- Filmmakers - |
- Editing Room in New York City, 1989 - After Screening a Rough Cut.
Back Row: David Leeming, Biographer. Bill Miles, Producer. Karen Thorsen, Producer/Director. Steve Olswang, Editor. David Baldwin, Jimmy's Brother. Engin Cezzar, Turkish Actor.
Front Row: Sandra Guthrie, Co-Editor. Joe Wood, Associate Producer.
Clover Cannady, Assistant Editor. Joy Birdsong, Senior Researcher, Associate Producer. Douglas K. Dempsey, Co-Producer.
- Producer
- Award-winning filmmaker Bill Miles had a passion for history – and a genius for unearthing archival treasures. For over four decades, he turned his discoveries into historical documentaries dedicated to the African-American experience. The N.Y. Times called his films “triumphs of curiosity and persistence.” [ Miles Bio ] [ Miles Obit ]
“They make works of art about works of art.”
~ TIME Magazine
“They excel at getting people to reveal their deepest emotions.”
~ New York Times
“An inspiration to independent filmmakers everywhere.”
~ Interview Magazine- Co-founded by Albert and David Maysles in 1963, Maysles Films is known for Direct Cinema: the art of capturing life as it unfolds before the camera – without scripts, sets or narration. For over forty years, Maysles non-fiction productions have been winning awards, often in collaboration with younger filmmakers. Karen Thorsen – Producer / Director of JAMES BALDWIN: THE PRICE OF THE TICKET – was one of those nurtured by Maysles Films.
- As Thorsen’s mentor, longtime friend and former employer, the late Albert Maysles made the original BALDWIN film possible. While Baldwin was still alive, he planned to direct the film with Thorsen as Producer. Once Baldwin died, he turned the directing over to Thorsen and became Executive Producer. His fame as a filmmaker gave major funders the courage to trust the production; his passion for vérité filmmaking gave Thorsen the courage to make a film without narration. Because of his influence, JAMES BALDWIN: THE PRICE OF THE TICKET was literally one of the first documentaries where the subject was allowed to tell his own story. And now – through his Harlem-based Maysles Institute, a non-profit center for documentary film production, digital outreach and community programming since 2005 – the new 21st-century BALDWIN is equally possible. His contribution has been more than substantial, and we honor his memory with our current efforts.
- [ Albert Maysles, Executive Producer: Biography ... ]
“When it comes to biography, no one’s doing it better
than American Masters.”
~ Wall Street Journal
“One of the greatest cultural storytelling franchises in American life.”
~ The Baltimore Sun
“It’s like the Pulitzer for this business.”
~ Don Hewitt, CBS- Now celebrating its 27th season on PBS, American Masters has garnered unprecedented awards and is consistently recognized by television critics as “the best biographical series ever to appear on American television.”
- Under the leadership of Series Creator and Executive Producer Susan Lacy, the series celebrates our nation’s arts and culture by exploring the creative journeys of our most enduring writers, musicians, visual and performing artists, dramatists and filmmakers – those who have “made an indelible impact on our cultural landscape.”
- A film on James Baldwin was one of American Masters’ first productions. Originally, it was a cinéma vérité project, to be produced by Karen Thorsen and directed by Albert Maysles. After Baldwin’s death in 1987, Susan Lacy gave Karen Thorsen her first chance at directing – and the gamble paid off. The result was JAMES BALDWIN: THE PRICE OF THE TICKET, with Albert Maysles and Susan Lacy as Executive Producers: a film without narration, full of archival treasures where Jimmy Baldwin tells his own story. Cinéma vérité passé.
- BALDWIN premiered with much acclaim in 1989. Over the past two decades, PBS has aired the film repeatedly. According to Lacy, “BALDWIN has long been one of the most popular documentaries broadcast on American Masters. It is also one of my personal favorites – which is why we continue to broadcast it, year after year.”
- On August 23, 2013, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, American Masters will broadcast BALDWIN again – and will feature clips from the film as part of PBS Learning Media’s new digital classroom initiative.
- [ Susan Lacy, Executive Producer: Biography ... ]
Karen Thorsen & Douglas K. Dempsey
At the Steenbeck, Maysles FIlms - 1989
Independent Filmmakers since 1985, the award-winning husband & wife team of
Karen Thorsen and Douglas K. Dempsey founded the James Baldwin Project by producing their documentary, "James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket" in 1987-89.
Karen Thorsen and Douglas K. Dempsey founded the James Baldwin Project by producing their documentary, "James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket" in 1987-89.
William "Bill" Miles, Co-Producer of
"James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket",
with Producer/Director Karen Thorsen in Turkey, on the Bosphorus Strait near
Baldwin's house in Rumeli Hisari ~ 1988
"James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket",
with Producer/Director Karen Thorsen in Turkey, on the Bosphorus Strait near
Baldwin's house in Rumeli Hisari ~ 1988
David Baldwin, Advisor and on-camera
Witness, at La Columbe d'Or restaurant in
Saint-Paul de Vence, France ~ with Thorsen,
Director of Photography Don Lenzer and
Sound Recordist Peter Miller ~ 1988
Witness, at La Columbe d'Or restaurant in
Saint-Paul de Vence, France ~ with Thorsen,
Director of Photography Don Lenzer and
Sound Recordist Peter Miller ~ 1988
~ The Original Film Team ~
- William "Bill" Miles -
(April 18, 1931 - May 12, 2013)
Albert Maysles
Executive Producer of the Film
Maysles Documentary Center
Dr. Maya Angelou
Senior Scholar + Advisor
On - Camera Witness
Susan Lacy
Executive Producer of the Film
PBS / American Masters
Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Senior Scholar / Advisor
The Film + JBProject
Original Film - Production Partners
- Maysles Films -
- American Masters -
. . . . . . .