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Glenn Silber

Glenn Silber is an American independent film director best known for his Academy Award Nominated feature documentaries, The War at Homeundefined and El Salvador: Another Vietnam, among numerous other award-winning documentaries.

As an independent producer, Silber’s first feature documentary, An American Ism: Joe McCarthy received the prestigious Columbia-DuPont Silver Baton. He was also the producer-director of The Great American Bailout for the Center for Investigative Reporting and Frontline, which received the George Polk Award for National Television Reporting and the IRE Awardundefined (Investigative Reporters & Editors). Silber was also nominated for an Emmy for producing, directing and co-writing A Death in St. Augustine for Frontline and the New York Times.

Having been an independent filmmaker for a dozen years, Silber made a mid-career transition during the 1980s, 90s and 2000s forging a successful, 20-year career in broadcast journalism at CBS News and ABC News. Working for several prime-time broadcasts, he produced nearly 90 prime-time TV newsmagazine pieces, including winning a national Emmy Award for the TV newsmagazine story, Homeless in America: Suffer the Children for CBS News.

Early Life

Silber was born on June 27, 1950 and was raised in West Orange, New Jersey, a suburb of New York City, is the son of attorney Osie & Ada Silber,  He attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, graduating in 1972 with a BS in Speech and Communications. His study of film production, along with the political and cultural atmosphere of the late ‘60s and early 1970s motivated his interest in becoming a documentary filmmaker.

Career 1970s

After graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Silber spent two years working with the new format of ½” portable video. An early advocate of Public access TV, he produced a weekly video show, Mondo Video, in 1973. In 1974, he received the first video production grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board for his one-man show, Living with Video.

The War at Home

In 1975, Silber decided to produce a feature documentary on the 1960s Antiwar movement, using Madison, Wisconsin as a microcosm for the national protest movement against the U.S. war in Vietnam.

Silber was able to gain access to all the local TV news film shot in Madison in the 1960s and early 70s through an arrangement with the Wisconsin Historical Society, which had received the collections from the lthe three network affiliates: WKOW-TV (ABC) WISC-TV (CBS) and WMTV-TV (NBC). In exchange for archiving the footage, he was able to use the vast collection free of charge. He enlisted Barry Alexander Brown, initially as the film researcher, who later became the co-producer/director.

Four years later, The War at Home premiered on October 12, 1979 at the Majestic Theater in Madison. The film went on to win critical acclaim, winning the Jury Prize at the U.S. Film Festival (now Sundance Film Festival), along with the Gold Hugo at the Chicago International Film Festival for Best Documentary, an Academy Award Nomination for Best Feature Documentary, among other awards, and was broadcast nationally on PBS.

An American Ism: Joe McCarthy

While in production of The War at Home, Silber decided to take on another Wisconsin-based documentary story about the rise to power of the infamous, 1950’s American demagogue, former U.S. Senator Joseph R. McCarthy. With funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Silber produced and directed An American Ism: Joe McCarthy, broadcast nationally on PBS in April, 1979. The film went on to win the prestigious Columbia du Pont Silver Baton award “for excellence in broadcast journalism.”

1980s

Following the success of his first two feature documentaries, Silber moved to Los Angeles in June 1980, at a time when the political crisis and revolution in Central America had become the focus of his attention.

In late 1980, Silber investigated the civil war in El Salvador that was about to explode and over the next year produced three films on the political and human rights crisis in El Salvador. In January, 1981, he produced and directed the one-hour PBS News special, El Salvador: Another Vietnam, which was the first American long-form news report on El Salvador, presented by WNET THIRTEEN for national broadcast on PBS.

Following the PBS special, Silber and Brazilian filmmaker Tete Vasconellosundefined co-directed El Salvador: The Seeds of Liberty  (30 mins.) for the Maryknoll Order of the Catholic Church on the rape and murder of their nuns. The film was widely distributed by the Maryknoll church and received a Jury Award at the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen.

The third film of his series, El Salvador: Another Vietnam, had its world premiere in September, 1981 at the New York Film Festival. The film won top awards at the U.S. Film Festival (Sundance Film Festival), the Chicago International Film Festival, and was Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary.

