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Steven Cantor is an American film and television director and producer. Eight of his films have been nominated for Primetime Emmy Awards, with two winning, including the 2022 Outstanding Documentary prize for When Claude Got Shot . While as a student in graduate school, Cantor was nominated for an Academy Award for his first film, Blood Ties .
Notable works include the films Twyla Moves, Citizen Ashe, Hood River, Tent City, USA, [1] Unraveled, No One Dies in Lily Dale, [2] Reporter with Nicholas Kristof, I Am an Animal , What Remains , Loudquietloud: A Film about Pixies , [3] American Masters: Willie Nelson, [4] Devil's Playground , and Dancer . Cantor directed and executive produced the HBO unscripted series Family Bonds, and has executive produced other television series through his Stick Figure Productions banner. [5] In 2017, Cantor produced STEP, documenting the senior year of a girls' high-school step dance team against the background of inner-city Baltimore. It premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival where it won a Special Jury Prize and sold to Fox Searchlight.
Cantor graduated from the USC School of Cinema-Television. He is the founder of NY based Stick Figure Productions, which he ran for 12 years, prior to selling it in 2013 to Ora, the digital network owned by Carlos Slim Helu. [6] In 2016, Cantor reacquired the company from the Slims and is now once again the sole proprietor.
Blood Ties: The Life and Work of Sally Mann (1994), directed and produced by Cantor; nominated for a 1994 Academy Award in the category of Best Short Subject Documentary; [7] examines photographer Sally Mann's pictures of her children.
Devil's Playground (2002), produced by Cantor; explores the supposed tradition in Amish culture called Rumspringa; the film follows several Amish teenagers who leave their communities to explore the non-Amish world (widely but erroneously believed a normative practice among the Amish). At some point they must decide whether to commit to the strict rules of the Amish Church, or leave their families behind to join "English" society. The film spawned a reality series, "Amish in the City", which Cantor's Stick Figure banner executive produced, as well as a non-fiction book Rumspringa by Tom Shachtman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007).
American Masters: Willie Nelson: Still is Still Moving (2002), directed and produced by Cantor, is an inside look at an American icon as he deals with two families, his relations and his nearly lifelong bandmates.
What Remains (2005), directed and produced by Cantor, studies a further project of Mann's, a provocative photo series exploring the way in which nature assimilates the body once life has left it, directly confronting American attitudes towards death. [8] The film screened first at The Sundance Film Festival in 2006 before premiering on HBO. [9]
loudQUIETloud (2006), directed and produced by Cantor, follows the ups and downs of alternative music group the Pixies in their unexpected reformation and the reunion tour.
I Am an Animal: The Story of Ingrid Newkirk and PETA (2007), produced by Cantor, is a candid and introspective look at the extreme beliefs and motives of Ingrid Newkirk, the British-born co-founder and driving force behind People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the world's largest animal-rights organization.
Reporter (2009), produced by Cantor, follows journalist Nicholas Kristof to the Democratic Republic of Congo to investigate the growing humanitarian crisis.
No One Dies in Lily Dale (2011), directed and produced by Cantor, explores the idyllic community of Lily Dale, a small town boasting the world's largest concentration of mediums (people who claim to communicate with spirits of the deceased). [10]
Unraveled (2011), produced by Cantor, scrutinizes prominent lawyer Marc Dreier's financial crimes, and depicts his struggle to come to terms with the aftermath of his actions.
Tent City, U.S.A. (2012), directed and produced by Cantor, looks at a homeless community in Nashville, Tennessee.
Chasing Tyson (2015), directed and produced by Cantor, is about Evander Holyfield's career defining quest for respectability by beating his notorious rival. [11]
Dancer (2016), directed by Cantor, is about the life of talented but controversial ballet phenom, Sergei Polunin.
STEP (2017), produced by Cantor, documents the senior year of a girls' high-school step dance team against the background of inner-city Baltimore.
Between Me and My Mind (2019), directed and produced by Cantor, is a documentary about Phish frontman Trey Anastasio. [12]
What Will Become of Us (2019), directed by Cantor, is a documentary about Sir Frank Lowy, the self-made billionaire and founder of Westfield Corporation. [13]
When Claude Got Shot (2021), produced by Cantor, is a documentary that follows three families for four years as they wind through the criminal justice system, physical rehabilitation, and personal and family trauma, all stemming from one fateful weekend.
Citizen Ashe (2021), produced by Cantor, explores the tennis career of Arthur Ashe and his impact on tennis and HIV activism.
Hood River (2021), directed and produced by Cantor, is about a high school soccer team in a small Oregon community that struggles to overcome class and racial divide in a quest for both individual and team success.
Amish in the City (2004), executive produced by Cantor; during the traditional "trying-out-the-world" season of rumspringa, five Amish young adults become roommates with six non-Amish city folk. Cultures collide in this reality-TV offering.
