Directors
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- Producer
- Writer
- Director
A whiz-kid with special effects, Robert is from the Spielberg camp of film-making (Steven Spielberg produced many of his films). Usually working with writing partner Bob Gale, Robert's earlier films show he has a talent for zany comedy (Romancing the Stone (1984), 1941 (1979)) and special effect vehicles (Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and Back to the Future (1985)). His later films have become more serious, with the hugely successful Tom Hanks vehicle Forrest Gump (1994) and the Jodie Foster film Contact (1997), both critically acclaimed movies. Again, these films incorporate stunning effects. Robert has proved he can work a serious story around great effects.- Writer
- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
After training as a painter (he storyboards his films as full-scale paintings), Kurosawa entered the film industry in 1936 as an assistant director, eventually making his directorial debut with Sanshiro Sugata (1943). Within a few years, Kurosawa had achieved sufficient stature to allow him greater creative freedom. Drunken Angel (1948) was the first film he made without extensive studio interference, and marked his first collaboration with Toshirô Mifune. In the coming decades, the two would make 16 movies together, and Mifune became as closely associated with Kurosawa's films as was John Wayne with the films of Kurosawa's idol, John Ford. After working in a wide range of genres, Kurosawa made his international breakthrough film Rashomon (1950) in 1950. It won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival, and first revealed the richness of Japanese cinema to the West. The next few years saw the low-key, touching Ikiru (1952) (Living), the epic Seven Samurai (1954), the barbaric, riveting Shakespeare adaptation Throne of Blood (1957), and a fun pair of samurai comedies Yojimbo (1961) and Sanjuro (1962). After a lean period in the late 1960s and early 1970s, though, Kurosawa attempted suicide. He survived, and made a small, personal, low-budget picture with Dodes'ka-den (1970), a larger-scale Russian co-production Dersu Uzala (1975) and, with the help of admirers Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas, the samurai tale Kagemusha: The Shadow Warrior (1980), which Kurosawa described as a dry run for Ran (1985), an epic adaptation of Shakespeare's "King Lear." He continued to work into his eighties with the more personal Dreams (1990), Rhapsody in August (1991) and Madadayo (1993). Kurosawa's films have always been more popular in the West than in his native Japan, where critics have viewed his adaptations of Western genres and authors (William Shakespeare, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Maxim Gorky and Evan Hunter) with suspicion - but he's revered by American and European film-makers, who remade Rashomon (1950) as The Outrage (1964), Seven Samurai (1954), as The Magnificent Seven (1960), Yojimbo (1961), as A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and The Hidden Fortress (1958), as Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977).- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Lucy Walker was born in London, England, UK. She is known for The Crash Reel (2013), Waste Land (2010) and Blindsight (2006).- Producer
- Director
- Actor
Hu Guan was born on 1 August 1968 in Beijing, China. He is a producer and director, known for Mr. Six (2015), The Eight Hundred (2020) and Dou niu (2009).- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Jos Stelling was born on 16 July 1945 in Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands. He is a director and writer, known for The Illusionist (1983), De wisselwachter (1986) and The Girl and Death (2012).- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Alex Gibney was born on 23 October 1953 in New York City, New York, USA. He is a producer and director, known for Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005), Taxi to the Dark Side (2007) and Going Clear: Scientology & the Prison of Belief (2015). He has been married to Anne Gibney since 14 August 1982. They have three children.- Director
- Producer
- Writer
One of Canada's most provocative and in-demand directors, Jerry Ciccoritti has directed feature films, television movies and mini-series, and garnered accolades in all mediums over the course of his career. His features have consistently been invited to film festivals throughout the world and, in television, he has been awarded a Gemini for Best Film, seven Geminis for Best Director, three Directors Guild of Canada Awards and a Genie nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.
