Jonathan Schwartz

                                               JONATHAN P. SCHWARTZ
                                                Jonathan.director@gmail.com

Investigative & anthropological filmmaker. Director, documentaries and short narratives on international environmental & human rights themes. Project leader & innovation manager. Development officer. Lead creative and editorial on soundtrack, motion graphic and post-production endeavors. 

Producer, National Public Radio.  Long-term, special projects contractor for NOVA at WGBH-PBS.  Managed international teams of trainers and techs in the production of serialized radio and television dramas on public health and community-based conservation in four continents. Career long specialist on climate change.

President, Interlock Media

Film and television on tropical ecology, specifically stakeholder led protection of rainforest, marine, and littoral habitats. Conveyor of media techniques to select groups of inner-city youth in the US and indigenous communities in Africa, Latin America and the Asia-Pacific. Regular contributor to public television programming worldwide. Crew providers and content consultants for music television, network news and features, and pro-active social dramas. Pieces incorporate bold graphics and compelling soundtracks, fresh techniques and an entertaining aesthetic. 

Design and execute content for media campaigns on behalf of NGOs and NPOs, focusing on policy change, sustainability, and manufacturing supply-chain green matrixes. Maintain clients in the fields of outdoor recreation on behalf of open space preservation and community development.     

Representative investigative pieces include: the use of propaganda radio to destabilize progressive regimes, clandestine military operations against tribal communities, displacement of refugees and unaccompanied minors, and scrutiny of corporate behavior from Japanese holding companies to “Green” manufacturers.

Interlock serves as a fiscal agent for aspiring filmmakers. 

Founder, North Central Incubator for Green Economics, Inc. 

Non-profit using extreme outdoor adventure sports installations and eco- education to spur tourism and economic development in impoverished areas of North Central Massachusetts. 

Notable contractual engagements 

     Special Projects Producer, NOVA, WGBH-PBS

Responsible for exploring new series options and innovative programming, including the first Radio- NOVA initiative.  Adjunct grant writer, Race to Save the Planet, score, mini-series Living Wild, short adaptations, NOVA. 

Team leader and project manager Distance learning through interactive broadcast dramas on public health, population, literacy, traditional medicine and the environment; supervised sites in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Pacific. 

Long term contracts with foreign aid organizations and sub-contractors Educational Development Center, United States Agency for International Development, NORAD (Norway), SIDA (Sweden), RTN (Radio Television-Netherlands), GIZ (Germany), CIDA (Canada). Managed multi-million dollar projects with up to twenty employees.

Benefit Concert Jumbatron Installation, Rainforests and Native People, Madison Square Garden, Grateful Dead and guest artists. The Rex Foundation, Greenpeace, Rainforest Alliance, and Cultural Survival, Inc. 

Auxiliary Instructor, Asian-Pacific Institute, Principles of filmmaking and      environmental journalism.

Co-organizer, International Eco-Ed conference, West Africa.

Select Filmography  

Director

Faith in the Big House, Distributed by WORLD and NETA to PBS stations. 

Turned Out: Sexual Assault behind Bars, ITVS, BBC-5, and European, Canadian and Australian networks. 

The Extraordinary Passage of the Great White Hunter, Based on the life of Harold J. Coolidge, a pioneer of international species protection. Examines safari-masculinities, the intertwined rise of primatology and eugenics, and plantation interests as lynchpins in the grand animal specimen collecting expeditions. 

Rainforests: Proving their Worth, WGBH-TV, PBS

On the international campaign to market sustainably harvested materials from rainforests, and where such well-meaning movements can fall apart. 

Shrimp Fever, The assault on Coastal Mangrove forests, Co-production with Grenada- TV, TVE International, USAID.

Our Rain Forests, Our Heritage, The Smithsonian Institution, Broadcast and installation, Latin America. Secured underwriting from Apple, IBM, American Express, and Merck. Expanded for use in the United Nations Year of Indigenous Peoples Exhibit, United Nations Environmental Program. 

Peace Park in the Borderlands an Ancient Maya Forest Garden, UC Santa Barbara

Indigenous Radio Guatemala, Cultural Survival, Inc. 

Tunnel Visions: Into a Sea of Uncertainty, WGBH-TV, PBS, Video Project, Inc.

The science and politics behind the world’s largest oceanside sewage outfall tunnel.

The Mizrahi, History of Israel’s unacknowledged Middle Eastern Jews.

Green Manufacturers in American; The never ending challenge to stay sustainable, Series pilot.

Project Letimarin Ecuador, Rural Development under Indigenous Leadership, CONFENIAE is the regional organization of indigenous peoples in the Ecuadorian. Ford Foundation and Cultural Survival, Inc. 

Urban Asthma: Seeking Relief

Jaguar Trax, the Video Project

New Guinea’s Forest in Peril, University of California

Star Wars: Strategic Defense Initiative, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility. 

Dive Kulture, Scuba diving and environmental program for troubled urban youth.

Co- Producer

Prison Rape, BBC 4, Correspondent

Palau Redang, Ron and Valery Taylor, Sir Peter Scott, WWF-Malaysia.

Paulinho Paikan, Mixed Media investigation into accusations of rape against Brazil’s preeminent Kayapo Indian leader, with TBS.

