Uploaded March 2011 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Gordon Quinn is the Artistic Director & founding member of Kartemquin Films. For the past four decades, Gordon has been making cinéma vérité films, documenting the lives of real people. Roger Ebert called Home for Life (1966), Gordon's first film, "an extraordinarily moving documentary." Kartemquin's best known film, Hoop Dreams (1994), Executive Produced by Gordon, was released theatrically to unprecedented critical acclaim. Gordon hold many additional film credits, including: Stevie and The New Americans. Gordon recently completed Prisoner of Her Past, about a Holocaust survivor suffering from late-onset PTSD, and he's currently working on A Good Man, about Bill T. Jones. At Kartemquin, Gordon creates a home for young filmmakers who want to make social-issue documentaries. A key leader in creating the Documentary Filmmakers Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use, Gordon encourages filmmakers to educate themselves on the tenets of the fair use doctrine, frequently giving public talks about this fundamental right. (Chicago, Illinois)
Interview and Camera by Rachel Pikelny / Editing by Matt Lauterbach / Produced by Rachel Pikelny / Additional footage thanks to Kartemquin Films
Gordon Quinn is the Artistic Director & founding member of Kartemquin Films. For the past four decades, Gordon has been making cinéma vérité films, documenting the lives of real people. Roger Ebert called Home for Life (1966), Gordon's first film, "an extraordinarily moving documentary." Kartemquin's best known film, Hoop Dreams (1994), Executive Produced by Gordon, was released theatrically to unprecedented critical acclaim. Gordon hold many additional film credits, including: Stevie and The New Americans. Gordon recently completed Prisoner of Her Past, about a Holocaust survivor suffering from late-onset PTSD, and he's currently working on A Good Man, about Bill T. Jones. At Kartemquin, Gordon creates a home for young filmmakers who want to make social-issue documentaries. A key leader in creating the Documentary Filmmakers Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use, Gordon encourages filmmakers to educate themselves on the tenets of the fair use doctrine, frequently giving public talks about this fundamental right. (Chicago, Illinois)
Interview and Camera by Rachel Pikelny / Editing by Matt Lauterbach / Produced by Rachel Pikelny / Additional footage thanks to Kartemquin Films
