81st Academy Awards.
Shine Global Inc, is a non-profit media company that was founded in 2005 by Susan MacLaury, and Albie Hecht. Susan MacLaury is the Executive Director of Shine Global, a licensed social worker, and former health professor at Kean University. Albie Hecht is an entertainment executive and founder of Worldwide Biggies, head of HLN from 2013-2015 and currently serves as chief content officer of PocketWatch. Shine Global has produced projects including War/Dance, a 2008 Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary and Inocente the Academy Award Winner for Best Documentary Short Subject in 2013.
The Harvest is a 2010 documentary film about agricultural child labor in America. The film depicts children as young as 12 years of age who work as many as 12 hours a day, six months a year, subject to hazardous conditions: heat exposure, pesticides, and dangerous work. The agriculture industry has been subject to significantly more lenient labor laws than any other occupation in the United States. As a result, lack of consistent schooling significantly limits their opportunities of succeeding in high school or more. The hazardous conditions threaten their health and lives. The purpose of the documentary is to bring awareness of the harsh working conditions which tens of thousands of children face in the fields of the United States each year and to enact the Children's Act for Responsible Employment which will bring parity of labor conditions to field workers that are afforded to minors in other occupations.
Cambridge Documentary Films is a non profit organization established in Massachusetts in 1974. The purpose of the organization is to create new perspectives on important social issues and give voice to groups and individuals whose perspectives are ignored by mainstream media. Cambridge Documentary Films produces and distributes award-winning documentaries to thousands of universities, community organizations, schools, libraries and public interest organizations throughout the United States and the world. These films have won numerous awards, including an Academy Award and have been screened at the UN General Assembly, The White House, the Office of the Vice President, the US Congress and numerous state houses. The subjects include: advertising's image of women, domestic violence, trauma, rape, eating disorders, self-esteem, media literacy, homophobia, the labor movement, gender roles, career counseling, nuclear war, reproductive health hazards, the women's health movement, gay and lesbian parenting and other social issues.
Renner Wunderlich is an American film producer/film director known for his work in documentary film. He and his partner, Margaret Lazarus, received an Oscar in 1993 for their documentary Defending Our Lives, about battered women who were in prison for killing their abusers. Renner Wunderlich was born in St Louis Missouri, son of a Navy captain and an employee of National Geographic Society. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri to Erlynne Renner Wunderlich and Harry Joseph Wunderlich. He graduated from Boston College and has a Masters in Social Work.
Todd Boekelheide is an American composer based in the San Francisco Bay Area, best known for his work scoring documentary films. He won an Academy Award for Best Sound and was nominated for another in the same category.
Guy Davidi is an Israeli documentary filmmaker. His movie 5 Broken Cameras was nominated for the 2013 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Davidi also won the Best Directing Award along with Palestinian co-director Emad Burnat in the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and the 2013 international Emmy Award as well as numerous awards worldwide.
Julia Bell Reichert was an American Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker, activist, and feminist. She was a co-founder of New Day Films. Reichert's filmmaking career spanned over 50 years as a director and producer of documentaries.
