Jed Riffe

Jed Riffe is an American filmmaker and founder of Jed Riffe Films + Electronic Media. For over 30 years his documentary films have focused on social issues and politics including: Native American histories and struggles (Ishi, the Last Yahi, California's "Lost" Tribes, Who Owns the Past?,) and agriculture, food and sustainability issues (Ripe for Change,). He lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area.[1]

Biography

Riffe was born in Dallas, Texas, and attended El Centro College in Dallas, where he studied journalism. In 1968, he published The Good Life magazine and soon became politically involved in the civil rights and anti-war movements in Texas.

He organized demonstrations as part of the national Vietnam Moratorium Committee campaign, and was hired as the Texas organizer for Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam. It was then that he began showing documentary films as a tool for social change. His filmmaking is an extension of his early activism.

His most acclaimed film, Ishi, the Last Yahi was released theatrically and broadcast nationally on the PBS series The American Experience. The film went on to win "Best Documentary" awards at eight major national and international film festivals and was nominated for a national Emmy award in 1994.[2]

Riffe served as series and executive producer on California and the American Dream, an independently produced national series was featured on PBS.

Riffe's other major credits include interactive producer and video director of the first Africana Interactive Studies Center at Merritt College; interactive producer/writer for four interactive exhibits for the Autry Museum of American History; interactive producer and writer for the award-winning “Public Broadcasting In Public Places.” Riffe and his team designed, programmed, built and installed four innovative, interactive media kiosks with 160 minutes of specially edited interactive content from the “California and the American Dream” series. Riffe wrote, produced and directed “TV of Tomorrow,” an interactive prototype demonstrating the possible ways interactive content might appear on television in the future. In 1990, Riffe produced 86 minutes of video for three interactive History Information Stations, at the Oakland Museum of California.

Riffe also consults on film and video distribution [3]

Filmography
  • A Dangerous Idea: Eugenics, Genetics and the American Dream (producer) 2018
  • The Long Shadow (co-producer) 2017
  • Andre: The Voice of Wine (producer) 2017
  • A New Color (executive producer) 2016
  • In the Name of the Gene (producer) 2016
  • Shut Up, Sit Down and Listen (producer) 2011
  • To Chris Marker, an Unsent Letter (executive producer) 2012
  • Heist: Who Stole the American Dream? (consulting producer) 2011
  • Smokin' Fish (executive producer) 2010
  • Convention (line producer) 2008
  • California and the American Dream (series producer) 2006
  • California's "Lost" Tribes (producer, director, co-writer) 2006
  • The New Los Angeles (executive producer) 2006
  • The Price of Renewal (executive producer) 2006
  • Ripe for Change (producer) 2006
  • Waiting to Inhale (producer, director) 2006
  • Ruthie and Connie: Every Room in the House (consulting producer) 2002
  • Who Owns the Past? (producer, director) 2000
  • Ishi, the Last Yahi (producer, director) 1992
  • Rosebud to Dallas (producer, director, co-writer) 1977
  • Promise and Practice (producer, director, co-writer) 1975

Awards and recognition

Waiting to Inhale: Marijuana, Medicine and the Law
  • "Golden Eagle", 2007 CINE Washington, D.C.
  • "Mejor Documental, 2007 Festival Internacional de Cine Pisoactivo, Santiago de Chile
  • "Best Documentary", 2006 Eureka International Film Festival
  • "Co-Best Documentary Film", 2005 New Jersey Film Festival
  • "Gold Award", 2005 Worldfest Houston

Ripe for Change
  • "Best of the Best", 2008 Tucson Slow Food Film Festival
  • "Golden Eagle", 2007 CINE Washington, D.C.
  • "Special Jury Award", 2007 Mendocino Film Festival
  • "Best Eco Film-MovieMaker Magazine Award", 2007 Wine Country Film Festival
  • Public Broadcasting in Public Places, “Best Interactive Visitor’s Center Presentation”
  • Chicago International Film Festival's, 2007 INTERCOM Competition

California's "Lost" Tribes
  • "Golden Eagle", 2007 CINE Washington, D.C.
  • 2001 Gerbode Fellow for Excellence in Non-Profit Management

Who Owns the Past?
  • "Bronze Award-Historical Documentary", 2000 Worldfest Houston

Ishi, the Last Yahi
  • "Emmy Nomination-Outstanding Historical Program", 1994 National News and Documentary Emmy Awards, National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
  • "Gold CINDY Award of Merit"
  • "Special Awards: for Writing, Directing and Editing", Association of Visual Communicators
  • "Outstanding Documentary", 1994 Western Heritage Awards, National Cowboy Hall of Fame
  • "Golden Eagle", 1994 CINE, Washington, D.C.
  • "Prix Planète-Cable", 1994 Tréizième Bilan Du Film Ethnographique, The Musée De L'homme, Paris, France
  • "Best Documentary Film (Long): Produced by Non-Indians", 1994 Red Earth
  • "Der Ted", Audience Choice—Best Independent Film, The 1993 Munich International Film Festival
  • "Best Of Festival", 1993 National Educational Film And Video Festival
  • "Gold Hugo" Best History/Biography, The 1993 Chicago International Film Festival
  • "Best Documentary Film (Short)", 1992 American Indian Film And Video Festival, San Francisco
  • "Selected for Exhibition", 1994 Margaret Mead Film Festival
  • "Certificate of Merit", 29th Annual Gabriel Awards, Unda USA
  • "Honorable Mention", 1993 Society Of Visual Anthropology Film Festival, American Anthropological Association

References
  1. http://www.jedriffefilms.com
  2. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0726453/
  3. https://archive.today/20120906051419/http://www.moviemaker.com/producing/article/jed_riffes_advice_for_aspiring_documentarians_20080404/. Archived from the original on 2012-09-06. Retrieved 2010-01-21. Missing or empty |title= (help)
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