Robert Richter (born October 23, 1929) is an American

documentary filmmaker A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

. He has been nominated for two

Academy Awards 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 ...

for Best Documentary Short.

Early life and education

After graduating from

Brooklyn Technical High School Brooklyn Technical High School, commonly called Brooklyn Tech and administratively designated High School 430, is an elite public high school in New York City that specializes in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. It is one of t ...

, young Robert headed west to California’s

Occidental College Occidental College (informally Oxy) is a private liberal arts college in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1887 as a coeducational college by clergy and members of the Presbyterian Church, it became non-sectarian in 1910. It is one of the oldes ...

for a

Telluride Association The Telluride Association is a non-profit organization in the United States founded in 1910 by Lucien Lucius Nunn and named for his city of residence, Telluride, Colorado. The organization states its mission as providing young people with free e ...

experimental program, then to

Reed College Reed College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland neighborhood, with Tudor-Gothic style architecture, and a forested canyon nature preserve at ...

, and the

Iowa Writers' Workshop The Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, is a celebrated graduate-level creative writing program in the United States. The writer Lan Samantha Chang is its director. Graduates earn a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Creative Wri ...

Professional life

After the Iowa Writers Workshop, Richter joined

Oregon Public Broadcasting Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) is the primary television and radio public broadcasting network for most of the U.S. state of Oregon as well as southern Washington. OPB consists of five full-power television stations, dozens of VHF or UHF tra ...

initially as a producer-reporter, then Director of Public Affairs programs. In addition he reported from the Pacific Northwest for

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

. A

CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 48 H ...

Fellowship brought him back to New York where he earned an M.A. in Public Law and Government at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1964. He is the last member of the Edward R. Murrow-Fred Friendly CBS Reports unit still actively producing documentaries. After he left CBS in 1968 to become an independent filmmaker, his company, Richter Productions, Inc. made more than 50 documentaries telecast in prime time on HBO, PBS, CBS, NBC, ABC, TBS, Discovery, BBC and major overseas television outlets.

Awards

Few documentary filmmakers have received as many honors: the

Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion ...

nominated two Richter films for best documentary short; he received a 2008 National Emmy for "exceptional merit in nonfiction filmmaking;" the duPont Columbia Broadcast Journalism award (TV's Pulitzer Prize); the Distinguished Science Reporting Award from AAAS (American Academy for Advancement of Science); Peabody Awards; many US and international film festival awards; critical acclaim in The New York Times and other major papers. Richter's many documentaries on environmental subjects earned him a Global 500 Award from the

United Nations Environment Programme The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the United Nations Conference on th ...

—the only independent producer in the world to receive this honor.

Selected filmography

* ''HHH: What Manner of Man'' (1968) * ''Linus Pauling, Crusading Scientist'' (1977) * ''Vietnam: An American Journey'' (1979) * ''For Export Only: Pesticides'' (1980) * ''For Export Only: Pharmaceuticals'' (1980) * ''A Plague on our Children'' (1980) * ''What Price Clean Air?'' (1982) * ''

Gods of Metal Gods of Metal is the biggest Italian metal festival, held annually since 1997. It takes place in early summer, usually on the first or second weekend of June. It is most often held at venues in or near Milan, but took place in Bologna three tim ...

'' (1982) * ''In Our Hands'' (1984) * ''Hungry for Profit'' (1985) * ''The Age of Intelligent Machines'' (1986) * ''Who Shot President Kennedy?'' (1988) * ''Can Tropical Rainforests Be Saved?'' (1991) * ''The Money Lenders'' (1991) * '' School of the Americas Assassins'' (1994) * ''Ben Spock, Baby Doctor'' (1996) * ''Father Roy: Inside the School of Assassins'' (1997)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Richter, Robert American documentary film directors American documentary film producers American documentary filmmakers American television journalists American science journalists Environmental journalists 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American screenwriters 1929 births Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Occidental College alumni Reed College alumni Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni