Director and founding member of Kartemquin Films, Gordon Quinn has been making documentaries for over 40 years. Roger Ebert, of the Chicago Sun Times, called his first film Home for Life (1966) "an extraordinarily moving documentary." With Home for Life Gordon established the direc on he would take for the next four decades, making cinéma vérité films that inves gate and cri que society by documen ng the unfolding lives of real people.
At Kartemquin, Gordon created a legacy that is an inspira on for young filmmakers and a home where they make social‐issue documentaries. Kartemquin’s best‐known film, Hoop Dreams (1994), execu ve produced by Gordon, was released theatrically to unprecedented cri cal acclaim. The film follows two inner‐city high school basketball players for five years as they pursue their NBA dreams. Its many honors include: the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Fes val, The Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, Chicago Film Cri cs Award ‐ Best Picture, Los Angeles Film Cri cs Associa on ‐ Best Documentary and an Academy Award Nomina on.
Some of Gordon’s other film include Vietnam, Long Time Coming, Golub, Taylor Chain, The Last Pullman Car and the Chicago Maternity Center. He execu ve produced or produced 5 Girls, Refrigerator Mothers, and Stevie. Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita and The New Americans (he also directed the Pales nian segment of this award winning, in mate, seven‐hour PBS series). Recently he produced a film that deals with the human consequences gene c medicine, In The Family, and execu ve produced two films, one about community‐ based conserva on in Africa: Milking the Rhino, and At The Death House Door on a wrongful execu on in Texas. He’s currently direc ng A Good Man about dancer Bill T. Jones for American Masters, just completed Prisoner of Her Past as Director, and No Crossover, the Trial of Allen Iverson as Execu ve Producer.
Gordon is a supporter of public and community media and has served on the boards of several organiza ons including The Illinois Humani es Council, The Chicago Public Access Corpora on, and The Public Square Advisory Commi ee, The Illinois Advisory Commi ee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Gordon was a leader in crea ng the Documentary Filmmakers Statement of Best Prac ces in Fair Use, and frequently speaks to the media, legal, and educa onal communi es about this fundamental right.
Con nued‐ Joanna has been a producer with Kartemquin since 2003. In late 2008, she le the posi on of Director of Development for the company to pursue filmmaking full me. She is currently developing a new film with Kartemquin on photographer Rick Guido , who le the world of fashion photography to use his lens to challenge the way we see beauty by photographing individuals with gene c condi ons.
Joanna is also producing A Good Man, a feature‐length co‐produc on with Kartemquin, the Ravinia Fes val, Media Process Group and American Masters, following the crea on of a major dance piece by the choreographer Bill T. Jones on Abraham Lincoln to premiere at Ravinia in September of 2009.
Joanna produced and directed In the Family, her personal story of tes ng posi ve for the hereditary "breast cancer" gene and an explora on into the psychological, social, legal and ethical challenges surrounding predic ve gene c tes ng. The film premiered at Silverdocs in 2008, was broadcast na onally on PBS' P.O.V. the same year and was a finalist for the NIHCM Founda on’s Health Care Radio and Television Journalism Award.
Before coming to Kartemquin, Joanna co‐produced a film on war photographer Robert Capa for the American Masters series at WNET in New York. Robert Capa in Love and War was broadcast on PBS and the BBC, premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Fes val and was the presen ng film for the 2003 Emmy award for Outstanding Nonfic on Series.
Prior to the Capa project, Joanna worked for American Masters for three years contribu ng to numerous films including Juilliard, Ella Fitzgerald: Something to Live For and Joe Papp: In Six Acts. Joanna also worked to help research and develop a 6‐part series on the American novel, funded in part by the Na onal Endowment for the Humani es.
Joanna received a Master’s degree in Science and Environmental Journalism from New York University and a Bachelor’s degree in English from Northwestern University. She is currently an adjunct professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.
Con nued‐ Howard Reich has been a Chicago Tribune arts cri c and writer since 1983. In addi on to covering jazz, blues and gospel music for the Tribune, he has authored several inves ga ve reports, including ar cles on the systema c the of royal es from the jazz composer Jelly Roll Morton, the illicit trade in looted musical instruments and the hidden story of his mother's Holocaust past. His inves ga ons have been featured on ABC‐TV's "Nightline" and various Na onal Public Radio programs. He is the author of three books: "The First and Final Nightmare of Sonia Reich: A Son's Memoir" (2006); "Jelly's Blues: The Life, Music and Redemp on of Jelly Roll Morton" (2003), wri en with William Gaines; and "Van Cliburn" (1993).
