Jon Alpert

A native of Port Chester, New York, Jonathan B. Alpert is a 1970 graduate of Colgate University,{{cite web|url=http://news.colgate.edu/2010/02/documentary-by-jon-alpert-70-e.html/|title=Documentary by Jon Alpert 70 earns Oscar nod|publisher=Colgate University |date=3 February 2010|access-date=1 December 2014}} and has a 4th degree black belt in karate.{{Cite web |last=Carnegie Corporation of New York |date=2008 |title=Journalism in the service of democracy: A summit of Deans, Faculty, Students and Journalists – A Report of the Proceedings Sponsored by Carnegie Corporation of New York in Partnership with the Paley Center for Media |url=https://www.issuelab.org/resources/9964/9964.pdf |website=Issue Lab}} In fact he once won the North American team-kumite Karate Championship despite fighting with three broken ribs.

Alpert has traveled widely as an investigative journalist and has reported from Vietnam, Cambodia, Iran, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Cuba, China, and Afghanistan. He has made films for NBC, PBS, and HBO. Over the course of his career, he has won 17 National Emmy Awards, ranging from Best Investigative Reporting to Best Sports Documentary. Uniquely, he has won National Emmy Awards in every craft category: Cinematography, Directing, Editing and Sound.{{Cite web |title=Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill – American Film Showcase |url=https://americanfilmshowcase.com/filmmakers/alpert-oneill/ |access-date=2023-03-11 |website=americanfilmshowcase.com}} Alpert has also won four DuPont-Columbia Awards and a Peabody Award.{{Cite web |last=tkohfeld |date=2019-08-27 |title=How to Win an Emmy - a Success Story of Producer Jon Alpert |url=https://www.videomaker.com/article/f2/16021-how-to-win-an-emmy-a-success-story-of-producer-jon-alpert/ |access-date=2023-03-11 |website=Videomaker |language=en-US}} He has been nominated for a 2010 Academy Award in the category of Best Documentary, Short Subject for China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province.[https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2010 2010 Oscar Full List | The 82nd Academy Awards ] He was nominated for a 2013 Academy Award in the same category for Redemption.[http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2013 The 85th Academy Awards for 2013] Alpert won the Erikson Institute Prize for Excellence in Mental Health Media with co-director Ellen Goosenberg Kent for their documentary War Torn: 1861-2010.{{cite web |title=Austen Riggs Erikson Prize for Excellence in Mental Health Media Winners |url=http://www.austenriggs.org/erikson-institute-prize-excellence-mental-health-media |website=Austen Riggs Center |language=en}}

In 1972, Alpert and his wife, Keiko Tsuno, founded the non-profit organization, Downtown Community Television Center (DCTV), one of the country's first community media centers. DCTV is housed in a landmark firehouse in New York City. DCTV's programs have trained more than 70,000 people over the course of its 50-year history,{{Cite news |title=DCTV Celebrates 50 Years of Media Activism and Training |url=https://www.documentary.org/feature/dctv-celebrates-50-years-media-activism-and-training |access-date=2023-03-11 |website=International Documentary Association |language=en}} most of them members of low-income and minority communities. DCTV offers over 150 low-cost video and electronic media training workshops a year.{{Cite web |title=Downtown Community Television Center |url=https://www.nycppnews.com/directory/downtown-community-television-center/ |access-date=2023-03-11 |website=NYCPPNEWS |language=en-US}} The most accomplished of their students are DCTV's High School Media Fellows. They have won local Emmy Awards, the Sundance Film Festival jury prize, and the R.F.K. Journalism award.{{Cite web |title=DCTV Youth Media |url=https://filmfreeway.com/DCTVYouthMedia |access-date=2023-03-11 |website=FilmFreeway |language=en}}