Family Bonds (2004), directed and executive produced by Cantor, explores the lives of the Evangelistas, a family of bail bondsmen and bounty hunters in Long Island. [14]
The Biz (2005), executive produced by Cantor, is about nine contestants competing to become the president of their own record label under Warner Music Group.
#1 Single (2006), executive produced by Cantor, documents the dating life of singer Lisa Loeb. [15]
Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane (2007–2008), executive produced by Cantor, documents the life and Baby Phat fashion empire of former model Kimora Lee Simmons. [16]
Repossessed! (2009–2010), executive produced by Cantor, is about "repo men" who repossess peoples' possessions.
Amish: Out of Order (2012) Executive produced by Cantor, documents Mose Gingerich, an Ex-Amish man living in Missouri, and the group of Ex-Amish youths he guides and helps to adapt to English society.
American Gypsies (2012), executive produced by Cantor, is a look into the clandestine world of gypsies, through the eyes of one of the most powerful families in New York, the Johns Family.
Catching Hell (2014), executive produced by Cantor; a team of underwater spear fishermen battle the challenges of the seas, while trying to eke out a living.
The Mask with Henrik Lundqvist (2015), executive produced by Cantor, is a series that features Lundqvist in one-on-one interviews with his celebrity friends as they design the perfect goalie masks.
30 for 30 Shorts (2013 and 2015), executive produced by Cantor; inspired by ESPN's anniversary, ESPN Films' 30 for 30 is a documentary series featuring films from various storytellers.
The Collectors (2014–2015), executive produced by Cantor; the staff of the blog FiveThirtyEight tell the stories of professional statisticians, such as the official scorer at a baseball game, a U.S. Census taker or meteorologist.
30 for 30 (2015), produced by Cantor, is a collection of documentary films focused on sports.
Born in Synanon (2023), produced by Cantor; Cassidy Arkin searches for truth about Synanon, the program she grew up in which descended into a cult. [17]
Year | Film | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1994 | Blood Ties: The Life and Work of Sally Mann | Director/Producer | Nominated — Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) |
1996 | Recon | Director/Producer | |
2000 | Bounce: Behind the Velvet Rope | Director/Producer | |
2001 | Crossover | Producer | |
2002 | Devil's Playground | Producer | Nominated — Emmy Award |
2002 | Willie Nelson: Still is Still Moving | Director/Producer | Won — Emmy Award |
2003 | The AMC Project | Executive Producer | |
2004 | Slasher | Producer | |
2004 | Amish in the City | Executive Producer | |
2004 | Family Bonds | Executive Producer | Nominated — Emmy Award |
2005 | What Remains | Director/Producer | Nominated — Emmy Award |
2005 | The Biz | Executive Producer | |
2006 | #1 Single | Executive Producer | |
2006 | loudQUIETloud: A film about the Pixies | Director/Producer | |
2007 | James Blunt: Return to Kosovo | Director/Producer | |
2007 | I Am an Animal: The Story of Ingrid Newkirk and PETA | Producer | |
2007–2008 | Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane | Executive Producer | |
2009 | Reporter | Producer | Nominated — Emmy Award |
2009 | Inside: Night Shift – Repo Men | Executive Producer | |
2009 | Guardian Angels | Executive Producer | |
2009–2010 | Repossessed! | Executive Producer | |
2010 | Amish at the Altar | Executive Producer | |
2010 | Amish: Out of the Order | Executive Producer | |
2011 | Tent City, U.S.A. | Producer | |
2011 | No One Dies in Lily Dale | Producer | Nominated — Emmy Award |
2011 | Unraveled | Producer | |
2012 | Amish: Out of Order | Executive Producer | |
2012 | American Gypsies | Executive Producer | |
2013 | 30 for 30 Shorts | Executive Producer | |
2014 | Catching Hell | Executive Producer | |
2014–2015 | The Collectors | Executive Producer | |
2015 | 30 for 30 Shorts | Executive Producer | |
2015 | 30 for 30 | Producer | |
2015 | Chasing Tyson | Director | |
2015 | The Mask with Henrik Lundqvist | Executive Producer | |
2015 | Spike Lee's Lil Joints and of the Son: The Legacy of David & Jackie Robinson | Executive Producer | |
2016 | Dancer | Director | |
2017 | STEP | Producer | |
2018 | Ballet Now | Director | |
2019 | Between Me and My Mind | Director | |
2019 | What Will Become of Us | Director | |
2021 | When Claude Got Shot | Producer | Won - Exceptional Merit In Documentary Filmmaking 2022 |
2021 | Citizen Ashe | Producer | |
2021 | Hood River | Director/Producer | |
2021 | Relentless | Executive Producer | |
2021 | Twyla Moves | Director |
Rory Elizabeth Katherine Kennedy is an American documentary filmmaker. Kennedy has made documentary films that center on social issues such as addiction, her opposition to nuclear power, the treatment of prisoners-of-war, and the politics of the Mexican border fence. She is the youngest child of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel.