Jill Stein, Green Party Candidate for President

Take a Look Around, Youth Voice Collaborative

Minyan in Kaifeng, China Executive Producer

Children of Sderot, Short

Domestic Segments

The Price of Power: The Igorot Resistance to the Chico Dam Project in the Philippines, Chester and Drucker, PBS

The Xukuru Community of Pernambuco

Post-Production

The Congo: Maiko National Park in Peril, Post-Production, African Rainforest and River Conservation. NGO subsequently became a paramilitary protector of national parks in the Central African Republic, in part, funded by conflict minerals.  

Utopian Solar City in Saudi Arabia, Co-creative, CGI & Animation with Studio Amd.

Field Research & Documentation  

Conquering Cerebral Malaria in New Guinea, WHO

The Bornean White Rhino, WWF

Gibbon Languages Recorded in Malaysia’s Forested Valleys, WWF 

Location Research/ Project Development 

Restoring fisheries in Southeast Asia, University of Sydney, Segments

Saving the South China Seas, Green Mango Productions 

Rogue Oil in Ghana 

Infant Survival in West Africa, Pilot

Narrative Features and Shorts

Chimera, Co-producer, John Wentworth

Post-Production 

The Mill Girls of Lawrence, Historical narrative, 45 minute screener, Post-Production 

Oxymorons, Feature, OxyCotin dealers

Music Videos and Film Scores

 Hip-hop, Latin, Classical, African, World, Jazz, Acoustic

Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio, World Tour, Red Envelope special projects, Netflix

Angeline the Baker

Reggae Cowboys

Scriptwriting & Development

Just in Time; Mitigating Lung Cancer through Early Intervention

Margaret Fuller, 19th century feminist, free thinker, and the first international correspondent, Original Screenplay

 

A Matter of Time, Book Adaptation

Public Radio 

First Termer, Psyops and propaganda radio in war, All Things Considered, National Public Radio.

Firsthand, NPR, A series in seven full-length installments on counter-insurgency and the impact of warfare, land encroachment and human rights abuses on indigenous peoples and their homelands in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Eyes on the Prize, Radio adaptation, Pilot.

Feature Film Content 

A Matter of Time, Consulting Producer, Feature Film Development.

Good Morning Vietnam, Hamburger Hill Content Consultant  

Freelance Film and Television Work

Direct, AD, produce, audio, research and production supervision. Clients include major studios and independents, major domestic and international news networks, soundtrack and music video production, research and pre-production. Former Union Member, NABET & IA. 

Clients include: Science Channel, Discovery, National Geographic, Karga-Seven Pictures, Prometheus, NBC, CNN, CBC, ABC, NHK, Channel 7-Arte “Into the Night”.

Freelance film crew work for Universal Pictures, United Artists, Twenty Century Fox. 

Episodic research for Forbes on-line

MAJOR GRANTS RECEIVED

Corporation for Public Broadcasting

Ford, Rockefeller, Merck

George Soros Open Society Institute

John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities 

National Endowment for the Arts

National Endowment for the Humanities

Franklin Research and Development Corporation

The Huber, Scudder, Roosevelt, Poitras, Coolidge, family funds

Trillium Assets, Domini Investments

Film, video, interactive and web-based media 

Cause-oriented and commercial marketing and awareness campaigns

The Smithsonian Institution, Fidelity Investments, Newman’s Own, The Organic Commodity Project, The Body Shop, UNESCO, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Harvard School of Public Health, Ben and Jerry’s, Aveda, The Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders, Daedalus Software, Palinka Pictures, Unesco, The Smithsonian Institution, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston University Medical Center, The Rainforest Action Network, Jason Project, Inc., Panasonic, GTE, Fitness in the City/ Fitkidz, Latino Health Consortium, Hill, Holiday, Inc., several eco-oriented start-ups with the Salinger Group. 

RELEVANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Expertise Visual Anthropology, Investigative Reporting, Corporate Responsibility, Socially Responsible Investing, Agro-Forestry, Environmental Justice and Education, and Historical Dramas.

Innovator and Creative, Universal Eco-Label sustainable product rating system, Creative and web/ media.

Trainer Environmental Filmmaking, Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development and the International Union of Cooperatives

Lecturer and Consultant, Population Communications, Agro-Forestry, Visual Anthropology, Investigative Reporting, Corporate Responsibility, and Environmental Education. 

Harvard School of Public Health, Boston University School of Public Health, guest lecturer, communications and social marketing.

Designed media and outreach components improving mental health care for unaccompanied immigrant minors and victims of human trafficking.

Coordinator and Speaker, Select Engagements

United Nations’ Year of Indigenous Peoples 

Ways of Seeing, The Yanomamo, Musée de l'Homme, Paris

Environmental Education through Distance Learning, Earth Summit, Rio de Janeiro

Co-Founder, Fragile Lands and First Nation Peoples, Stock Footage Collection

Outdoor Extreme Adventure and Recreation

Established a non-profit to launch extreme adventure-based, enviro-ed regional development projects in a rural area of Massachusetts.  Interlock provided extensive video series on caving, climbing, foraging, kiteboarding, trust building, and mountain biking. 

Charles River Canoe and Kayak

Weston Ski 

Peak Expeditions

Notable Awards and Honors

Livingston Award: International Reporting

U.S. Selection, INPUT 

Multiple film festival selections and awards 

EDUCATION

Brown University, History, International Development and the Environment, Minor, Filmmaking, BA, 1980., Extensive coursework at Rhode Island School of Design. 

Flaherty Film Seminar, Summer Institute in Visual Anthropology, Continuing education coursework in sustainable development, MIT and Tufts. 

Languages: Spanish, Competent