In 1974, Alpert and Tsuno made Cuba: The People. Neither he nor Tsuno knew anything about film and couldn't afford to learn, so they chose to use video. "Keiko's brother would literally go to the factory, and as the first color portapak was coming off JVC's assembly line, we'd get serial number one of everything," Alpert said. According to Alpert, the film was the first independently produced color documentary recorded on video.{{cite web |title=DCTV celebrates 50 years of media activism and training |url=https://www.documentary.org/feature/dctv-celebrates-50-years-media-activism-and-training |website=documentary.org |date=April 19, 2022 |language=en}} Jon Alpert ended up interviewing Fidel Castro several times.[http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/05/1452238 Fidel Up Close: Filmmaker Jon Alpert on His Many Encounters With Castro Over the Past 30 Years] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070110123629/http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06%2F12%2F05%2F1452238 |date=2007-01-10 }} Over the years, Alpert repeatedly visited Cuba, and his footage from 45 years of filming in Cuba came together in the 2017 Netflix documentary, [https://www.netflix.com/title/80126449 Cuba and the Cameraman], which provides a look at the revolution and Cuba's recent history through the eyes of 3 Cuban families and Fidel Castro.{{Cite web |title='A look at the revolution through their eyes': American filmmaker's 5-decade connection to Cuba |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/cuba-cameraman-american-journalist-shows-cuba-s-journey-1970s-n823336 |access-date=2023-03-11 |website=NBC News |date=November 24, 2017 |language=en}}

Between 1979 and 1991, Alpert was the sole freelance video documentarist regularly featured on network television. His reports for NBC's The Today Show and Nightly News offered mass audiences a view of domestic and international affairs from a decidedly decentered perspective.Subject to Change: Guerrilla Television Revisited, 1st Edition by Deirdre Boyle, p.203

In 1991, while employed by NBC, Alpert was the first American journalist to bring back uncensored video footage{{Cite web |url= http://www.linktv.org/video/1862/robert-scheer-interviews-jon-alpert |title=Video {{!}} Robert Scheer Interviews Jon Alpert {{!}} Link TV |access-date= 2011-07-18 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110927092152/http://www.linktv.org/video/1862/robert-scheer-interviews-jon-alpert |archive-date=2011-09-27 |url-status = dead}} from the first Persian Gulf War. The footage, much of it focusing on civilian casualties, was cancelled three hours before it was supposed to be aired, and Alpert was fired soon after. Later that year, CBS Evening News Executive Producer Tom Bettag planned to air the footage but this airing was also cancelled, and Bettag was fired.[http://ringnebula.com/project-censored/1976-1992/1991/1991-story1.htm Project Censored 1991 - Story #1: CBS AND NBC SPIKED FOOTAGE OF IRAQ BOMBING CARNAGE] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721225444/http://www.ringnebula.com/project-censored/1976-1992/1991/1991-story1.htm |date=2011-07-21 }} Jon Alpert was one of the few Western journalists to have conducted a videotaped interview with Saddam Hussein since the Persian Gulf War.[http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/03/1459240 Exclusive – Democracy Now! Airs Rare Interview With Saddam Hussein Shortly After First Gulf War] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070109194035/http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07%2F01%2F03%2F1459240 |date=2007-01-09 }} In 1992, he received the prize "Archivio Disarmo - Golden Doves for Peace" from IRIAD.{{Cite web |title=Golden Doves for Peace |url=https://www.archiviodisarmo.it/golden-doves-for-peace.html |access-date=2025-04-29 |website=www.archiviodisarmo.it}}

Alpert has been nominated for an Oscar award on two occasions, once in 2010 for Documentary short, China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province (HBO){{Cite news |date=2010-02-02 |title=Oscar nominations 2010: the full list |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/feb/02/oscar-nominations-2010-full-list |access-date=2023-03-06 |issn=0261-3077}} and again in 2013 for Redemption (HBO).{{Cite web |date=2013-02-25 |title=Oscars winners and nominees 2013: Complete list |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-en-oscars-2013-nomination-list-story.html |access-date=2023-03-06 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}

