John Korty
Encyclopedia
John Korty is an American
film director
and animator
, best known for the television film The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
and the documentary Who Are the DeBolts? And Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids?
, as well as the theatrical animated feature Twice Upon a Time. He has won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature
(for Who Are the DeBolts?) and several other major awards. He is described by the film critic Leonard Maltin
as "a principled filmmaker who has worked both outside and within the mainstream, attempting to find projects that support his humanistic beliefs".
, he began making amateur films while still in his teens. He took a liberal arts education at Antioch College
in Ohio and obtained work as an animator for television commercials while still in school. He graduated in 1959. In a 1963 article he wrote for the Bolex Reporter he notes that he first took an interest in animation during his second year at Antioch. He developed a cut-out technique and also used various other imaging methods including scratching the film stock, painting, and using objects such as photographs, string, cloth and scissors. He would continue to develop these techniques in projects through his career, culminating in his 1984 animated feature Twice Upon a Time. Using a Bolex
H-16 camera, his television commercial work amounted to more than 30 spots, which he made with four other students at Antioch.
His 1964 short Breaking the Habit
was nominated for the Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject
.
, north of San Francisco. There he made three feature films in four years. They were successful, low-budget projects. His first was the little-seen drama The Crazy-Quilt (1966), with narration by Burgess Meredith
. The others were Riverrun and Funnyman, featuring performances by the comedy troupe The Committee Theatre
. His barn was his studio (Korty Films), and it would become an inspiration for George Lucas
and Francis Ford Coppola
who also established studios in the San Francisco Bay Area. Korty Films would become part of what was later called the "New Hollywood
". Korty actually became a tenant at Coppola's Zoetrope Studios
in San Francisco, though he later moved out when Coppola raised the rents. The company finally settled in Point Reyes Station, California
.
Other feature films directed or produced by Korty included such well-known titles as Oliver's Story
(1978) and Twice Upon a Time, a George Lucas-produced amimated fantasy originally aired as an HBO feature in June 1984 and later released theatrically by Warner Bros.
The film lost money, and Korty would not return to animated productions for more than twenty years. He also served as a cinematographer for a few films including the Robert Redford feature The Candidate
.
and William Shatner
, was produced by Francis Ford Coppola
, and was based on the science-fiction novel The Pilgrimage by Zenna Henderson
. In 1974, Korty won an Emmy Award
for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series and a Directors Guild of America
award for his filmed adaptation of The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
. Four years later, the Directors Guild of America
gave him an award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary for his documentary feature Who Are the DeBolts? And Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids?. The film had previously won an Academy Award in the documentary category.
Other films included Go Ask Alice (1970); an adaptation of Farewell to Manzanar
(1976); and A Christmas Without Snow (1980). He also made the Star Wars
spin-off adventure Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure
(1984). One of his more recent films was an adaptation of the Rudyard Kipling
story of the supernatural called "They", filmed as They Watch
.
In 2004, he produced a scene parodying Blue's Clues
for the television special Channel Chasers
.
and Sesame Street
. These segments featured moral tales including at least one adaptation of Aesop's Fables
. There was a recurring character known as Thelma Thumb, and all of the films (some as short as 18 seconds) used Korty's backlit cut-out technique which he called Lumage (Luminous Image). He tended to use a synthetic fabric called Pellon for the Sesame Street animations, which lent a consistent style to the work. Improv actors often ad-libbed the dialogue, and child performers were sometimes used. Among the children was the sister of David Fincher
. David Fincher worked for Korty and would later gain recognition as a director himself.
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
and animator
Animator
An animator is an artist who creates multiple images that give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence; the images are called frames and key frames. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, video games, and the internet. Usually, an...
, best known for the television film The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman is a 1971 novel by Ernest J. Gaines. The story depicts the struggles of African Americans as seen through the eyes of the narrator, a woman named Jane Pittman...
and the documentary Who Are the DeBolts? And Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids?
