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Gordon Quinn’s Shortlist

Published on November 17, 2008

The Shortlist article series is your opportunity to learn about the films that inspire intellectual, artistic and activist leaders—leaders like Gordon Quinn. We asked Gordon to share his favorite films and his thoughts on the power of documentary to change the world. So what films make Gordon Quinn’s Shortlist? Keep reading to find out.

Who is Gordon Quinn?

Gordon Quinn

Executive Director and founding member of Kartemquin Films, a 2007 recipient of the MacArthur award for Creative and Effective Institutions, Gordon Quinn has been making documentaries for over 40 years. His recent producing credits include such award-winning and highly acclaimed films as Hoop Dreams; Vietnam, Long Time Coming; Golub; 5 Girls; Refrigerator Mothers and Stevie, for which he won the Cinematography Award at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival.

Most recently, Gordon executive produced Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita, At The Death House Door and The New Americans. Gordon also directed the Palestinian segment of this award winning, intimate, seven-hour series. He is currently executive producing Milking the Rhino, In The Family and Typeface for Kartemquin Films, as well as directing a film on delayed Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Prisoner of Her Past.

Gordon has been a long-time 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 Advisory Committee and The IL Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

Gordon Quinn on the Power of Film

John Dewey wrote,

The real purveyors of the news are artists, for artists are the ones who infuse fact with perception, emotion, and appreciation…We are beginning to realize that emotions and imagination are more potent in shaping public sentiment and opinion than information and reason.

- The Public and its Problems (1927)

Most of our public discourse about social issues is so abstract that we can easily forget that these “issues” are actually people’s lives. Documentaries let the viewer engage with characters on a human level and then once they’re involved, once they’ve been moved, they often begin to think about issues in a different way.

In the mid 1960s, when I was a student at the University of Chicago, I discovered the films of Ricky Leacock, the Maysles brothers and Jean Rouch. All of these filmmakers tell stories in a way that lets viewers make connections for themselves—they don’t tell you what to think. Watching their films, I realized that documentary was the way to draw people in so that they might see the world from a perspective other than their own.

Gordon Quinn’s Film Picks

It’s a short list. I could just as easily swap out some for others or some of our own Kartemquin films. Lists should never be static. Ask me tomorrow and I’ll have a different list.

A Happy Mother’s Day, by Ricky Leacock and Joyce Chopra: The story changed before the camera and the filmmakers had to go where the story took them to be true to their characters.

Salesman and Grey Gardens, by Albert and David Maysles: The intimacy and honesty of the filmmakers’ relationship to their characters comes through in these moving stories.

Harlan County, U.S.A., American Dream, Fallen Champ: The Untold Story of Mike Tyson by Barbara Kopple: Documentaries can inspire, but more important, if made with courage, they can bring us face to face with the human consequences of our society’s contradictions.

Nanook of the North, by Robert Flaherty: While the film raises issues of the romanticization of indigenous peoples, I appreciate that Flaherty collaborated with his subjects to create humorous moments that give us insight into what they thought was funny.

Tongues Untied by Marlon Riggs: Riggs wove dance, poetry and music together to tell a powerful story that made me re-think what a documentary film could be.

Stevie by Steve James: I worked on this film with Steve as well as Hoop Dreams and The New Americans, but Stevie is on my short list because it confronts contradictions and does not let the viewer or the subjects off the hook.

Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie by Marcel Ophuls: A film that gets at how people make moral choices as the filmmaker is making some of his own.

Eyes On The Prize, Henry Hampton series producer: It let America know that change was happening and there was no going back.

A Lion In The House, Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert: This mini-series takes you through the harrowing family experience of childhood cancer. Reichert and Bognar follow their subjects long enough to see that even when the worst happens, families can survive.

This article is available for noncommercial use under a Creative Commons license. It was originally published on MediaRights.org, a project of Arts Engine, Inc. This notice must accompany the article at all times.

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