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November 4-8, 2003
Gordon Quinn
Read an
interview with Quinn from his visit>>
President and founding member of Kartemquin
Films, Gordon Quinn has been making documentaries for over 35
years as an executive producer, producer, director, cameraman and
editor.
Roger Ebert, of the Chicago Sun Times, called his
first film Home For Life (1966) “ . . . an extraordinarily
moving documentary." With Home for Life Gordon and
Kartemquin established the direction they would take over the next
three decades, making films that investigate and critique society
by documenting the unfolding lives of real people.
 Recently
Gordon won the Documentary Cinematography Award at the Sundance
Film Festival for Stevie on which he was also the executive
producer and producer. The film portrays a troubled young man and
the director’s relationship with him. Stevie premiered
at the Toronto Film Festival and won the Joris Ivens Grand Jury
Prize in the Amsterdam festival. On Kartemquin’s Refrigerator
Mothers, Gordon was again executive producer, producer and
cinematographer. Refrigerator Mothers explores the untold
stories of an entire generation of women who raised autistic children
under the dehumanizing shadow of professionally promoted mother
blame. Refrigerator Mothers was broadcast nationally PBS’s
P.O.V in the of 2002. “A remarkable documentary . . . for
the viewer an hour with these mothers will be hard to forget,”
writes Karen Long of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
In 2001 Gordon was executive producer of Kartemquin’s 5
Girls, which also premiered on P.O.V. The film follows two
years in the lives of five resilient teenage girls. The New York
Times writes, “At a time when the country is hungry for hope,
there’s a welcome helping in 5 Girls.
Gordon produced and directed Vietnam, Long Time
Coming (1999). Broadcast nationally on NBC, the film tells
the story of disabled and able-bodied Vietnamese and American veterans,
brought together on a journey of reconciliation, athletic achievements
and emotional discovery as they bicycle the length of Vietnam. Vietnam,
Long Time Coming won the Audience Award at the Aspen Film Festival,
a National Emmy, and the Director's Guild of America's award for
Best Documentary.
Kartemquin’s best-known film Hoop Dreams
(1994) was executive produced by Gordon. The film follows two inner-city
high school basketball players for five years, as they pursue their
NBA dreams. Hoop Dreams won the Audience Award at the Sundance
Film Festival and was released theatrically to unprecedented critical
acclaim, becoming one of the highest grossing documentaries of all
time and one of the highest rated documentaries to be broadcast
on PBS.
Some of Gordon’s early award-winning Kartemquin
productions include The Chicago Maternity Center Story
(1976), about saving 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) and The Last Pullman Car (1983), three films on
union democracy and corporate disinvestments, and GOLUB (1990),
a documentary on art, politics and the media, featuring American
artist Leon Golub.
Gordon is currently executive producer of The
New Americans; a seven-part PBS documentary series on contemporary
immigration that will air on PBS in the fall of 2003. He is co-director,
with Jerry Blumenthal, of the Palestinian segment for the series.
Gordon has been a long-time supporter of national
and community-based independent media groups, and served on the
boards of several organizations including The National Coalition
of Public Broadcast Producers, The Chicago Public Access Corporation,
and the Illinois Humanities Council.
Click
here to see the full Kartemquin Filmography>>
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