Biography
Joshua van Praag was born and raised in England where he began his career in film as a camera assistant, first working on the television episodic Inspector Morse (1987) and later on studio pictures like The Saint (1997). In 1998, he moved to the US to assist producer Jeffrey Sharp at his New York-based company, Hart Sharp Entertainment. After his involvement in a number of projects with HSE, including the Oscar-winning film, Boys Don't Cry (1999), he returned to the set to continue working as a lighting technician. His work as a lamp operator, best boy electrician and gaffer has taken him to places as far ranging as Southern Africa, Central America and South East Asia. Over the last seven years, whilst based in New York, he has collaborated on numerous other award-winning independent features including, Girlfight (2000), The Believer (2001), and Maria Full of Grace (2004).
In February 2004, after completing principal photography for The The Manchurian Candidate (2004), van Praag began work on his own short film, The Dig (2005). Finished in early 2005, the film, which focuses on the lives of lost and lonely city-dwellers, has received praise from major filmmakers and was selected to screen at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival in New York and Los Angeles (2005), as well as at The 13th Raindance film Festival in London (2005).
During his ten years as a lighting and camera technician, he traveled the world working on over forty feature films under such directors as Martin Scorcese, Bernardo Bertolucci, Wong Kar Wai, Woody Allen and Jonathan Demme.
In collaboration with the painter Raoul Martinez, JvP is co-directing several episodes for the ground-breaking television mini-series, Creating Freedom. Narrated by Alan Rickman, the cast includes Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Amy Goodman, Daniel Dennett and Steven Pinker.
Amadou is Alive, a feature length screenplay by JvP inspired by the true story of a Liberian refugee, is in development for a 2012 production in Cairo and Monrovia. Van Praag will direct.