Who Are the DeBolts? And Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids?
Who Are the DeBolts? And Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids? is a 1977 documentary film about Dorothy and Bob DeBolt, an American couple who have adopted 14 children, some of whom are severely disabled war orphans...
, as well as the theatrical animated feature Twice Upon a Time. He has won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature
Academy Award for Documentary Feature
The Academy Award for Documentary Feature is among the most prestigious awards for documentary films.- Winners and nominees:Following the Academy's practice, films are listed below by the award year...
(for Who Are the DeBolts?) and several other major awards. He is described by the film critic Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin is an American film and animated film critic and historian, author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives.-Personal life:...
as "a principled filmmaker who has worked both outside and within the mainstream, attempting to find projects that support his humanistic beliefs".
Early life and career
Born in Lafayette, IndianaLafayette, Indiana
Lafayette is a city in and the county seat of Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, northwest of Indianapolis. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 67,140. West Lafayette, on the other side of the Wabash River, is home to Purdue University, which has a large impact on...
, he began making amateur films while still in his teens. He took a liberal arts education at Antioch College
Antioch College
Antioch College is a private, independent liberal arts college in Yellow Springs, Ohio, United States. It was the founder and the flagship institution of the six-campus Antioch University system. Founded in 1852 by the Christian Connection, the college began operating in 1853 with politician and...
in Ohio and obtained work as an animator for television commercials while still in school. He graduated in 1959. In a 1963 article he wrote for the Bolex Reporter he notes that he first took an interest in animation during his second year at Antioch. He developed a cut-out technique and also used various other imaging methods including scratching the film stock, painting, and using objects such as photographs, string, cloth and scissors. He would continue to develop these techniques in projects through his career, culminating in his 1984 animated feature Twice Upon a Time. Using a Bolex
Bolex
Bolex is a Swiss company that manufactures motion picture cameras and lenses, the most notable products of which are in the 16 mm and Super 16 mm formats. The Bolex company was initially founded by Jacques Bogopolsky in 1927. Bolex is derived from his name. He had previously designed cameras for...
H-16 camera, his television commercial work amounted to more than 30 spots, which he made with four other students at Antioch.
His 1964 short Breaking the Habit
Breaking the Habit (film)
Breaking the Habit is a 1964 American short documentary film directed by John Korty about cigarette smoking and lung cancer. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short....
was nominated for the Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject
Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject
This is a list of films by year that have received an Oscar together with the other nominations for best documentary short subject. Following the Academy's practice, the year listed for each film is the year of release: the awards are announced and presented early in the following year.-1940s:*1941...
.
Film
While most of his later work has been for television, he actually started in film before moving to the small screen. In 1964, he moved to Stinson Beach in Marin CountyMarin County, California
Marin County is a county located in the North San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. As of 2010, the population was 252,409. The county seat is San Rafael and the largest employer is the county government. Marin County is well...
, north of San Francisco. There he made three feature films in four years. They were successful, low-budget projects. His first was the little-seen drama The Crazy-Quilt (1966), with narration by Burgess Meredith
Burgess Meredith
Oliver Burgess Meredith , known professionally as Burgess Meredith, was an American actor in theatre, film, and television, who also worked as a director...
. The others were Riverrun and Funnyman, featuring performances by the comedy troupe The Committee Theatre
The Committee (improv group)
The Committee is a San Francisco based improvisational comedy group founded by Alan Myerson and Jessica Myerson . The Myersons were both alums of The Second City in Chicago. The Committee opened April 10, 1963 at 622 Broadway in a 300 seat Cabaret theater that used to be an indoor bocce ball court...
. His barn was his studio (Korty Films), and it would become an inspiration for George Lucas
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
and Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...
who also established studios in the San Francisco Bay Area. Korty Films would become part of what was later called the "New Hollywood
New Hollywood
New Hollywood or post-classical Hollywood, sometimes referred to as the "American New Wave", refers to the time from roughly the late-1960s to the early 1980s when a new generation of young filmmakers came to prominence in America, influencing the types of films produced, their production and...
". Korty actually became a tenant at Coppola's Zoetrope Studios
American Zoetrope
American Zoetrope is a studio founded by Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas. Founded on December 12, 1969, American Zoetrope was an early adopter of digital filmmaking, including some of the earliest uses of HDTV...
in San Francisco, though he later moved out when Coppola raised the rents. The company finally settled in Point Reyes Station, California
Point Reyes Station, California
Point Reyes Station is small unincorporated town located in western Marin County, California. Point Reyes Station is located south-southeast of Tomales, at an elevation of . Point Reyes Station is located along State Route 1 and is a gateway to the Point Reyes National Seashore, an extremely...
.
Other feature films directed or produced by Korty included such well-known titles as Oliver's Story
Oliver's Story
Oliver's Story is the sequel to the novel Love Story by Erich Segal, turned into a movie of the same name in 1978. It was directed by John Korty and starred Ryan O'Neal and Candice Bergen. The original music score was composed by Lee Holdridge and Francis Lai. Unlike the original film, Oliver's...
(1978) and Twice Upon a Time, a George Lucas-produced amimated fantasy originally aired as an HBO feature in June 1984 and later released theatrically by Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
The film lost money, and Korty would not return to animated productions for more than twenty years. He also served as a cinematographer for a few films including the Robert Redford feature The Candidate
The Candidate (1972 film)
The Candidate is a 1972 American film starring Robert Redford. Its themes include how the political machine corrupts. There are many parallels between the then-recent 1970 California Senate election between John V. Tunney and George Murphy; however, Redford's character Bill McKay is a political...
.
Television
His most highly lauded work was in television. He was active in the medium from the early 1970s until the late 1990s. He became known in the field in 1971 as director of The People. The film starred Kim DarbyKim Darby
Kim Darby is an American actress perhaps best known for co-starring with John Wayne and country singer/actor Glen Campbell in the 1969 western True Grit.-Early life and film career:...
and William Shatner
William Shatner
William Alan Shatner is a Canadian actor, musician, recording artist, and author. He gained worldwide fame and became a cultural icon for his portrayal of James T...
, was produced by Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...
, and was based on the science-fiction novel The Pilgrimage by Zenna Henderson
Zenna Henderson
Zenna Chlarson Henderson was an American science fiction and fantasy novella and short story author, and an elementary school teacher.-Biography:...
. In 1974, Korty won an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series and a Directors Guild of America
Directors Guild of America
Directors Guild of America is an entertainment labor union which represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry...
award for his filmed adaptation of The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman is a 1971 novel by Ernest J. Gaines. The story depicts the struggles of African Americans as seen through the eyes of the narrator, a woman named Jane Pittman...
. Four years later, the Directors Guild of America
Directors Guild of America
Directors Guild of America is an entertainment labor union which represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry...
gave him an award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary for his documentary feature Who Are the DeBolts? And Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids?. The film had previously won an Academy Award in the documentary category.
Other films included Go Ask Alice (1970); an adaptation of Farewell to Manzanar
Farewell to Manzanar
Farewell to Manzanar is a memoir published in 1973 by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston. It was adapted in the form of a television movie in 1976 starring Yuki Shimoda, Nobu McCarthy, Pat Morita, and Mako....
(1976); and A Christmas Without Snow (1980). He also made the Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
spin-off adventure Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure
Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure
For the series of road trips travelled by Hamish and Andy see:Caravan Of Courage The Ewok Adventure is a 1984 American made-for-TV film based in the Star Wars setting. It was released theatrically in Europe as Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure, and is known by that title today...
(1984). One of his more recent films was an adaptation of the Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...
story of the supernatural called "They", filmed as They Watch
They (1993 film)
They is a 1993 television film about the supernatural. A father loses his daughter in a car accident after missing her ballet recital. However with the help of a mysterious old lady he is able to communicate with her spirit...
