About Quest Productions Bill Jersey PBS Documentary Max Salomon Berkeley CA Academy Awards Oscar Evolution Jim Crow WNET WGBH KQED Mongolia

 

 

 

 
 

For over forty years, Bill Jersey has been known
for his provocative documentaries on network and
public television. After receiving his Bachelor's
Degree in Fine Arts from Wheaton College in
Illinois, Bill spent several, mostly unpaid, years
learning to be an art director for a fledgling
religious film company. Excited by the possibility
of making movies, he sought an advanced degree
in film from USC, graduating with honors.

Following graduation, Bill became the Art Director
on the movie classic, The Blob. But instincts,
interests and paying jobs wooed him to nonfiction
and he soon established his reputation as one of
the pioneers of the Cinema-Verite movement.

His work in film over the years has earned him
numerous awards and established him as one
of the most respected documentary filmmakers
in America today.
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BILL JERSEY
 

In 1966 he produced A TIME FOR BURNING (Academy Award Nomination, 1967).
Fred Friendly called it "The best civil rights film ever made." The New York Times called Jersey's Emmy award-winning CHILDREN OF VIOLENCE" Brilliant, heavy, searing."
In 1984 his film THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS: Reflections on U.S. - Soviet Relations
received the duPont-Columbia Silver Baton award. In 1987 critic John Voorhees called
Jersey's FACES OF THE ENEMY, "one of the most challenging and thoughtful TV
documentaries you're likely to see this or any other year."

SUPERCHIEF: The Life & Legacy of Earl Warren, a ninety-minute film co-produced
byJersey and Judith Leonard in 1989, received an Academy Award Nomination and two
Emmy Award Nominations, as well as numerous other awards.

Jersey's 1990's broadcasts include THE GLORY AND THE POWER, a three-hour series
investigating religious fundamentalism around the world, ABRAHAM LINCOLN: A NEW
BIRTH OF FREEDOM, a one hour special for PBS, THE DISSENTER and THE PRINCE,
two hours in the five-part series RENAISSANCE, LOYALTY AND BETRAYAL: THE
STORY OF THE AMERICAN MOB, a four-hour history of organized crime in America
for Fox Television, CRIME AND PUNISHMENT IN AMERICA, a three-hour PBS
documentary series focusing on the history of the American criminal justice system
NAKED TO THE BONE, a one-hour documentary on medical imaging, STOPWATCH,
a one-hour biography of Frederick Winslow Taylor funded by the Alfred P. Sloan
Foundation for PBS, and SciSQUAD, a half-hour kid's science series for the
DISCOVERY channel.

In September 2001, PBS aired Jersey's WHAT ABOUT GOD? - the last show in a seven
part NOVA series on evolution. Most recently Jersey recieved the coveted George Foster Peabody Award for THE RISE AND FALL OF JIM CROW, a four part series that aired on PBS in October 2002 (co-produced with Videoline Inc. and Thirteen/WNET-New York). The series marked the first time that the tragic Jim Crow Era of American history was explored in depth on American Television.,