Harrison Engle

Harrison Engle is an award-winning director and producer of more than eighty documentary and dramatic productions, often involving history, biography and the arts. In 2015, he directed the feature documentary, Hatching Shakespeare with the dynamic Inner City Shakespeare Ensemble. He directed the 2-hour special, The LOST Kennedy Home Movies, which aired on the History channel in 2013 and was narrated by Liev Schreiber. The program features never-before-seen home movies taken by Robert and Ethel Kennedy and John F. Kennedy.

Mr. Engle's films also include: Obsessed with Vertigo, about the Hitchcock suspense classic, narrated by Roddy McDowall (AMC); a 2-hour documentary, West Point: Honor and Tradition; a historical feature film about early Native Americans, The Legend of Two-Path, shot on North Carolina's Outer Banks; War and Peace, an AFI view of Hollywood war films hosted by Richard Gere; Benny Carter: Symphony in Riffs, a portrait of the African-American jazz great narrated by Burt Lancaster (A&E); Future Flight, a look at deep space voyages, hosted by Christopher Reeve (Discovery), and They Came to Play, about the Van Cliburn Amateur Piano Competition. His multi-award-winning documentary, The Indomitable Teddy Roosevelt, (ABC, History and A&E) narrated by George C. Scott, was named "one of the best programs of the year" by the New York Times.

Mr. Engle has directed performances and appearances by many leading personalities including: Liev Schreiber, James Earl Jones, Beau Bridges, Helen Hunt, James Woods, Oliver Stone, Meryl Streep, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Martin Scorsese, Jason Robards, Jimmy Stewart, Jack Lemmon, Kim Novak, Steven Spielberg, Martin Sheen, Sydney Pollack, Sean Penn, Senator John Glenn, and astronaut Neil Armstrong.

Mr. Engle was production executive on the feature film, DA, starring Martin Sheen, which was shot in Ireland, based on the Tony-winning play. He has created tributes for seven Academy Awards telecasts, including Thalberg Award winners Billy Wilder and George Lucas, which was narrated by Steven Spielberg, and Barbara Stanwyck, Mickey Rooney and Jimmy Stewart. His tributes have also honored Clint Eastwood, Anne Bancroft, Christopher Nolan, Rhonda Fleming and Robert Wise. With George Stevens, Jr., he co-produced three AFI Life Achievement Award Specials (CBS.) He has directed several dramatic shorts, including Railroaded, which features an original score by Philip Glass.

Harrison grew up in Detroit, Michigan and attended Wayne State University. He received a MFA in Cinema from Columbia University. Mr. Engle is a director member of the Directors Guild of America, and past president of the International Documentary Association. He has served on media arts panels for the National Endowment for the Humanities, and written articles for publications such as Film Comment. He has taught or lectured on film at AFI, USC, UCLA and North Carolina School of the Arts. In 2009, he traveled to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan for the U.S. State Department's American Documentary Showcase. In 2012, he traveled to South Korea to speak about film for the U.S. State Department & USC School of Cinema's program, American Film Showcase.