Stephen Ives is an American
documentary film
A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...
director and original founder of
Insignia Films. Among his productions are ''
The West
West is a cardinal direction or compass point.
West or The West may also refer to:
Geography and locations
Global context
* The Western world
* Western culture and Western civilization in general
* The Western Bloc, countries allied with NAT ...
'' (1996), ''
Reporting America at War'' (2003), ''
Roads to Memphis'' (2010), and ''
Grand Coulee Dam
Grand Coulee Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, built to produce hydroelectric power and provide irrigation water. Constructed between 1933 and 1942, Grand Coulee originally had two powerhous ...
'' (2012), and the four-part series ''Constitution USA'' (2013) which aired on PBS in the summer of 2013. PBS broadcast his most recent aired work, ''
The Great War,'' in three parts (2017).
Biography
Ives is a son of
David O. Ives, former president of
WGBH Boston. After graduating from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
with a degree in American history, Ives spent five years living in Texas. Ives credits these years for his fascination with "the myth and landscape and people of the West."
In his eighteen years of work in public television, Ives has established himself as one of the nation's leading independent documentary directors. His landmark series ''The West'' was seen by more than 38 million people nationwide during its national PBS premiere in the fall of 1996. Caryn James of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' wrote that ''The West'' was "fiercely and brilliantly rooted in fact," and ''
The New York Daily News
The ''Daily News'' is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, New Jersey. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson in New York City as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in tabloid format, and rea ...
'' called the programs a "breathtakingly beautiful series of films. . . that make riveting TV."
Ives' documentary film Lindbergh, a portrait of the reluctant American hero Charles A. Lindbergh, premiered the third season of ''
American Experience
''American Experience'' is a television program airing on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. The program airs documentaries, many of which have won awards, about important or interesting events and people in American his ...
'' series on PBS in 1990. ''
The Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper in the U.S. and the larges ...
'' called the film "a powerful slice of history. . . an engrossing study of a complex figure."
In 1987, Ives began a decade-long collaboration with filmmaker
Ken Burns
Kenneth Lauren Burns (born July 29, 1953) is an American filmmaker known for his documentary films and television series, many of which chronicle American history and culture. His work is often produced in association with WETA-TV or the Nati ...
, as a co-producer of a history of the United States Congress, and as a consulting producer on the series, ''
The Civil War'' and ''
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
''.
After the premiere of ''The West'', Ives turned his attention towards contemporary films, producing a profile of the innovative Cornerstone Theater Company, which aired on HBO in the fall of 1999, and ''Amato: A Love Affair with Opera'', a portrait of the world's smallest opera company which aired nationally on PBS in 2001 and earned Ives a nomination from the Directors Guild of America for Outstanding Directorial Achievement.
His profile of the 1930s thoroughbred Seabiscuit, which aired on ''American Experience'' in April 2003, won a Primetime Emmy award, and his PBS series, ''Reporting America at War'', about American war correspondents, was lauded by the ''Los Angeles Times'' as "television that matters ... a visual document of power and clarity".
In 2018, Ives won the Writer's Guild Award for outstanding achievement in writing for ''The Great War, Part II.''
Filmography
*''
Lindbergh'' (1990)
*''
The West
West is a cardinal direction or compass point.
West or The West may also refer to:
Geography and locations
Global context
* The Western world
* Western culture and Western civilization in general
* The Western Bloc, countries allied with NAT ...
'' (1996)
*''
Cornerstone
A cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry Foundation (engineering), foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entir ...
'' (1999)
*''
Amato: A Love Affair with Opera'' (2001)
*''
Seabiscuit
Seabiscuit (May 23, 1933 – May 17, 1947) was a champion thoroughbred racehorse in the United States who became the top money-winning racehorse up to the 1940s. He beat the 1937 Triple Crown winner, War Admiral, by four lengths in a two-hors ...
'' (2003)
*''
Reporting America at War'' (2003)
*''
Las Vegas: An Unconventional History'' (2005)
*''
New Orleans
New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...
'' (2007)
*''
Kit Carson
Christopher Houston Carson (December 24, 1809 – May 23, 1868) was an American frontiersman, fur trapper, wilderness guide, Indian agent and United States Army, U.S. Army officer. He became an American frontier legend in his own lifetime ...
'' (2008)
*''
Roads to Memphis (documentary)'' (2010)
*''
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal () is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean. It cuts across the narrowest point of the Isthmus of Panama, and is a Channel (geography), conduit for maritime trade between th ...
'' (2011)
*''
Custer's Last Stand
The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota people, Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, and commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota Si ...
'' (2012)
*''
Grand Coulee Dam
Grand Coulee Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, built to produce hydroelectric power and provide irrigation water. Constructed between 1933 and 1942, Grand Coulee originally had two powerhous ...
'' (2012)
*''
Constitution USA'' (2013)
*''
1964
Events January
* January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved.
* January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...
'' (2014)
*''
The Great War'' (2017), directed with Amanda Pollak and
Rob Rapley
*''Sealab'' (2017)
*''Ruthless:
Monopoly
A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek and ) is a market in which one person or company is the only supplier of a particular good or service. A monopoly is characterized by a lack of economic Competition (economics), competition to produce ...
’s Secret History'' (2023)
Rampell, Ed. "The Anti-Capitalist Origins of the Monopoly Man," ''Jacobin'' (magazine), Monday, February 20, 2023.
Retrieved February 20, 2023.
References
External links
*
Interviews
��About the Series - Q&A : STEPHEN IVES, Producer/Director of Reporting America at War
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ives, Stephen
American documentary film directors
Living people
Harvard University alumni
Year of birth missing (living people)
Writers Guild of America Award winners