{"id":54,"date":"2008-11-26T15:20:46","date_gmt":"2008-11-26T20:20:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/cinemasexiles\/2008\/11\/26\/about-the-filmmakers\/"},"modified":"2011-09-30T14:26:39","modified_gmt":"2011-09-30T18:26:39","slug":"about-the-filmmakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/cinemasexiles\/about\/about-the-filmmakers\/54\/","title":{"rendered":"About the Filmmakers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>KAREN THOMAS<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Executive Producer, Film Odyssey<br \/>\nDirector, Producer &amp; Writer, <strong>Cinema\u2019s Exiles: From Hitler to Hollywood<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n<p>Karen Thomas is an award-winning producer whose television productions are broadcast nationally in prime-time on PBS.  <em>Cinema\u2019s Exiles: From Hitler to Hollywood<\/em> continues Film Odyssey\u2019s interest in biographical subjects and its long-standing association with AMERICAN MASTERS and Thirteen\/WNET.  Her biographical documentaries include <em>Isaac Stern: Life\u2019s Virtuoso, Robert Rauschenberg: Inventive Genius<\/em>, and <em>Edgar Allan Poe: Terror of the Soul<\/em>.  Historical productions include <em>The GI Bill: The Law That Changed America<\/em>, a history of the Washington National Cathedral, and programs on the American Bill of Rights.  She produced a four-part series <em>Dinosaurs!<\/em>, narrated by Barbara Feldon; and <em>A Gift from the Past<\/em>, a special on the Makah Indian Nation, narrated by Wes Studi.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to forming Film Odyssey in 1986, Karen Thomas was Vice-President of The Film Company, in Washington, DC, where she co-produced the television documentary <em>Herman Melville, Damned in Paradise<\/em>, produced a documentary about race and politics, and put into production a three-part series on F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe.<\/p>\n<p>Karen Thomas began her television career at the Public Broadcasting Service, where responsibilities included working with independent producers, management of program discretionary funds, and the initiation of a long-term program planning system.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MARGARET SMILOW<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Executive Producer, Thirteen\/WNET New York<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Ms. Smilow joined Thirteen\/WNET as Director of Culture and Arts Documentaries in 1997. Recently she completed <em>Barenboim on Beethoven<\/em> on DVD (a six volume set distributed by EMI Classics) which features the great pianist performing all 32 Piano Sonatas (and 6 master classes) which won the prestigious &#8220;Jury Nomination&#8221; prize for best &#8220;Recording of the Year&#8221; as well as in the category of &#8220;Best Concert DVD&#8221; at the 2008 Midem Classical Music Awards, dedicated exclusively to honoring classical music in all its forms. <em>Dream of Life<\/em> about punk rocker and poet Patti Smith opened in competition at Sundance and won best cinematography 2008, and is in theatrical release and Simon Schama\u2019s Power of Art, the 8 part television history of the creative moment that featured 8 artists won an International Emmy Award for the episode on <em>Bernini<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Margie Smilow received the 1999 Creative Arts Emmy Award for Outstanding Classical Music -Dance Program for her film <em>Itzhak Perlman: Fiddling For The Future<\/em> and a Non-Fiction Series Emmy for <em>Leonard Bernstein: Reaching For The Note<\/em>. Her projects for GREAT PERFORMANCES include <em>Maestro: Portrait of Valery Gergiev, Barenboim on Beethoven, Kurosawa, Making the Misfits<\/em> and <em>Degas and the Dance<\/em>, which won a Peabody Award.<\/p>\n<p>She is completing post production on <em>You Cannot Start Without Me<\/em>, a portrait of conductor Valery Gergiev for theatrical and DVD release as well <em>Harlem in Montmartre<\/em>, the story of what made jazz International, <em>The Music Instinct<\/em> on the science of how music effects us and <em>Paris: The Luminous Years<\/em> on the exciting birth of modernism in Paris.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KAREN THOMAS Executive Producer, Film Odyssey Director, Producer &amp; Writer, Cinema\u2019s Exiles: From Hitler to Hollywood Karen Thomas is an award-winning producer whose television productions are broadcast nationally in prime-time on PBS. Cinema\u2019s Exiles: From Hitler to Hollywood continues Film Odyssey\u2019s interest in biographical subjects and its long-standing association with AMERICAN MASTERS and Thirteen\/WNET. Her [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[504],"tags":[3352,3342,3351],"class_list":["post-54","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-about","tag-about-the-filmmakers","tag-karen-thomas","tag-margaret-smilow"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>About the Filmmakers | Cinema&#039;s Exiles | PBS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/cinemasexiles\/about\/about-the-filmmakers\/54\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"About the Filmmakers | Cinema&#039;s Exiles | PBS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"KAREN THOMAS Executive Producer, Film Odyssey Director, Producer &amp; Writer, Cinema\u2019s Exiles: From Hitler to Hollywood Karen Thomas is an award-winning producer whose television productions are broadcast nationally in prime-time on PBS. 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