Jeremy Kagan is an internationally
recognized
director/writer/producer of feature films and television and a well
known teacher.
Some of his feature credits include the box-office hits HEROES,
the political thriller THE BIG FIX, THE CHOSEN (2 time Grand
Prize winner) from Chaim Potok's classic novel, and THE JOURNEY OF NATTY GANN (first U.S. film to win a Gold Prize at the Moscow Film
Festival).
Among
his many television shows are KATHERINE: THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN
REVOLUTIONARY, DR. QUINN: MEDICINE WOMAN, and HBO’s CONSPIRACY: THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 8 (ACE
Award for Best Dramatic Special). His film ROSWELL, THE UFO CONSPIRACY garnered a Golden Globe nomination, and he directed the pilot for the hit series. Other television films include DESCENDING ANGEL for HBO about former Nazi criminals disguising themselves in the US and for Showtime COLOR OF JUSTICE about racism. Mr. Kagan has won an EMMY for Dramatic Series Directing and directed "West Wing" and Spielberg's "Taken".
His
movie BOBBIE'S GIRL about a lesbian couple was one of the highest rated
films on Showtime and CROWN HEIGHTS won the Humanitas Award in 2004 for "affirming the
dignity of every person." This film also received an NACCP Award and the
Directors Guild Nomination for best family film. His latest “hybrid” movie is GOLDA’S
BALCONY about the struggles in the middle east.
In 2007, he produced and
directed the 10 part series FREEDOM FILES broadcast on Court and Link TV as
well as the net and as a DVD. The series is about threats to civil liberties covering issues
from the Supreme Court, and the Patriot Act, to Dissent, Gay and Lesbian
Rights, and racial profiling. He has made films for The Doe Fund which is
the most successful program in America helping the homeless and for The
Bioneers which organizes leaders in ecology and social justice and TreePeople
which organizes ecological transformation of cities.
Mr. Kagan is a Full Tenured
Professor at the University of Southern California where he teaches the
graduate courses in directing and where he created the Change Making Media Lab. He is currently working as a Co PI on an NIH grant dealing with cervical cancer
where CMML is making a documentary and a drama comparing the effectiveness of
each form on specific populations to motivate change. CMML also received a
grant for a series dealing with middle school kids and obesity.
Professor Kagan has
served as the Artistic Director of Robert Redford's Sundance Institute and is
on the National Board of the Directors Guild and Chairperson of its Special
Projects. His book DIRECTORS CLOSE
UP is published by Scarecrow Press.
He is a Graduate Fellow of the American Film Institute,
and has an M.F.A. from NYU and a B.A. from Harvard University. He has taught
master seminars on filmmaking in Hong Kong, Hamburg, Jerusalem, Hanoi, France,
and Ireland.