Jed Riffe is an award winning filmmaker and founder of Jed Riffe Films + Electronic Media. For over 25 years his documentary films have focused on social issues including: Native American histories and struggles (Ishi

Ishi

Ishi was the last member of the Yahi, the last surviving group of the Yana people of the U.S. state of California. Ishi is believed to have been the last Native American in Northern California to have lived most of his life completely outside the European American culture...

, the Last Yahi, California's "Lost" Tribes, Who Owns the Past?,) and agriculture, food and sustainability

Sustainability

Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...

 issues (Ripe for Change, Germ Wars). He currently lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Biography

Riffe was born in Dallas Texas and attended El Centro College in Dallas University where he studied journalism. In l968, he published The Good Life magazine and soon became politically involved in the civil rights and anti-war movements in Texas.

He organized demonstrations as part of the national Vietnam Moratorium Committee campaign, and was hired as the Texas organizer for Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam. It was then that he began showing documentary films as a tool for social change. His filmmaking is an extension of his early activism.

His most acclaimed film, Ishi

Ishi

Ishi was the last member of the Yahi, the last surviving group of the Yana people of the U.S. state of California. Ishi is believed to have been the last Native American in Northern California to have lived most of his life completely outside the European American culture...

, the Last Yahi was released theatrically and broadcast nationally on the PBS series The American Experience. The film went on to win "Best Documentary" awards at eight major national and international film festivals and was nominated for an a national Emmy award in 1994.

California and the American Dream was featured on Independent Lens

Independent Lens

Airing weekly on PBS through ITVS, the Emmy Award-winning series Independent Lens introduces new drama and documentary films made by independent filmmakers. Past seasons of Independent Lens have been presented by hosts Angela Bassett, Don Cheadle, Susan Sarandon, Edie Falco, Terrence Howard, Maggie...

.

Jed Riffe Films + Electronic is also known for producing interactive digital museums exhibits.

Filmography

• Germ Wars (producer, director, co-writer) in production 2009-2010
• Convention (line producer) 2008
• California and the American Dream (series producer) 2006
• California's "Lost" Tribes (producer, director, co-writer) 2006
• The New Los Angeles (executive producer) 2006
• The Price of Renewal (executive producer) 2006
• Ripe for Change (producer) 2006
• Waiting to Inhale (producer, director) 2006
• Who Owns the Past? (producer, director) 2000
• Ishi, the Last Yahi (producer, director) 1992
• Rosebud to Dallas (producer, director, co-writer) 1977
• Promise and Practice (producer, director, co-writer) 1975

Waiting to Inhale: Marijuana, Medicine and the Law

• "Golden Eagle", 2007 CINE Washington, D.C.
• "Mejor Documental, 2007 Festival Internacional de Cine Pisoactivo, Santiago de Chile
• "Best Documentary", 2006 Eureka International Film Festival
• "Co-Best Documentary Film", 2005 New Jersey Film Festival
• "Gold Award", 2005 Worldfest Houston

Ripe for Change

• "Best of the Best", 2008 Tucson Slow Food Film Festival
• "Golden Eagle", 2007 CINE Washington, D.C.
• "Special Jury Award", 2007 Mendocino Film Festival
• "Best Eco Film-MovieMaker Magazine Award", 2007 Wine Country Film Festival
• Public Broadcasting in Public Places, “Best Interactive Visitor’s Center Presentation”
• Chicago International Film Festival’s, 2007 INTERCOM Competition

California's "Lost" Tribes

• "Golden Eagle", 2007 CINE Washington, D.C.
• 2001 Gerbode Fellow for Excellence in Non-Profit Management

Ishi, the Last Yahi

• "Emmy Nomination-Outstanding Historical Program", 1994 National News and Documentary Emmy Awards, National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
• "Gold CINDY Award of Merit"
• "Special Awards: for Writing, Directing and Editing", Association of Visual Communicators
• "Outstanding Documentary", 1994 Western Heritage Awards, National Cowboy Hall of Fame
• "Golden Eagle", 1994 CINE, Washington, D.C.
• "Prix Planète-Cable", 1994 Tréizième Bilan Du Film Ethnographique, The Musée De L'homme, Paris, France
• "Best Documentary Film (Long): Produced by Non-Indians", 1994 Red Earth
• "Der Ted", Audience Choice—Best Independent Film, The 1993 Munich International Film Festival
• "Best Of Festival", 1993 National Educational Film And Video Festival
• "Gold Hugo" Best History/Biography, The 1993 Chicago International Film Festival
• "Best Documentary Film (Short)", 1992 American Indian Film And Video Festival, San Francisco
• "Selected for Exhibition", 1994 Margaret Mead Film Festival
• "Certificate of Merit", 29th Annual Gabriel Awards, Unda USA
• "Honorable Mention", 1993 Society Of Visual Anthropology Film Festival, American Anthropological Association

External links