Founder and Senior Advisor
Artistic Director and founding member of Kartemquin Films, Gordon Quinn has been making documentaries for over 50 years. Roger Ebert, of the Chicago Sun Times, called his first film Home for Life (1966) "an extraordinarily moving documentary." With Home for Life Gordon established the direction he would take for the next four decades, making cinéma vérité films that investigate and critique society by documenting the unfolding lives of real people.
At Kartemquin, Gordon created a legacy that is an inspiration for young filmmakers and a home where they can make high-quality, social-issue documentaries. Gordon currently executive produces and works creatively on all of our current productions. Kartemquin’s best known film, Hoop Dreams (1994), executive produced by Gordon, was released theatrically to unprecedented critical acclaim. The film follows two inner-city high school basketball players for five years as they pursue their NBA dreams. Its many honors include: the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, The Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, Chicago Film Critics Award – Best Picture, Los Angeles Film Critics Association – Best Documentary and an Academy Award Nomination.
Other films Gordon has made include Vietnam, Long Time Coming, Golub, 5 Girls, Refrigerator Mothers and Stevie. Gordon executive produced Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita and The New Americans (he also directed the Palestinian segment of this award winning, intimate, seven-hour series). Recently he produced a film that deals with the human consequences genetic medicine, In The Family, and executive produced two films, one about community based conservation in Africa, Milking the Rhino, and At The Death House Door on a wrongful execution in Texas. In the role of director, he recently completed Prisoner of Her Past, about a Holocaust survivor suffering from late-onset post-traumatic stress disorder, and co-directed the 2011 release A Good Man, about the dancer Bill T. Jones, which was broadcast on PBS' Emmy-winning documentary series American Masters.
'63 Boycott, directed by Gordon and featuring unseen archival 16mm footage of the 1963 Chicago Public Schools Boycott shot by Quinn, world premiered at the 2017 Chicago International Film Festival, made its New York City premiere at the Museum of Modern Art's 2018 Doc Fortnight and its Los Angeles premiere at the 2018 Pan African Arts + Film Festival –– where it earned the Audience Award for Best Documentary Short. The film was shortlisted for a 2019 Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject). His recent films as executive producer include Minding the Gap (2019 Academy Award nominee, Best Documentary Feature), Edith+Eddie (2018 Academy Award® nominee for Best Documentary Short), and Abacus: Small Enough to Jail (2018 Academy Award® nominee for Best Documentary Feature), and the acclaimed productions America to Me, Keep Talking, Eating up Easter, City So Real, Represent, Finding Yingying, and The Dilemma of Desire. The most recent film he directed is For the Left Hand.
Gordon is a supporter of public and community media, and has served on the boards of several organizations including The Illinois Humanities Council, Chicago Access Network Television, and The Public Square Advisory Committee, The Illinois Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. 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 speaking to the media, legal, and educational communities about this fundamental right.
Gordon has won numerous awards throughout his career, including three Emmy awards. He has been honored by the International Documentary Association (IDA) with their 2015 Career Achievement Award; was the recipient of the Hot Springs Documentary Festival's 2014 Career Achievement Award; was honored with a special tribute at the 2015 Houston Cinema Arts Festival; received CIMMfest’s 2016 BAADASSSSS Award, which honors distinguished careers and lifetime achievement in movies and music; was honored by the 2016 St. Louis International Film Festival's Maysles Brothers Lifetime Achievement Award in Documentary.
