Gordon Quinn -- Staff Bios-- Center for Social Media at American University

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Staff Bios Gordon Quinn

Executive 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 direction he would take for the next four decades, making cinéma vérité films that investigate and critique society by documenting the unfolding lives of real people.

At Kartemquin, Gordon created a legacy that is an inspiration for young filmmakers and a home where they can make high-quality, social-issue documentaries. Kartemquin’s best known film, Hoop Dreams (1994), executive produced by Gordon. 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 Festival, The Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, Chicago Film Critics Award — Best Picture, Los Angeles Film Critics Association — Best Documentary and an Academy Award Nomination.

In the words of Jonathan Rosenbaum, film critic for the Chicago Reader, “Kartemquin’s work teaches you to think about politics in both a very practical and entertaining way.” This is evident in Gordon’s early work, The Chicago Maternity Center Story (1976), about the struggle to save Chicago’s historic neighborhood-based home delivery service; Taylor Chain I: Story In A Union Local (1980); Taylor Chain II: A Story Of Collective Bargaining (1984); The Last Pullman Car (1983) and Golub (1990), a documentary on art, politics and the media, featuring American artist Leon Golub.

Rosenbaum’s comments still resonate today with films like Stevie (2002), about an abused man who is failed by the system, for which Gordon (who was the film’s executive producer, producer and cinematographer) won the Cinematography Award at the Sundance Film Festival; 5 Girls (Executive Producer 2001); Refrigerator Mothers (Executive Producer/Producer 2002) and Vietnam Long Time Coming (Producer/Director 1999), the story of disabled and able-bodied Vietnamese and American veterans brought together on a journey of reconciliation. The film, broadcast on NBC, won a National Emmy and the Director’s Guild of America’s award for Best Documentary.

In 2004, Gordon executive produced The New Americans and directed the Palestinian segment of this intimate seven-hour PBS series that chronicles the journey taken by new immigrants to this country and the obstacles they face once they have arrived. The series received many awards including the IDA Best Limited Series Award and the Council on Foundations Film Festival Award. Also released in 2004, Golub: Late Works are the Catastrophes, an updated film about Leon Golub, produced by Gordon.

Recently, Gordon has been very involved as Executive Producer in a host of Kartemquin projects dealing with some of today’s most pressing social issues: Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita (the drama of scientific inquiry), In the Family (the personal and political dimension of a genetic diagnosis) and At The Death House Door (following a wrongful execution), which premiered at the 2008 SXSW Film Festival. He is presently directing a film on delayed posttraumatic stress syndrome in a childhood Holocaust survivor, Prisoner of Her Past and executive producing Milking The Rhino, about community based conservation in Africa and Typeface, a film examining the role of traditional art forms in a digital age.

A longtime advocate for robust public dialogue, Gordon promotes the ideals of fair use daily by encouraging new and seasoned filmmakers alike to educate themselves on its tenants and by taking on frequent speaking engagements to inform the larger media, legal, and educational communities. Gordon is also an avid supporter of public media, and community-based independent media groups, and has served on the boards of several organizations including The National Coalition of Public Broadcast Producers, The Citizens Committee on the Media, The Chicago Public Access Corporation, The Illinois Humanities Council, The Public Square and The IL Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.