Stephen Ives

producer, Faces of America

In his 20 years of work in public television, Stephen 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, making it one of the most watched PBS programs of all time. Ives' documentary film *Lindbergh*, a portrait of the reluctant American hero Charles A. Lindbergh, premiered the third season of *American Experience* series on PBS in 1990. *The Los Angeles Times* 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, as a co-producer of a history of the United States Congress, and as a consulting producer on the groundbreaking series, *The Civil War* and *Baseball*. 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 Director's Guild of America for Outstanding Directorial Achievement. His profile of the 1930's thoroughbred Seabiscuit, which aired on *American Experience* in April 2003, won a prime-time Emmy award, and his PBS series, *Reporting America at War*, about American war correspondents was described by *The Los Angeles Times* as "television that matters...a visual document of power and clarity." Since 2003, he has directed four films for American Experience: *Seabiscuit*, *Las Vegas*, *New Orleans*, and *Kit Carson*. His film on the assassination of Martin Luther King and the manhunt for James Earl Ray, based on the book by best-selling author Hampton Sides, wrapped production last summer.