During this time, Silber also co-produced From the Ashes: Nicaragua Today, the first American documentary on post-revolutionary Nicaragua directed by Helena Solberg. Completed in 1983, the documentary was broadcast on PBS and went on to win a national Emmy Award for Best Background-Analysis of Current Story.

Work with Claudia Vianello

In the early ‘80s, Silber teamed up with Claudia Vianelloundefined, who was was the writer and association producer on El Salvador Another Vietnam. They co-produced two films whose subjects used the arts as a form of political protest. Atomic Artist (1983) is a profile of Santa Fe sculptor, illustrator and “atomic artist”, Tony Price who used scrap metal from the Los Alamos National Laboratory, birthplace of the Atomic Age, to create antinuclear sculptures. The film premiered at the London International Film Festival (now the BFI London Film Festival) and won top awards at the San Francisco International Film Festival, the Melbourne (Australia) International Film Festivals; and was broadcast nationally on both the Arts & Entertainment cable network and PBS.

Silber and Vianello married in 1984. In 1985, their son Alexander was born, who was followed in 1987 by their daughter, Chloe.

In 1985, Silber and Vianello produced Troupersundefined a feature documentary on the radical theater collective, the San Francisco Mime Troupe. The film tells the story of what Silber calls, “the most outspoken theater company in America”. Troupers was selected for the London Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival and Sundance Film Festival and won a number of film festival awards. A 60-minute version of the film was broadcast on PBS.

In the fall of 1983, Silber and Vianello spent a year at the AFI’s Center for Advanced Film Studies in Los Angeles, training to direct and produce dramatic features. While at AFI, Silber was Investigative Producer on the ABC News 20/20 report, What Happened to the Children? on the aftermath of “Operation Babylift” at the end of Vietnam War. The story received an Emmy for Best Investigative Reporting.

In 1986, Silber received a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowshipundefined for Filmmaking.

Network TV News Producer

Having been an independent filmmaker for a dozen years, and prompted by the need to support a family, Silber made a mid-career transition during the 1980's, '90s and 2000s forging a successful 20-yer career in broadcast journalism at CBS News and ABC News. Working for several prime-time broadcasts, he produced 80 prime-time TV newsmagazine pieces.

During his seven years at CBS, Silber was a staff producer for West 57th, Saturday Night With Connie Chung, and Street Stories with Ed Bradley, producing stories specializing in social issue investigations including Homeless in America: Suffer the Children, which received a national Emmy Award. Other stories focused on racial bias in Southern California law enforcement, Los Angeles gangs, telemarketing charity fraud, and an investigation into radioactive pollution at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, among many others.

1990s

During a hiatus from CBS News, Silber was producer/director for The Great American Bailout a one-hour investigation into the Savings and Loan financial crisis for Frontline and the Center for Investigative Reporting, with correspondent Robert Krulwich. The one-hour report received the George Polk Award for National TV Reporting in 1991.In 1992-93, Silber returned to CBS News as the West Coast producer on the prime-time newsmagazine, Street Stories with Ed Bradley.

ABC News

In 1994, Silber and his family moved from Los Angeles to the New York area for what became a 13-year career as a staff producer at ABC News on prime-time newsmagazine broadcasts including Day One, 20/20, 20/20 Downtown and Prime Time Live.

His investigative stories for ABC included an award-winning piece on the deadly misdiagnosis of melanoma, the first national TV report on the Air Force Rape and Sex Assault scandal (Nominated for an Emmy); an investigation into a homicide by Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s prison guards in Maricopa County, Arizona; and the asbestos contamination of Libby, Montana by the W.R. Grace and Company, among many others.

2000s

Silber continued producing for prime-time newsmagazine broadcasts at ABC News including investigative stories with 20/20 anchor John Millerundefined on the 9/11 terrorists’ movements in New Jersey; and feature pieces with Barbara Walters, such as the first post-2000 election interview with Al Gore. Other 20/20 pieces included the first interview with Abu Ghraib prison guard detainee, and a one-hour re-investigation of the Matthew Shepard homicide which won a Writers Guild Award and the Mongerson Prize from the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism among 50 other prime-time TV news magazine pieces.

After 13 years with ABC News, Silber made the decision to return to his career as an independent producer-director and communications consultant, restarting Catalyst Media Productions with his wife and partner, Claudia Vianello.

