Ken Schneider
With 20+ years’ experience, and 9 years working in Cuba, PatchWorks tells intimate stories that invoke complicated questions about family, faith, and identity. Their 6 award-winning features and numerous shorts have broadcast worldwide and screened at festivals, schools, organizations, and community venues, facilitating complicated community conversations, enriching curriculum, and sometimes impacting legislation. Their most recent feature, LOS HERMANOS/THE BROTHERS, won the Best Documentary Award at its Woodstock Film Festival premiere.
Their previous Cuban feature, HAVANA CURVEBALL screened in six countries, winning Best Documentary awards at the Boston and Seattle Children’s Film Festival, a special juror award at the Olympia Festival in Greece and a spot on School Library Journal’s “Best of 2014” list. Their previous film, Speaking In Tongues, aired on PBS, won the Audience Award at the San Francisco Film Festival, and remains a catalyst for changing language education worldwide. Previous films include the ITVS-funded BORN IN THE USA, which aired on Independent Lens and was hailed as the “best film on childbirth” by the former director of maternal health at the World Health Organization, and several shorts.
Ken Schneider is a Peabody- winning producer/director who has also edited nearly 40 feature documentaries for PBS, HBO, Showtime and Al-Jazeera, and others. He received a Peabody as Co-producer and editor of Soft Vengeance. He edited the Oscar-nominated REGRET TO INFORM, described by the New York Times as “unforgettable … exquisitely filmed, edited and scored.” Other films he edited have earned multiple Emmys, a Columbia-Dupont, three Peabodys, an Indie Spirit and top awards at the Sundance Film Festival. Ken is drawn to stories of war and peace, human rights, artists, American history, contemporary social issues, and Cuba.
Ken has taught at NYU-Tisch, Chapman University, and San Francisco City College, and lectured at the SF Art Institute, University of San Francisco, and Harvard. He has been a panelist for the National Endowment for Humanities, the Emmys, and various film festivals. Other projects include: SOFT VENGEANCE: ALBIE SACHS AND THE NEW SOUTH AFRICA (Peabody), HAVE YOU HEARD FROM JOHANNESBURG (Emmy winning series), THE JUDGE (TIFF), IN FOOTBALL WE TRUST (Emmy, Sundance), OROZCO: MAN OF FIRE, RALPH ELLISON: AN AMERICAN JOURNEY (PBS’ American Masters), MANKILLER, STORE WARS, SCHOOL COLORS (PBS’ Frontline), BOLINAO 52 and ANCESTORS IN THE AMERICAS. Ken directs and edits in both English and Spanish.
