Irving Saraf

Irving Saraf, winner of the 1991 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, In The Shadow Of The Stars and National Emmy Award for Dialogues With Madwomen, (both with Allie Light), was born in Poland, raised and educated in Israel and has a B.A. in Motion Pictures from UCLA. He works in fiction and documentary film as producer, director and editor with over 150 films to his credit, mostly made for TV.

He was the filmmaker of Poland, Changing World (Emmy nomination) and USA Poetry, (with Richard Moore & Philip Greene) 12 half-hour films about modern poets NET.

His directorial work includes Going International (six films about working abroad, producers: Copeland-Griggs) and We Are Driven (Frontline, PBS).

Among his editing credits: Battle of Westlands (Columbia Dupont & Peabody Awards); Death and Dying, Bioethics Series, KTCA-TV, St. Paul (Columbia-Dupont Award); Las Madres (Oscar nomination) and Three Warriors (United Artists release).

With his partner Allie Light, he has also produced and directed Mitsuye and Nellie; Visions of Paradise (five half hour films about contemporary American folk artists); Shakespeare?s Children (director); Rachel?s Daughters (HBO); Blind Spot, Murder by Women; Children and Asthma and Good Food/Bad Food, Obesity in American Children (programs about children?s health and the environment); An Iraqi Lullaby and The Sermons of Sister Jane, Believing the Unbelievable.

In production: Empress Hotel (housing the homeless in San Francisco).

Irving was founder and former head of the KQED-TV film unit and former manager of Saul Zaentz Production Company. During his tenure with Zaentz, Saraf produced a score of films and was post-production supervisor of One Flew Over The Cuckoo?s Nest.

For many years he taught film production at San Francisco State University. An interview with Irving appears in Documentary Filmmakers Speak by Liz Stubbs (Allworth Press, 2002). Irving is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.