Jeremy Kagan

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Jeremy Paul Kagan (born December 14, 1945) is an American film and television director, screenwriter and television producer.

Early life

Born in Mount Vernon, New York, Kagan received his B.A. from Harvard University in 1967 and went on to attend the newly formed New York University Graduate Institute of Film & Television was in the first class at the American Film Institute.

Film and television career

Kagan's feature film credits include the box-office hit Heroes (1977), about veterans returning from the Vietnam War, The Big Fix, a political thriller with Richard Dreyfuss, The Chosen from the classic book by Chaim Potok, and The Journey of Natty Gann, the first American movie ever to win the Gold Prize at the Moscow International Film Festival, the underground comedy Big Man On Campus, and the hybrid film Golda's Balcony from the hit play.

He has also been a prolific television director. In 1996, Kagan won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for the ""Leave of Absence" of Chicago Hope. Other credits include the television movie Katherine: The Making of an American Revolutionary, which he also wrote, and Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8 for which he won the CableACE Award for Best Dramatic Special. Kagan also directed Roswell: The UFO Conspiracy, which garnered a Golden Globe Award nomination.

Other television films include The Ballad oF Lucy Whipple, Courage with Sophia Loren, Scott Joplin, Descending Angel for HBO and for Showtime Color of Justice, Bobbie's Girl, and Crown Heights, about the riots in 1991 which won the Humanitas Award in 2004 for "affirming the dignity of every person." This film also received an NAACP Image Award and the Directors Guild nomination for best family film. Kagan also directed a movie episode of Steven Spielberg's Emmy winning Taken. He has worked on several other series shows including The West Wing, The Guardian, Resurrection Blvd., Picket Fences, Boomtown and more.

Kagan produced and directed the ten-part series The ACLU Freedom Files, in 2006 and 2007 which received a number of awards and was shown on Link TV, Court TV and PBS. Kagan recently made a number of short documentaries and advocacy films for NGOs including The Doe Fund which works with the homeless and formerly incarcerated, and The Democracy School a movement developing local governance, and Bioneers which advances achievements in environmental and social justice.

Other ventures

Kagan is a full tenured professor at the University of Southern California where he teaches the graduate courses in directing and has recently created the Center for Change Making Media which is to become a hub for research and training in advocacy cinematic techniques.

He has served as Artistic Director at the Robert Redford's Sundance Institute and is on a National Board Member of the Directors Guild of America and chairperson of its Special Projects Committee which provides cultural and educational programs for the 14,000 members. In 2004 he was honored with the Robert Aldrich Award for "extraordinary service to the guild."

Kagan is also the author of the book Directors Close Up (Scarecrow, 2006).

Personal life

Kagan lives in Venice, California with his companion Anneke Campbell who is an author and was the writer on the series Freedom Files, and his daughter Eve.

Awards and nominations

External links

• Jeremy Kagan at the Internet Movie Database