Biography
Chuck Workman's theatrical short, "Precious Images," created for the Directors Guild of America, won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short and has become the most widely screened short film in history. It was recently designated a landmark film for preservation by the Library of Congress National Film Registry. Workman wrote, directed, and produced several documentaries, including "Superstar," a theatrical documentary about artist Andy Warhol that was featured at the Berlin Festival, London Film Festival, and various others. His motion picture history documentary, "The First 100 Years," aired on HBO and earned a Cable ACE Award. He produced and directed "The Source," a documentary about the Beat Generation, featuring performances by John Turturro, Dennis Hopper, and Johnny Depp, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. His documentary "Visionaries," focused on experimental film, screened at the Tribeca Festival in 2010. Recently, he completed the feature-length film essay "What is Cinema?," which debuted at the 2013 Toronto Film Festival, and is currently directing a documentary on Orson Welles titled "The Magician." Workman wrote and directed the independent drama "A House on a Hill," starring Phillip Baker Hall, Laura San Giacomo, and Henry Rollins. His first dramatic feature, "The Money," was shown at the Deauville Festival and several others. He created short films and openings for twenty Academy Awards ceremonies and two Emmy Awards shows, earned an Emmy nomination for Directorial Achievement for his Oscar show work, and received nine nominations for editing on the Oscar broadcasts. Workman also produced short films for the Motion Picture and Television Fund, UCLA, the Reagan Library, the Motion Picture Association of America, Disneyworld, Eastman Kodak, Turner, and numerous other organizations. His short film "Words," made for the Writers Guild, screened at several festivals including New York and Denver, where it won Best Short. His short "A Tribute to Charlie Chaplin" was shown at the Cannes Festival in 2002 and multiple festivals in 2003. His video work has been exhibited at London's Museum of the Moving Image, New York’s American Museum of the Moving Image, and the Oakland Museum of Art. Additionally, Workman was a prominent creator of film trailers and promos, producing trailers for "Star Wars," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "American Graffiti," "Paris, Texas," among others. He also crafted main titles and special sequences for films and TV series, and directed numerous commercials, winning three CLIO awards. Chuck Workman served as President of the International Documentary Association, was a Commissioner on the Santa Monica Arts Commission, and is a member of the Motion Picture Academy’s Grants Committee. Recently, he was a visiting artist for the U.S. State Department, presenting films and speaking internationally. He has lectured at over 30 universities and media arts centers and currently holds the position of Distinguished Artist and Coordinator of the Film Program at Purchase College in New York.