A second-generation Italian-Canadian, Jerry has always made telling Canadian stories--particularly ones that reflect issues of the immigrant experience in Canada--a career priority. He has directed biographies of some of our most influential and inspiring citizens, including the critically acclaimed Trudeau (2002) mini-series. With "Trudeau", Ciccoritti made exciting and dynamic television about a Canadian for Canadians, and changed the face of home-grown television in the process. In the recent past he directed the adaptation of the beloved novel Lives of the Saints (2004), recounting the personal story of an Italian family that immigrated to Canada; the harrowing true story of a woman's fight for justice in The Many Trials of One Jane Doe (2002); a true account of the murder of Nancy Eaton, The Death and Life of Nancy Eaton (2004); and the emotional bio-pic of singer Shania Twain, Shania: A Life in Eight Albums (2005).
Jerry first began working in film in his 20s, writing and directing low-budget indie horror films such as Psycho Girls (1986), Graveyard Shift (1986) and Graveyard Shift II (1989), establishing himself as a genre cult figure. Jerry turned his hand to television in the early 1990s, where he quickly earned critical acclaim and awards working on projects including The Hitchhiker (1983), La Femme Nikita (1997), Catwalk (1992), Due South (1994) and the groundbreaking mini-series Straight Up (1996) I and II. It was his work on television movies, however, that brought him the greatest degree of recognition. He was awarded Gemini Awards for Best Direction for Net Worth (1995), Chasing Cain (2001).
While honing his distinctive style in television, Ciccoritti continued making feature films such as the controversial Paris, France (1993), a box-office hit and included in the collection "The 50 Most Erotic Films of All Time". His 1999 feature The Life Before This (1999) was selected for the Toronto and Berlin film festivals and earned Catherine O'Hara a Genie Award as Best Supporting Actress. Boy Meets Girl (1998), which also premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, was named Best Film at the Cologne Film Festival.
In 2004 Jerry brought a very personal film, Blood (2004), adapted from the stage play of the same name, to the Toronto International Film Festival. A highly experimental work that challenges notions of singular perception and truth, "Blood" became a festival favorite, won him a Genie nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay and, most recently, a Directors Guild of Canada award nomination for Best Achievement in Direction for a feature film.
Alongside his nomination for "Blood", Jerry has also been nominated by the Directors Guild for Best Achievement in Direction in the TV movie/mini-series category, for "Lives of the Saints". It is the first time he has been nominated for television and feature film simultaneously - a very fitting acknowledgment for a man who has worked so fluidly in both mediums.- Composer
- Music Department
- Writer
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Glass worked in his father's radio store and discovered music listening to the offbeat Western classical records customers didn't seem to want. He studied the violin and flute, and obtained early admission to the University of Chicago. After graduating in mathematics and philosophy, he went to New York's Juilliard school, drove a cab, and studied composition with Darius Milhaud and others.
At 23, he moved to Paris to study under the legendary Nadia Boulanger, who taught almost all of the major Western classical composers of the 20th century. While there, he discovered Indian classical music while transcribing the works of Ravi Shankar into Western musical notation for a French filmmaker. A creative turning point, Glass researched non-Western music in India and parts of Africa, and applied the techniques to his own composition.
Back in the United States, Glass spent the late 1960s and early 1970s driving a taxi cab in New York and creating a major collection of new music. In 1976, his landmark opera "Einstein on the Beach" was staged by Robert Wilson to a baffling variety of reviews. His compositions were so avant-garde that he had to form the Philip Glass Ensemble to give them a venue for performance. Although called a minimalist by the Western classical mainstream, he denies this categorization. His major works include opera, theater pieces, dance, and song.
His work in film, beginning with Koyaanisqatsi (1982), gave filmmakers such as Godfrey Reggio and Errol Morris a new venue of expression through the documentary form. His many recordings have also widened his audience. He was commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera to compose "The Voyage" for the Columbus quinquacentennial in 1992. In 1996, he composed original music for the Atlanta Olympic Games, which, perhaps, made Glass almost mainstream. Glass remains one of the most important American composers. His music is distinctive, haunting, and evocative. Either performed by itself or in collaboration with other media, his compositions move the listener to unexplored places. More recently, a major reexamination of Glass's oeuvre has led him to be labeled the Last Romantic by the musical press.- Writer
- Director
- Editor
Alberto Cavallone was born on 28 August 1938 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Afrika (1973), La gemella erotica (1980) and Dal nostro inviato a Copenaghen (1970). He was married to Maria Pia Luzi. He died on 12 November 1997 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.