Description
Jon Goodman is a two-time Emmy Award-winning writer, director and producer. His most recent film, Freedom Songs: The Music of the Civil Rights Movement, began airing on PBS stations nationwide in June 2009.
Prior to Freedom Songs, Jon was the Sr. Producer, and Supervising Story Producer, of Storm Chasers, a popular primetime Discovery Channel series. Over the course of his extensive career in the film and television business, he has written, produced, directed or supervised more than 300 hours of programming for broadcast in the United States and abroad.
From 2004-2006 he was an Executive Producer at Partisan Pictures Inc., a New York City-based production company that supplies high-end documentary and factual programming to a wide range of broadcasters including PBS, the National Geographic Channel, the Discovery Channel, Court TV, and the History Channel. Partisan produced more than 30 hours of programming for broadcast in the United States and international markets during Mr. Goodman’s tenure.
Prior to joining Partisan, Mr. Goodman spent eight years in Washington, D.C. as Senior Writer and Senior Producer for the National Geographic Television series Explorer. Explorer premiered 26 hours of non-fiction programming each season, from long-form adventure, exploration and investigative pieces to blue-chip natural history fare.
During his time at NGTV, Mr. Goodman was instrumental in the conceptualization and development of the seminal 8-hour PBS series: Africa: A Continent & Her People (NGTV/WNET/PBS, 2001), as well as famous for his popular, 10-week Story & Structure seminars, which were open to producers, associate producers, writers and researchers.
In 2002, Mr. Goodman spent several months in Singapore and Hong Kong supervising the inaugural round of productions commissioned by a joint venture between National Geographic Channels International (NGCI) and Singapore’s Economic Development Board. The co-production arrangement identified Asia-based filmmaking talent, and facilitated the production of quality, made-in-Asia documentaries and factual programming for NGCI distribution and exhibition outside the United States. Jon guided the conceptualization and pre-production of 10 films, conducted Master Classes in story and structure for producers, directors and writers, and oversaw commencement of production of the Fund’s first cycle of programs. The Fund is now in its sixth consecutive year.
In addition to writing, producing and directing, Jon is the author of The Kennedy Mystique: Creating Camelot (2005, National Geographic Books) and, in 2006, accepted an appointment as adjunct professor of the arts at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Film Program, where he teaches Directing to 3d-year MFA candidates.
A graduate of Vanderbilt University School of Law, Mr. Goodman began his career in film and television as an entertainment attorney in New York City.
Jon Goodman has been in the industry since 1984.