John Wadsworth Barnes (March 25, 1920 – June 27, 2000) was an American film director and producer. He was most active in the educational film industry, producing, directing and writing for
Encyclopædia Britannica Films
Encyclopædia Britannica Films (also named EB Films for short) was the top producer and distributor of educational 16 mm films and later VHS videocassettes for schools and libraries from the 1940s through the 1990s (by which time the internet ...
. In his career he worked on and helped create over 100 film projects. He produced the
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
nominated documentary ''The Living City''. He wrote for a
radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
drama series, made experimentalBolex films, and produced the film ''To Live Together.''
Biography
John Barnes was born on March 25, 1920 in
Belford, New Jersey
Belford is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located within Middletown Township, in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. He came from a blue-collar, East Coast background of craftsmen. In elementary school Barnes had rheumatic fever that sparked a love for books and learning which was very influential on him. Another early influence was his teenage rebellion against his mother that influenced his attitude towards people he thought of as inferior intellectually and those who caused inconvenience or challenged his choices artistically and professionally.
In 1939 Barnes graduated from Monmouth Junior College in Long Branch New Jersey. He later went on to attend the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
. John Barnes worked as an editor for the literary magazine of the University. He did not end up graduating.
John Barnes died in the New York University Medical Center on June 27, 2000. He was 80 years old at the time of his death.
Career
Following his time at the University of Chicago, Barnes went on to pursue writing for CBS, the local radio station. One of the main projects he worked on with CBS was a short radio-drama series, featuring Ken Nordine as the host. He was fiercely protective of this films and would demand those who asked for changes to his scripts and films to defend their request before considering it.
Barnes' works frequently starred notable actors such as
Judi Dench
Dame Judith Olivia Dench (born 9 December 1934) is an English actress. Regarded as one of Britain's best actresses, she is noted for her versatile work in various films and television programmes encompassing several genres, as well as for her ...
Richard Kiley
Richard Paul Kiley (March 31, 1922 – March 5, 1999) was an American stage, film and television actor and singer. He is best known for his distinguished theatrical career in which he twice won the Tony Award for Best Actor In A Musical. Kiley ...
, as well as Frances Sternhagen. Barnes wrote and directed a series titled ''Shaw v. Shakespeare'' that featured George Bernard Shaw as played by actor
Donald Moffat
Donald Moffat (26 December 1930 – 20 December 2018) was a British–American actor with a decades-long career in film and stage in the United States. He began his acting career on- and off-Broadway, which included appearances in ''The Wild D ...
. The three part series has been accepted by many as Barnes's magnum opus. Barnes put much weight on casting actors who were excellent at their craft and even with budget constraints he avoided casting lesser actors.
Barnes worked with Encyclopædia Britannica for over 20 years. His immense amount of educational films remain screened, circulated, and present today. After going from making documentary film to academic, he stayed in educational film from the early 1950s and persevered into the late 1970s when educational film experienced a golden era. Educational films were typically used to ignite classroom discussions after the screening, that meant that the context, history, and complete story had to be told in a short period of time. These discussion periods, according to educational theorists, engage with students better than lectures and reading by allowing students to express their opinions and learn from speaking to each other. Later, Barnes moved away from film making and wrote plays, some were produced in the U.S. and Canada.
Encyclopaedia Britannica
In 1952 he embarked on his first project with EB Films, with Gordon Weisenborn as director and Barnes as writer and producer. ''People Along the Mississippi'' is said to be one of the first portrayals of the interaction between black and white children on film. Barnes fought against institutional censorship in southern schools which helped expand production and distribution of integrated educational films.
His Oscar nominated documentary ''The Living City'', about urban issues mainly in Chicago. Despite what Oscar nominations may allude to, those filmmakers who produced educational films made very little and relied on others to finance them so that they could continue with this career. He is known for the abundance of social themes in his films, like in the films he made for Encyclopædia Britannica's 'Bill of Rights' series.
Barnes continued to produce and direct iconic literary adaptations like ''Macbeth: The Politics of Power'' (1964) as well as more politically oriented works such as ''Equality under the Law: The Lost Generation of Prince Edward County'' (1966) and ''People along the Mississippi'' (1951) that have interracial themes, which was influenced by his mother's racist actions towards a teenage friend of Barnes.
Awards
* ''
The Living City
''The Living City'' is a 1953 American short documentary film about Chicago, by Haskell Wexler and John Barnes. It was nominated for an Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical mer ...
'' (1953) was nominated for an academy award for best Documentary Short
* ''NET Festival'' (1966) won a primetime Emmy in 1970 for the episode ''"Cinderella: National Ballet of Canada"'' for Outstanding Variety or Musical Program - Classical Music