Thursday, April 16, 2009
APRIL MEETNG
Saturday, April 18th, 2009, 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Robert J. Emery has spent his entire adult life in the television and motion picture industry. For the past 38 years he has written, produced and directed projects that range from national television commercials, corporate communications, network television documentaries and feature films. His most current work is, In the Realm of Eden.
The award-winning series The Directors. Produced in cooperation with the American Film Institute – 91, one-hour episode featuring Hollywood’s finest film directors. The series began its domestic run on the STARZ/ENCORE Cable Network in March of 1999. Ten years later (2009) it is still running on the REELZ cable channel in the U.S. and in 55 other countries around the world. To kick off the series, in February of 1999 an audience of 500 honored his work on The Directors series at the Directors Guild of America facilities in Los Angeles. (Silver Plaque Award, 2002 Chicago International Television Competition – winner, Award of Excellence, winner 2003 Accolade Awards)
Mr. Emery has written and directed eight feature films. His latest, Swimming Upstream (based on the Don Robertson novel The Greatest Thing That Almost Happened) premiered on the Lifetime Movie Channel in January 2005. The movie was awarded the Sapphire Halo Award for Best Dramatic Feature Film at the Angel Citi Film Festival in Los Angeles. The film stars two-time EMMY winner Michael Moriarty, Kelly Rutherford, Ben Savage, Jeffrey DeMunn, Elizabeth Harnois, Matt Czuchry and Ron Dean.
The Genocide Factor: The Human Tragedy, a four-hour PBS mini-series released nationwide in 2002. Hosted by Academy Award winner Jon Voight, the series recounts the entire history of genocide and was awarded the 2002 Gold Special Jury Award for Best Television & Cable TV Series/Documentary from the Houston International Film Festival.
KidHealth, 13 half-hour episodes on Children’s health care in America. The PBS series was hosted by Olympic Gold Medalist Peggy Fleming.
DanceSport, six one-hour programs for PBS featuring ballroom dance competition – five camera live-on-tape.
Golden Saddles, Silver Spurs, a four-hour documentary on the history of Western Cinema for Starz/Encore’s Western Channel.
Mr. Emery is the author of four non-fiction books: The Directors, Take One, and The Directors, Take Two, and The Directors, Take Three and The Directors, Take Four. Each book is based on interviews conducted for The Directors TV series.
Mr. Emery has taught film production at the University of South Florida as well as serving on the Post Secondary Education Commission, which created the film school curriculum for the Florida State University MFA program as well as curriculum for Vo-Tech schools throughout the state of Florida. He served an eight-year term on the Florida State Motion Picture, Television & Recording Industry Advisory Council as well as serving as its Chairman.
Mr. Emery is the recipient of over seventy-five industry awards for his work including two Golden Camera Awards from the Chicago International Film & Video Festival for best documentary of 1992. He won top honors at the New York Film Festival nine years in a row (1991-1999). He won top honors at the 1997 and 1998 American Business Awards. In 1996 and 1999 he received the Cine Golden Eagle Award for projects he wrote, directed and produced. In 2001 he was awarded a Gold Award from the American Corporate Video Awards. In January of 2002 his series The Genocide Factor was chosen as one of the ten best documentaries at the Prism Foundation 12th Night Film Festival in Newport, Rhode Island.
Mr. Emery is a member of the Directors Guild of America. Full industry credits can be found at IMDB.COM under the name of Robert J. Emery.
His feature films include:
SWIMMING UPSTREAM – Writer/Director
ONE SAVAGE NIGHT – Writer/Director
DARE THE DEVIL – Writer/Director
WILLY & SCRATCH – Writer/Director
SIGN OF AQUARIUS – Co-writer/Director
RIDE IN A PINK CAR – Director
THE FLORIDA CONNECTION – Co-writer/Director
SCREAM BLOODY MURDER – Writer/Director
Speaker meetings are held every 3rd Saturday of each month with December off at:
Barnes & Noble Booksellers Carrollwood11802 N. Dale Mabry HighwayTampa, FL 33618. Just south of Stall Road
813-871-6446
