Introduction
Stefan Forbes is an American screenwriter and documentary film director.
Career
Forbes' first feature film was the 2008 documentary film Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story, about the life of political operative Lee Atwater. His next film will be the 2021 release Hold Your Fire, winner of the 2020 Library of Congress Ken Burns Award.
Forbes also shot and co-directed the one-hour documentary One More Dead Fish, seen on PBS, about environmentally friendly handline fishermen in Canada who seized a federal building and barricaded themselves inside for 26 days.
With Grammy-nominated composer John Beasley, Forbes created the hour-long work Monk Recut, featuring recut performance footage of American composer Thelonious Monk in rhythmic, visual, and harmonic interplay with Beasley's inventive compositions for the big band MONK'estra. Featuring spoken word quotations from Monk's unique life philosophy, the work premiered at the LA Philharmonic at Disney Hall in February 2018.
Mr. Forbes currently has several television and feature film projects in development.
In addition to many music videos, Mr. Forbes has also directed Emmy Award-nominated awareness campaigns about hunger in America featuring Charlize Theron, Gwyneth Paltrow, The Edge, Mike Myers, and Stanley Tucci.
Critical reception and awards
Forbes' production company, InterPositive Media, was named one of 2009's Global Top 100 Production Companies by RealScreen magazine.
Forbes is a 2006 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow and the 2008 winner of the International Documentary Association's Emerging Filmmaker Award.
Mr. Forbes' upcoming film Hold Your Fire was awarded the 2020 Library of Congress Ken Burns Award for historical film.
Boogie Man won a national Edward R. Murrow Award, the George Polk Award for Excellence in Journalism, and was nominated for the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Documentary Screenplay. The Washington Post called Boogie Man "one of the best political films ever". It was a Critic's Pick in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The London Times.
Historian Howard Zinn called One More Dead Fish "An inspiring example of working people resisting the gigantic forces of globalization on behalf of justice". It won the Grand Prize at the Planet in Focus Film Festival, Canada's largest environmental film festival, and the Bronze Award at the Columbus International Film & Animation Festival, and was a finalist at the Seoul Human Rights Film Festival.
Media Appearances
- Q&A with Stefan Forbes | Boogie Man - The Lee Atwater Story | FRONTLINE | PBS
- Interview on KCRW's The Treatment with Elvis Mitchell
- New York Times film review
- Roger Ebert review
- The Washington Post review "The Lee Atwater Story': Riveting Ruthlessness" 2
- Entertainment Weekly review
- Dalia Martinez, "Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story", Talk Of The Nation, September 23, 2008.
- John Powers, "A 'Boogie Man' With A Legacy Of Complicated Moves", Fresh Air, October 20, 2008.
- "The Paradox Of Lee Atwater", Talk Of The Nation, September 23, 2008
- "The Dirty South", On The Media, November 7, 2008
- Virginia Prescott, "How The Southern Strategy Painted The South Red", On Second Thought, NPR, September 17, 2018.
- Boogie Man - Critical Response
- Stefan Forbes discusses Boogie Man on MSNBC's Morning Joe