Michael Kirk

producer, director, writer

Award-winning documentary filmmaker Michael Kirk has produced more than 200 national television programs. A former Nieman Fellow in Journalism at Harvard University, Kirk was the senior producer of *FRONTLINE* from the series' inception in 1983 until the fall of 1987, when he created his own production company, The Kirk Documentary Group. His most recent *FRONTLINE* productions include three investigations of the recent financial crisis--*The Warning*, the unique story of a regulator's warning about the dangers of derivatives in the 1990s, *Breaking the Bank*, an inside look into the complicated financial and political web threatening superbank Bank of America, *Inside the Meltdown*, a major investigation into the collapse of the American economy. In 2008 Kirk produced *The Choice*, an examination of the political and personal biographies of presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama. In the spring of 2008 he produced, directed and wrote, the four and a half hour, two-part special *Bush's War* (EMMY Award). He has produced 10 films on the "war on terror" including *Cheney's Law* (Peabody Award), *Endgame*, *The Lost Year in Iraq* (EMMY Award), *Rumsfeld's War*, *The Torture Question* (EMMY Award), *The Dark Side*, *The War Behind Closed Doors*, an analysis of the political infighting that led to the war with Iraq; and *The Man Who Knew*, the extraordinary saga of FBI Agent John O'Neil. Kirk's long relationship with *FRONTLINE* also includes the Peabody Award-winning *Waco--The Inside Story*, (1995) a behind-the-scenes look at the FBI siege of the Branch Davidian compound; and the EMMY Award-winning *The Kevorkian File*, (1994) an in-depth examination of Dr. Jack Kevorkian's controversial record and cases. Kirk also produces programs that concentrate on social and cultural issues in America. *Caring for Your Parents* tells the story of five families caring for their elderly parents; *Navy Blues* (EMMY award) examines gender politics in the military; *The Way the Music Died* a behind-the-scenes report on the recording industry; and the groundbreaking *Misunderstood Minds*, a two-year examination of the personal stories of five families confronting the challenges of a child's learning disabilities.