Films by Gordon Quinn
- A Compassionate Spy 2022
- Executive Producers
- For The Left Hand 2021
- Co-Directors, Executive Producers
- The Ants & The Grasshopper 2021
- Executive Producer
- The First Step 2021
- Consulting Editor, Consulting Producer
- Represent 2020
- Executive Producers
- Unapologetic 2020
- Executive Producer
- A Mystery To Me 2020
- Consulting Producer
- Finding Yingying 2020
- Executive Producers
- City So Real 2020
- Executive Producer
- We Are Witnesses: Chicago 2019
- Executive Producer
- America to Me 2018
- Executive Producers
- Eating Up Easter 2018
- Executive Producers
- Minding the Gap 2018
- Executive Producer
- Cooked: Survival by Zip Code 2018
- Executive Producers
- '63 Boycott 2017
- A Film by, Directed By, Executive Producers, Camera
- Keep Talking 2017
- Executive Producers
- All The Queen's Horses 2017
- Executive Producers
- Edith+Eddie 2017
- Executive Producer
- Stranded by the State 2016
- Executive Producers
- Raising Bertie 2016
- Executive Producer, Story Consultant
- Abacus: Small Enough to Jail 2016
- Executive Producers
- Unbroken Glass 2016
- Executive Producer, Consulting Editor
- In the Game 2015
- Executive Producers
- Hard Earned 2015
- Executive Producers
- The School Project 2014
- Executive Producers
- The Homestretch 2014
- Executive Producers
- On Beauty 2014
- Executive Producer
- Life Itself 2014
- Executive Producers
- Almost There 2014
- Executive Producers
- Saving Mes Aynak 2014
- Executive Producer
- American Arab 2013
- Executive Producers, Kartemquin Films Artistic Director
- The Trials of Muhammad Ali 2013
- Executive Producers
- As Goes Janesville 2012
- Executive Producers
- A Good Man 2011
- Directors, Executive Producers, Camera
- The Interrupters 2011
- Executive Producers
- Prisoner of Her Past 2010
- A Film by, Director
- Sacred Transformations 2010
- Executive Producer
- No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson 2010
- Executive Producer
- Typeface 2009
- Executive Producer
- In the Family 2008
- Producer, Executive Producer, Cinematography
- At the Death House Door 2008
- Executive Producer
- Milking the Rhino 2008
- Executive Producer
- Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita 2007
- Executive Producer, Kartemquin Staff
- Golub: Late Works Are the Catastrophes 2004
- Producers, Directors, Camera
- The New Americans 2003
- Executive Producers, Palestinian Story Directors/Producers
- Stevie 2002
- Producers, Executive Producers, Cinematography
- Refrigerator Mothers 2002
- Co-Producers, Executive Producer, Camera
- 5 Girls 2001
- Executive Producer
- Vietnam, Long Time Coming 1998
- Producers, Directors, Directors of Photography
- Chicago Crossings: Bridges and Boundaries 1994
- Production Associates
- Hoop Dreams 1994
- Executive Producer, Co-Producer
- Higher Goals 1992
- Executive Producer
- Grassroots Chicago 1991
- Producers, Camera
- Golub 1988
- Directors, Camera
- Women's Voices: The Gender Gap 1984
- Producers, Camera
- The Last Pullman Car 1983
- Producers and Directors, Writers, Camera
- Taylor Chain II: A Story of Collective Bargaining 1983
- Director, Camera
- Taylor Chain I: A Story in a Union Local 1980
- Directors, Camera
- The Chicago Maternity Center Story 1976
- Made by
- Where's I. W. Abel? 1975
- Producers, Director, Editors
- HSA Strike '75 1975
- Production Associates
- UE/Wells 1975
- Producers, Directors, Camera
- Now We Live on Clifton 1974
- Filmmakers
- Winnie Wright, Age 11 1974
- Filmmakers
- Sports-Action Pro-Files 1972
- Cinematography
- Hum 255 1970
- Filmmakers
- Anonymous Artists of America 1970
- Producers, Photography, Editor
- Marco 1970
- Co-Producers, Cameraman, Editors
- What the Fuck Are These Red Squares? 1970
- Camera
- Parents 1968
- Co-Producers, Camera
- Inquiring Nuns 1968
- Directors, Camera, Editor
- Thumbs Down 1968
- Producers, Directors, Camera, Editor
- Home For Life 1966
- Producers, Directors, Camera, Editor