Howard has been wri ng on culture since 1976 and has won two Deems Taylor Awards from ASCAP; the Alumni Merit Award from Northwestern University's Alumni Associa on; six Peter Lisagor Awards from the Society of Professional Journalists; two William Jones Awards and the Outstanding Professional Performance Award from the Chicago Tribune; the Excellence in Journalism Award from the Chicago Associa on of Black Journalists; and the Sarah Brown Boyden Award from the Chicago Press Veterans Associa on, among other honors. His assignments have taken him to many of the world's cultural capitals, including Havana, Moscow, London, Paris, Vienna, Munich, Warsaw, Prague, Montreal and Panama City.
He is a long me correspondent for DownBeat magazine and lives in a Chicago suburb with his wife, Pam Becker, an editor at the Chicago Tribune.
Con nued‐ A founding partner of Kartemquin Films, Jerry Blumenthal has been a director, producer, editor and sound recordist with Kartemquin since 1967. Blumenthal's film, Golub: Late Works are the Catastrophes (2004) ‐ co‐produced with Gordon Quinn ‐ revisits the great American thirteen years a er the award‐winning Golub (1988) and was an official selec on of the 2004 Interna onal Documentary Fes val Amsterdam (IDFA).
Vietnam, Long Time Coming (with Quinn and Peter Gilbert) aired on NBC and earned a na onal Emmy and the Directors Guild of America Award for Best Documentary of 1999. Among his many other films, Blumenthal lists The Last Pullman Car, the two Taylor Chain films, The Chicago Maternity Center Story, and the Pales nian story in Kartemquin's seven‐ hour PBS series, The New Americans (2004).
Zak is Kartemquin Films' Director of Produc on and has been on staff since 2002. Most recently he served as Co‐Producer on At the Death House Door. That film premiered at the 2008 SXSW Film Fes val and won awards at the Atlanta Film Fes val, the Full Frame Documentary Fes val, DOC NZ, and Doc Aviv. It was a finalist for the Human Rights award at IDFA in 2008 and was officially short‐listed in the Best Documentary category for the 81st Annual Academy Awards.
Currently, Zak is co‐producing The Interrupters with Steve James and Alex Kotlowitz, an ITVS‐ funded project that will air as part of the Frontline series in 2011. He has served as Loca on Sound Recordist for At The Death House Door, In the Family, and Typeface. Previously, he has recorded sound on a variety of documentaries for the CBC, Channel 4, and PBS.
Zak began at Kartemquin by serving as Post Produc on Manager and Audio Mixer on the acclaimed PBS documentary mini‐series, The New Americans. He received his Bachelor’s Degree from Columbia College Chicago in 2001 in Film and Video. Con nued‐ Jim Trompeter is an award‐winning composer, performer, and instructor in Chicago. His richly varied composi onal styles can be heard on the Oprah Winfrey Show, HBO’s “The Sopranos” and ABC News.
He has played with an impressive array of musicians over the years and as a member of Gloria Estefan’s “Miami Sound Machine”, he performed in over 350 live and televised concerts worldwide. He performed on the band’s double pla num recording, "Let it Loose," and composed and arranged for its live tours. Jim also toured with Jazz Trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, Jon Secada, Boy George, Amy Grant, Tony Randall, David Lee Roth, Joe Mantegna, Whitney Houston, Sammy Davis Jr., Oprah Winfrey, Shecky Green, Art Garfunkel, Dennis Miller, Sinbad, Paul Rodriguez, Freddie Hubbard, Joe Lovano, Arturo Sandoval, Kurt Elling, Bob James, Dave Liebman, Randy Brecker, Cris an Mcbride, Tim Hagans, Rick Margitza, Steve Rodby, Paul Wer co, Paquito D'Rivera, Bobby Mintzer, Eddie Daniels, Fareed Haque, Conte Condoli, Lou Marini, Andy Narell, Richie Cole, Sco Wendholt, George Garzone, Louis Bellson, Bill Watrous, and Carl Fontana, Claudio Rodi , among others.
Jim won the Down Beat Magazine award for “Best Instrumental Jazz Performer”; Montreaux Jazz Fes val’s “Stan Kenton Memorial Scholarship” award for Best Performer, finalist in the “Hennessey” Na onal Jazz Fes val and five Down Beat awards in the Large Ensemble category.
As a Producer Jim’s produced and arranged BillBoard Magazine's Pop Song of the Year, “It Doesn't Really Ma er Now.” Jim was Musical Director of the 1993 Clio Awards held in New York City.
Photo by Joanna Kozek