In 2021, HBO Max debut Alpert's Life of Crime: 1984-2020 documentary, a thirty-six year chronicle of criminal and drug addicts in Newark, New Jersey.{{cite web |title=HBO documentary 'Life of Crime' returns to Newark 37 years later. |url=https://www.nj.com/entertainment/2021/11/hbo-documentary-life-of-crime-returns-to-newark-37-years-later-see-the-trailer.html |website=NJ.com |date=November 12, 2021 |language=en}} It was nominated for a 2021 Peabody Award,{{Cite web |title=Life of Crime: 1984-2020 |url=https://peabodyawards.com/award-profile/life-of-crime-1984-2020/ |access-date=2023-03-06 |website=The Peabody Awards |language=en-US}} won a National News & Documentary Emmy in the category of Outstanding Crime and Justice Documentary {{Cite web |title=News 2022 Nominees – The Emmys |url=https://theemmys.tv/news/43rd-nominations/ |access-date=2023-03-06 |website=theemmys.tv |date=July 28, 2022 |language=en-US}} and won the Venice Film Festival "Ambassador of Hope" award.{{Cite web |date=2021-09-11 |title=Biennale Cinema 2021 {{!}} Collateral awards of the 78th Venice Film Festival |url=https://www.labiennale.org/en/news/collateral-awards-78th-venice-film-festival |access-date=2023-03-06 |website=La Biennale di Venezia |language=en}}

In 2022 Alpert's non-profit DCTV opened the Firehouse Cinema, one of the few documentary centric cinemas in the world. The theater features first run, curated, repertory, masterclasses and family programs.{{Cite web |last=Bergeson |first=Samantha |date=2022-08-10 |title=Documentary Film Lovers, Here's a New Theater Just for You |url=https://www.indiewire.com/2022/08/dctv-documentary-theater-new-york-city-1234750270/ |access-date=2023-03-06 |website=IndieWire |language=en}}

Alpert has broken almost every bone in his body pursuing his hobbies of playing hockey, doing karate and getting bucked off horses.{{Cite web |title=Jon Alpert {{!}} IFFR |url=https://iffr.com/en/persons/jon-alpert |access-date=2023-03-11 |website=iffr.com}}

{{Div col}}

• 1974: Cuba: The People
• 1976: Chinatown: Immigrants in America (co-producer)[https://vimeo.com/527442451 Chinatown: Immigrants in America (full program on Vimeo)]
• 1977: Vietnam: Picking up the Pieces (Co-director/Co-producer)[https://vimeo.com/527386893 Vietnam: Picking up the Pieces (full program on Vimeo)]
• 1980: Third Avenue: Only the Strong Survive (Director)
• 1984: Hard Metal Disease (Producer/Director/Cinematographer/Sound)
• 1985: Vietnam: Talking to the people
• 1987: Junkie Junior (Director/Cinematographer/camera operator)
• 1989: One Year in A Life of Crime (Director/Producer) for America Undercover, (part of the Life of Crime (documentary trilogy))
• 1991: Rape: Cries from the Heartland (Executive Producer)
• 1991: Nowhere to hide (Producer/Director/Cinematographer)
• 1995: High on Crack Street: Lost Lives in Lowell (Cinematographer/Producer) for America Undercover
• 1995: Lock-up: The Prisoners of Rikers Island
• 1998: Life of Crime 2 (part of the Life of Crime (documentary trilogy))
• 1998: A Cinderella Season: The Lady Vols Fight Back
• 2002: To Have and Have Not (Director)
• 2002: Afghanistan: From Ground Zero to Ground Zero (Director)
• 2002: Papa (Director/Producer)
• 2003: Latin Kings: A Street Gang Story (Director/Editor/Cinematographer/Producer)
• 2003: Coca and the Congressman (Director)
• 2004: The Last Cowboy (Director)
• 2004: Dope Sick Love (Executive Producer)
• 2004: Off to War (Executive Producer)
• 2004: Bullets in the Hood: A Bed-Stuy Story (Executive Producer)
• 2005: Venezuela: Revolution in Progress (Cinematographer)
• 2006: Baghdad ER (Director/Producer)
• 2007: Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq[http://www.democracynow.org/2013/6/21/the_other_james_gandolfini_sopranos_actor The Other James Gandolfini: "Sopranos" Actor Remembered For Support of Injured Vets, Community Media], Democracy Now! June 21, 2013 (Producer/Director/Cinematographer)
• 2007: The Bridge TV Show (Executive Producer/Cinematographer)
• 2008: Section 60: Arlington National Cemetery (Co-Director/Co-Producer)[http://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/10/section_60_arlington_national_cemetery Jon Alpert] Talks About His New Documentary, "Section 60: Arlington National Cemetery" on Democracy Now!
• 2008: Dirty Driving: Thundercars of Indiana (Director/Producer)[http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/dirtydriving/index.html HBO Dirty Driving Home Page]
• 2008: A Woman Among Boys (Co-Director/Co-Producer)
• 2009: China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province (Co-Director/Co-Producer)

