RICHARD KAPLAN has a distinguished record as a documentary film and television writer, director, and producer, both in the United States and abroad. His work has won considerable acclaim and critical recognition, including two Academy Awards. He is also the recipient of an Emmy Award for “outstanding historical and cultural programming.”
In addition to his many documentaries, made in the course of a career that has spanned almost 60 years, Kaplan's film work has encompassed the detailed planning and development of theatrical feature films. While unproduced (due to lack of funding) they represent a significant body of work that. He has been responsible for pre-production, and in some cases scripting, of the following: Audubon. The Life Of The Painter And Naturalist; Battle Of The Bulge…The True Story Of This Crucial WW II Battle; The World's Delight …An Original Script By Robert Graves; Alberta… based On The Novel By Swedish author Cora Sandel; Surrender On Demand….A Fact Based Drama About The Rescue Work Of Varian Fry; Mboya ….A Bio Pic Centered Around The Life Of The Assassinated Kenyan Leader Tom Mboya; The Nansen Project… A Huge Historical Drama about The Many Faceted Career Of Fritjof Nansen….
In 1973, he served as an Executive Producer for The American Film Theater and has worked with such renowned performers as Marlene Dietrich, Liv Ullmann, Meryl Streep, Laurence Olivier and James Earl Jones. In addition to his film production activities Kaplan has been active as a teacher, lecturer and consultant. He was Adjunct Professor of Film in the GRADUATE School of the Arts at Columbia University from 1990 to 1998 and one of the founders of Columbia’s Documentary Center and organizer of its first documentary film series. He has also taught at the University of Southern California, University of Maryland, City College, Hunter College, Parsons School of Design, and New York University. During 1984-85, he was Associate Dean of Pratt Institute’s School of Art and Design and from 1987 to 1991 served as a video consultant to Harvard University’s Graduate School of Business. Richard Kaplan is listed in Who's Who and is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and has served as Chairman and member of the jury at numerous festivals both in the Unites States and abroad. He has been an NEH panelist and his films have been shown throughout the world. In 1992 he was honored with a retrospective of his work in Bilbao, Spain where he was the Chairperson of the festival jury.
In addition to an exceptionally diversified film and television career, Kaplan, who likes to describe himself as a generalist, has worked as a director and actor in both radio and theater. He also has been a journalist and foreign correspondent and has had extensive international experience. In 1987 he organized and helped lead a Writers Guild tour to China. In 1972, Kaplan, who has held executive positions in a number of organizations, served as Public Information Director of The Alternative Conference on the Environment in Stockholm. In 1975, he authored the study, “The City University and the Communication Arts,” for the Chancellor’s office of CUNY. In 1980, as a consultant to The Astoria Motion Picture and Television Center Foundation, he initiated its Office of Public Programs. He has been a participant in the United States Information Agency’s Arts America programs in Egypt, Israel, India, Morocco, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. He has conducted production and training workshops in Banglandesh and South Africa and lectured on film and television aboard the QE2.
Richard Kaplan was born in New York City in 1925 and is a graduate of Antioch College, where he majored in English and Political Science. He served three years as an enlisted man in the US Army during World War II and began his film career in 1950 while doing graduate studies in the Department of Cinema at the University of Southern California which he attended under the GI Bill of Rights. Though trained in the arts and crafts of the cinema, Kaplan's approach to filmmaking is a humanistic one and stems from a strong belief that the technical aspects of production, while essential and not to be compromised, are often of secondary importance to a film's subject matter. He considers himself a teacher and educator as well as a filmmaker.