.
In 2004, he produced a scene parodying Blue's Clues
Blue's Clues
Blue's Clues is an American children's television show airing on the Nickelodeon family of channels. The show premiered on September 8, 1996 and airs on Nick Jr. and other channels, although production of new episodes ceased by 2006. Versions of the show have been produced in other countries,...
for the television special Channel Chasers
Channel Chasers
Channel Chasers is the second television film of the animated series The Fairly OddParents. It first aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on July 23, 2004. The film centers on the series' main character 10-year-old Timmy Turner with his fairy godparents Cosmo and Wanda who grant his wishes....
.
Sesame Street shorts
In the mid-1970s and late-1980s, several Korty animated shorts were featured on the PBS children's programs The Electric CompanyThe Electric Company
The Electric Company is an educational American children's television series that was produced by the Children's Television Workshop for PBS in the United States. PBS broadcast 780 episodes over the course of its six seasons from October 25, 1971 to April 15, 1977...
and Sesame Street
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
. These segments featured moral tales including at least one adaptation of Aesop's Fables
Aesop's Fables
Aesop's Fables or the Aesopica are a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and story-teller believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BCE. The fables remain a popular choice for moral education of children today...
. There was a recurring character known as Thelma Thumb, and all of the films (some as short as 18 seconds) used Korty's backlit cut-out technique which he called Lumage (Luminous Image). He tended to use a synthetic fabric called Pellon for the Sesame Street animations, which lent a consistent style to the work. Improv actors often ad-libbed the dialogue, and child performers were sometimes used. Among the children was the sister of David Fincher
David Fincher
David Andrew Leo Fincher is an American film and music video director. Known for his dark and stylish thrillers, such as Seven , The Game , Fight Club , Panic Room , and Zodiac , Fincher received Academy Award nominations for Best Director for his 2008 film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and...
. David Fincher worked for Korty and would later gain recognition as a director himself.
Internet
In 2006, inspired by the state of political debate in America at the time, Korty produced two short animated pieces which he posted to the World Wide Web. They feature two characters, Brock & Throck, in cynical discussions about the political landscape. Korty was quoted in a news release, "This summer, I found some sketches from my very first experiments. One in particular was perfect for a dialogue between two characters - a single zigzag line that can function as the profile for either face. I had put it away, waiting for the right subject matter. The wait was fifty years.""Fog City Maverick"
He was one of several San Francisco film veterans profiled in the 2007 documentary film, Fog City MavericksFog City Mavericks
Fog City Mavericks is a 2007 documentary film directed by Gary Leva. It chronicles the San Francisco Bay Area's most well known filmmakers through interviews and rare archival footage.People featured in the film include:George LucasBrad Bird...
.
Major awards
- EmmyPrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama SeriesThe Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series is an Emmy presented to the best directing of a television drama series.-Best Direction of a Single Program of a Drama Series:*1959: Jack Smight – Alcoa-Goodyear Theatre ...
for The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974). - Oscar (documentary) (1977) for Who Are the DeBolts? And Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids?
- DGA AwardDirectors Guild of America Awards 1978The 31st Directors Guild of America Awards, given on 10 March 1979, honored the best film and television directors of 1978.-Film:*Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures:**Michael Cimino - The Deer Hunter...
for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary (1978) for Who Are the DeBolts? And Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids? - Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement - Informational Program (1979) for Who Are the DeBolts? And Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids?
- Humanitas PrizeHumanitas PrizeThe Humanitas Prize is an award for film and television writing intended to promote human dignity, meaning, and freedom. It began in 1974 with Father Ellwood "Bud" Kieser — also the founder of Paulist Productions — but is generally not seen as specifically directed toward religious...
for Farewell to Manzanar and Who Are the DeBolts? And Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids? (Special Awards Category, 1979)