Biography
Growing up, Pruitt moved around the country with his family, living in Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Dallas, and Chicago. Those nomadic beginnings have served him well as a filmmaker. He has nurtured the ability to observe his surroundings and their impact on people, and to translate that into powerful cinema. Fascinated early on by art and images, Pruitt received his first still camera when he was eight years old.
Immediately after high school, he took a job at the Chicago Board of Trade. Even though he was on the financial fast track, Pruitt chose to follow his artistic yearnings. He moved to Atlanta, where he worked on music productions, videos, and independent films. Eventually he returned to Milwaukee, where he worked in journalism as a photographer and a writer. He also taught still photography, art and video production to young people in the Milwaukee Public Schools and various non-profit organizations.
In 2000, he began to collaborate with filmmaker Janet Fitch on a small project that ultimately grew into a three-part documentary series on gun violence. The series, Guns, Grief and Grace in America, takes an in-depth look at the complex issues surrounding gun violence in the United States from a local, state, and national perspective. Pruitt and Fitch co-wrote, produced, and directed the series.
The first installment in the series, Dear Rita, documents the toll that gun violence took on one family and their community. This story, which embodies the spirit of so many others, first aired on Wisconsin Public Television in 2001 and was screened at the Moon Dance International Film Festival that same year. In 2002, Dear Rita was a Finalist Award Winner in the New York Festivals' International Film & Video Awards.
The second film in the series, The Promise of America, explores the history of American activism through the experiences of several women and their families who journeyed to Washington D.C. for the Million Mom March. The Promise of America aired on Milwaukee Public Television in 2002. It won a Telly Award in 2003.
The last segment of the series, Everyone's in its Sights, was developed through a collaboration between the filmmakers, educators, social workers, and community activists. It was completed in 2005, and it's been used as a tool by schools, universities, community organizations, and prisons to help examine the critical issue of gun violence.
Pruitt is also an Emmy Award winner. In 2002 he won his first Emmy by co-directing In the Net with Dreambuilder Celebrations founder Jim Friedman. This made-for-TV film received two Emmys that year. The pair built on their success the following year with Skin Complex, which earned a total of five Emmys, including another one for the directing duo Pruitt & Friedman. Skin Complex also earned a Telly Award in 2003.
Beginning in 2005, Pruitt documented the challenges and triumphs of a community institution as it transformed its traditional top-down organizational structure into a team-based one. The result, a documentary entitled Starting With Me, shines a powerful spotlight on the concept of building community by working through issues such as race, class, communication, and respect. It was completed in 2006, and won two Telly Awards in 2007.
Inspired by the renaissance of spoken word at home and around the world, Mark My Words is a remarkably poignant feature that documents 24 hours in the lives of some of the nation's most talented poets. It explores the power of the spoken word and its ability to transform people and community. The film is a visual gumbo of performances, home lives, day jobs, families, and daily routines, seasoned by the poets' unique perspectives on the power of words.
Pruitt's latest project, Bending Toward the Light, explores the educational systems in the United States through the lens of students, parents, teachers, reformers and activists in our country's heartland. This documentary examines the challenges well as the hopes of a varied group of youth and adults deeply and vigorously engaged in the process of transforming the state of education in America.
Pruitt is a passionate advocate for the extraordinary talent that exists in the Midwest. He is one of a diverse group of industry professionals and public officials who took action when Wisconsin's film office closed in 2005. Together, they created a task force that led to the founding of Film Wisconsin, a public/private coalition dedicated to developing and promoting multi-media production in Wisconsin. Pruitt sits on the board of Film Wisconsin as a founding member.