[http://www.democracynow.org/2010/2/12/china "China's Unnatural Disaster": Oscar-Nominated Doc on Sichuan Earthquake Brings World Attention to Chinese Crackdown on Dissidents] A brief interview with Jon Alpert on Democracy Now!

• 2012: In Tahrir Square (Co-Director/Co-Producer)[http://www.democracynow.org/2012/1/25/in_tahrir_square_hbo_doc_on "In Tahrir Square": HBO Doc on Egypt's Revolution Through Eyes of Democracy Now!'s Sharif Kouddous ] on Democracy Now! January 25, 2012
• 2013: Redemption (Co-Director)[http://www.democracynow.org/2013/1/31/redemption_oscar_nominated_doc_follows_the Redemption: Oscar-Nominated Doc Follows the Working Poor Who Survive on Collecting Bottles and Cans], Democracy Now! January 31, 2013
• 2014: The Other Man: F.W. de Klerk and the End of Apartheid (Executive Producer)
• 2015: The Latin Explosion: A New America (Director/Producer)
• 2016: Banking on Bitcoin (Producer)
• 2016: Mariela Castro's March (Director/Producer)
• 2017: Rock and a Hard Place (Director/Producer)
• 2017: Cuba and the Cameraman (Director/Producer/Writer)
• 2018: All for One (Co-Director)[https://www.democracynow.org/2018/8/10/all_for_one_us_and_russian "All for One": U.S. and Russian Filmmakers with Disabilities Collaborate in Powerful New Documentary], Democracy Now! August 10, 2018
• 2019: Finding the Way Home (Producer/Director/Cinematographer/Sound)
• 2021: Life of Crime 1984-2020 (part of the Life of Crime (documentary trilogy)){{Div col end}}

{{reflist}}

{{Commons category|Jon Alpert}}

• [http://www.dctvny.org/about/people/jon-alpert Jon Alpert biography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140108235727/http://www.dctvny.org/about/people/jon-alpert |date=January 8, 2014 }} at Downtown Community Television Center
• [https://www.allmovie.com/artist/jon-alpert-p280059 Jon Alpert] at allmovie
• {{IMDb name|0022412}}
• Jon Alpert [http://www.democracynow.org/2006/12/29/james_brown_in_his_own_words Discusses His Unfinished] James Brown Documentary on Democracy Now!

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Category:1948 births

Category:Living people

Category:21st-century American Jews

Category:21st-century American journalists

Category:American alternative journalists

Category:American documentary filmmakers

Category:American investigative journalists

Category:American male journalists

Category:American war correspondents

Category:Colgate University alumni

Category:Jewish American journalists

Category:People from Port Chester, New York

Category:Place of birth missing (living people)