Rumspringa, also spelled Rumschpringe or Rumshpringa, is a rite of passage during adolescence, translated from originally Palatine German and other Southwest German dialects to English as "jumping or hopping around", used in some Amish communities. The Amish, a subsect of the Anabaptist Christian movement, intentionally segregate themselves from other communities as a part of their faith. For Amish youth, the Rumspringa normally begins at age 16 and ends when a youth chooses either to be baptized in the Amish church or to leave the community. For Wenger Mennonites, Rumspringa occurs mostly between ages of 17 and 21.
Devil's Playground is a 2002 American documentary film directed by Lucy Walker about the experiences of several Amish youths who decide whether to remain in or leave their community and faith during the period known as rumspringa. The film follows a few Amish teenagers in LaGrange County, Indiana who enter the "English" (non-Amish) world and experience partying, drinking, illegal drugs, and pre-marital sex. Some teens in the film profess that they will eventually become baptized as adults in the Amish community. If they are baptized, then leave the church, they will be shunned by family and friends; one girl recounts her experience of this.
Synanon, originally known as Tender Loving Care, was a new religious movement founded in 1958 by Charles E. "Chuck" Dederich Sr. in Santa Monica, California, United States. Originally established as a drug rehabilitation program, Synanon developed into an alternative community centered on group truth-telling sessions that came to be known as the "Synanon Game", a form of attack therapy.
Doug Pray is an American documentary film director, producer, editor, and cinematographer who often explores unique subcultures in his films.
Matthew Galkin is an American film director and producer, best known for his work in documentaries. He is the founder and CEO of Fairhaven, a New York-based production company founded in 2018. In June 2019, Galkin and Fairhaven entered an overall deal with Industrial Media.
Blood Ties: The Life and Work of Sally Mann is a 1994 American short documentary film directed by Steven Cantor and Peter Spirer. It was premiered at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.
Mark Mori is an American documentary filmmaker, television producer and screenwriter of documentary and reality television series and specials.
What Remains: The Life and Work of Sally Mann is a 2005 film directed and produced by Steven Cantor, which documents the photography and story of photographer Sally Mann at her Virginia farm home. The film documents the photographer's progression from a child to a mother, and the struggles Mann faces through her public and private life.
Amy J. Berg is an American filmmaker. Her 2006 documentary Deliver Us from Evil (2006), about sex abuse cases in the Roman Catholic Church, was nominated for an Academy Award and won Berg the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Documentary Screenplay.
Steven Ascher is an American independent director, producer and writer. He was nominated for an Academy Award and has received the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival among many other awards. His book The Filmmaker’s Handbook is a bestselling text.
Peter Spirer, founder of Rugged Entertainment, is an Academy and Emmy Award-Nominated director and producer whose films have been official selections at Sundance Film Festival.
The Amish is a 2012 documentary film created by PBS as an episode of American Experience. The documentary, as the title implies, is centered on the Amish. It was uploaded on the PBS website in February 2012. Topics in the video range from the Ordnung to the Nickel Mines shooting to Rumspringa. The documentary was written and directed by David Belton. The documentary includes interviews of current and former Amish. A companion book was released in 2013.
Cable News Network Films is a motion picture division of CNN under Warner Bros. Pictures, originally launched in 2012. Its first film, Girl Rising premiered in spring 2013 in the United States.
Mose J. Gingerich is an Amish-born documentary-maker and the author of Amish fiction murder/mystery novels. Gingerich was born in an Old Order Amish community in Greenwood, Wisconsin.
Dawn Porter is an American documentary filmmaker and founder of production company Trilogy Films.
Matthew Heineman is an American documentary filmmaker, director, and producer. His inspiration and fascination with American history led him to early success with the documentary film Cartel Land, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film, a BAFTA Award for Best Documentary, and won three Primetime Emmy Awards.
Karim Amer is an Egyptian-American film producer and director. He worked on The Square (2013) and The Great Hack (2019); the former was the first Egyptian film to earn an Academy Award nomination and went on to win three Emmy Awards, while the latter got nominated for an Emmy and a BAFTA Award. In 2020, he produced and directed The Vow, an HBO documentary series about the self-improvement group, NXIVM. In 2022, he produced and directed Flight/Risk for Amazon Studios, revolving around whistleblowers at Boeing.
Citizen Ashe is an 2021 American-British documentary film directed by Rex Miller and Sam Pollard revolving around the life and career of Arthur Ashe. Alex Gibney and John Legend were two of the executive producers.
The Synanon Fix is an American documentary series directed and produced by Rory Kennedy. It explores the rise and fall of Synanon, told through the eyes of former members, into its descent into a cult.