Since 2010, Silber continues to freelance produce for the networks, including for ABC News Nightline and 20/20. In 2011, Silber produced the piece, U.S. v. Drakeundefined who was the 4th American indicted under the Espionage Act of 1917 for 60 Minutes with Scott Pelley In 2012, Silber produced the one-hour documentary, Rangers Lead the Way for NBC’s Peacock Productions for the History Channel.

In 2013, he was producer/director/co-writer, on A Death in St. Augustineundefined a one-hour investigative report with the NY Times for FRONTLINE, which was nominated for a national Emmy Award for Best Investigative Reporting - Long Form. In 2014, he produced and directed a 30-minute environmental documentary, River’s Journeyundefined a story about how the heavily polluted Whippany River was saved and restored by the township of East Hanover, N.J.

In 2014, Silber and his wife, Claudia Vianello, moved from New Jersey to Santa Fe, New Mexico where he continues to work and consult on documentary projects, including the 2020 feature documentary Fire in the Heartland: The Kent State Storyundefined broadcast on PBS on the 50th anniversary of the Kent State tragedy.

In 2016, Silber was senior producer and writer for Adnan Syed: Innocent or Guilty, a one-hour documentary for the ABC’s Lincoln Square Productions for Investigation Discovery, based on the crime at the heart of Season One of the Serial podcast phenomenon (with its 175 million downloads).

In 2018, Glenn Silber oversaw the 4K restoration of The War at Home. Funded through a Kickstarter campaign and restored by IndieCollectundefined. Following the film’s “4K Premiere” at the 2018 New York Film Festival, Catalyst Media Productions re-released the film theatrically in cities around the country including the Santa Fe Independent Film Festivalundefined in Silber’s hometown of Santa Fe. The film is also widely now available on digital platforms. By re-releasing the film, The War at Home can now be introduced to a whole new generation, educating them on the power of protest.

In 2021, Silber was consulting producer on the Sundance Channel one-hour episode, True Crime Story: It Couldn’t Happen Here, St. Augustine.

References

Michael, Moore. "The War at Home". This Week in New York. Retrieved 2018-10-09.

Phillips, Michael. "'The War at Home' review: When UW-Madison lit the fires of revolution". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2018-11-29.

Canby, Peter. "Classic Vietnam-era documentary The War at Home and its lessons of nonviolence". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2018-11-29.

Moore, Michael. "One of the best documentaries ever made". Twitter. Retrieved 2018-10-12.

"Q&A with Glenn Silber on October 9". Film at Lincoln Center. Retrieved 2018-9-28.

"Vertuoso creates a marketing campaign for Oscar Nominated The War at Home film about the 1960s Antiwar Movement". EIN News. Retrieved 2020-11-09.

"About the IRE Awards". Investigative Reports and Editors. Retrieved 2021-02-18.

"Wisconsin Arts Journal". Arts Wisconsin. Retrieved 2021-02-18.

"Tete Vasconcellos". Letterboxd. Retrieved 2021-02-18.

"El Salvador: The Seeds of Liberty". British Film Institute. Retrieved 2021-02-18.

"Claudia Vianello". Santa Fe Reporter. Retrieved 2017-08-26.

"Troupers". IMDb. Retrieved 2021-02-18.

"Guggenheim Fellowships". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved 2021-02-18.

de Moraes, Lisa. "Former 20/20 co-anchor John Miller joins CBS News". Washington Post. Retrieved 2011-10-17.

"CBS "60 Minutes": U.S. v. Whistleblower Tom Drake". Whistleblower. Retrieved 2011-05-22.

"A Death in St. Augustine". PBS. Retrieved 2013-11-26.

Horowitz, Ben. "Documentary on Whippany River cleanup to make its debut at film fest Saturday". NJ.com. Retrieved 2019-10-16.

Batrouny, Ellen. "Fire in the Heartland: Kent State, May 4th, and Student Protest in America". Daily Post. Retrieved 2015-03-23.

"IndieCollect". IndieCollect. Retrieved 2021-02-18.

"Santa Fe Independent Film Festival". Santa Fe Independent Film Festival. Retrieved 2021-02-18.

External Links

The War at Home Official Website (2020)

Glenn Silber on IMDb