Stephen Ives is an American

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

director and original founder of Insignia Films. Among his productions are '' The West'' (1996), '' Reporting America at War'' (2003), '' Roads to Memphis'' (2010), and ''

Grand Coulee Dam Grand Coulee Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington, built to produce hydroelectric power and provide irrigation water. Constructed between 1933 and 1942, Grand Coulee originally had two powerho ...

'' (2012), and the four-part series ''Constitution USA'' (2013) which aired on PBS in the summer of 2013. PBS broadcast his most recent aired work, ''

The Great War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

,'' in three parts (2017).

Biography

Ives is a son of David O. Ives, former president of WGBH Boston. After graduating from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

with a degree in American history, Ives spent five years living in Texas. Ives credits these years for his fascination with "the myth and landscape and people of the West." In his eighteen years of work in public television, 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. Caryn James of ''

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 ...

'' wrote that ''The West'' was "fiercely and brilliantly rooted in fact," and '' The New York Daily News'' called the programs a "breathtakingly beautiful series of films. . . that make riveting TV." Ives' documentary film Lindbergh, a portrait of the reluctant American hero Charles A. Lindbergh, premiered the third season of ''

American Experience ''American Experience'' is a television program airing on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. The program airs documentaries, many of which have won awards, about important or interesting events and people in American his ...

'' series on PBS in 1990. ''

The Los Angeles Times ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

'' 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 Kenneth Lauren Burns (born July 29, 1953) is an American filmmaker known for his documentary films and television series, many of which chronicle American history and culture. His work is often produced in association with WETA-TV and/or th ...

, as a co-producer of a history of the United States Congress, and as a consulting producer on the series, '' The Civil War'' and ''

Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

''. 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 Directors Guild of America for Outstanding Directorial Achievement. His profile of the 1930s thoroughbred Seabiscuit, which aired on ''American Experience'' in April 2003, won a Primetime Emmy award, and his PBS series, ''Reporting America at War'', about American war correspondents, was lauded by the ''Los Angeles Times'' as "television that matters ... a visual document of power and clarity". In 2018, Ives won the Writer's Guild Award for outstanding achievement in writing for ''The Great War, Part II.''

Filmography

*'' Lindbergh'' (1990) *'' The West'' (1996) *''

Cornerstone The cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure. Over tim ...

'' (1999) *'' Amato: A Love Affair with Opera'' (2001) *'' Seabiscuit'' (2003) *'' Reporting America at War'' (2003) *'' Las Vegas: An Unconventional History'' (2005) *''

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

'' (2007) *''

Kit Carson Christopher Houston Carson (December 24, 1809 – May 23, 1868) was an American frontiersman. He was a fur trapper, wilderness guide, Indian agent, and U.S. Army officer. He became a frontier legend in his own lifetime by biographies and ...

'' (2008) *'' Roads to Memphis (documentary)'' (2010) *''

Panama Canal The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a condui ...

'' (2011) *''

Custer's Last Stand The Battle of the Little Bighorn, known to the Lakota and other Plains Indians as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, and also commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota Sioux, Nor ...

'' (2012) *''

'' (2012) *'' Constitution USA'' (2013) *'' 1964'' (2014) *''

'' (2017), directed with Amanda Pollak and Rob Rapley *''Sealab'' (2017) *''Ruthless:

Monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...

’s Secret History'' (2023)Rampell, Ed. "The Anti-Capitalist Origins of the Monopoly Man," ''Jacobin'' (magazine), Monday, February 20, 2023.
Retrieved February 20, 2023.

References

External links

Interviews

��About the Series - Q&A : STEPHEN IVES, Producer/Director of Reporting America at War {{DEFAULTSORT:Ives, Stephen American documentary film directors Living people Harvard University alumni Year of birth missing (living people)