Jon Else

Director

January 1, 1944 (82 years)

Worcester, Massachusetts, USA

Biography

Jon H. Else is an American documentary filmmaker and professor at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. He directs the documentary program.

Filmography

6.0

Explorer

National Geographic's Explorer gives viewers special access to the issues of the day.

N/A

Cadillac Desert

Documentary on water usage, money, politics, the transformation of nature, and the growth of the American west, shown on PBS as a four-part miniseries.

7.6

The Day After Trinity

Through interviews with Manhattan Project scientists and newly declassified archival footage, this documentary examines the life of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer and his leadership of the Manhattan Project. The film traces the development and testing of the first atomic bomb and follows Oppenheimer’s later opposition to nuclear proliferation during the early years of the Cold War.

10.0

The Great Depression

A 7-part series telling dramatic and diverse stories of struggle and survival during the worst economic crisis in U.S. history. From the producers of Eyes on the Prize, this series was met with critical acclaim and won both an Emmy Award for writing and a duPont-Columbia Award.

10.0

Cadillac Desert: Water and the Transformation of Nature

Documentary on water usage, money, politics, the transformation of nature, and the growth of the American west, shown on PBS as a four-part miniseries.

N/A

The Great Depression: A Job at Ford's

Just before the advent of the Great Depression, Henry Ford controlled the most important company in the most important industry in the booming American economy. His offer of high wages in exchange for hard work attracted workers to Detroit, but it began to come apart when Ford hired a private police force to speed up production and spy on employees. After the depression hit in 1929, these workers faced a new, grim reality as unemployment skyrocketed.

7.0

Sing Faster: The Stagehands' Ring Cycle

With its four operas, seventeen-hour running time and months of rehearsal, Wagner's "Ring Cycle" is a daunting undertaking for any opera company. Jon Else goes backstage to show this rare event entirely from the point of view of union stagehands at the San Francisco Opera.

7.0

Arthur and Lillie

A film about Arthur and Lillie Mayer, 89 and 86 years old and still young. Arthur can remember being taken to the first movie show in America, in 1895; Lillie was among the first American suffragettes. Arthur Mayer reminisces about his famous publicity stunts for Paramount, his Broadway horror film theatre, and beginning the importation of great European films with Rossellini's Open City. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.

8.0

Yosemite: The Fate of Heaven

A documentary about Yosemite National Park.

5.0

Stepping Out: The Debolts Grow Up

An update on the DeBolt family, originally featured in Who Are the DeBolts? and Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids? (1977).

N/A

Open Outcry

A fascinating look at the high-speed, high-power trading floor of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. Director Jon Else explores this hectic, noisy, seemingly chaotic workplace with his signature style -- eschewing narration in favor of long, real-time shots that bring the viewer right into the heart-stopping action of the trading floor. He reveals the traders' sudden wealth, sudden disaster, and grace under pressure as they exchange billions of dollars in futures and options contracts - for cattle, pork bellies, Eurodollars and the Nasdaq-100 futures. Also revealed is the endangerment of the open outcry trading system as the digital revolution replaces it at many of the world's financial exchanges.

8.0

Land of Gold

California history unfolds along with the making of an opera in Jon Else‘s entrancing documentary. Returning to the work of composer John Adams and librettist/director Peter Sellars, the subjects of his film Wonders Are Many, Else peeks behind the curtain as the pair prepare their collaboration Girls of the Golden West for its 2017 San Francisco Opera premiere. Ostensibly a look at the nuts-and-bolts of production from informal rehearsals to glittering opening night, the documentary also investigates the Gold Rush era that inspired the show. Soprano Julia Bullock is mesmerizing, as the opera’s star and the film’s narrator, employing passages from a real-life diary to make vivid the boom-and-bust of a rapacious time.

You've seen it all! · 12 titles displayed