Jan Krawitz

Jan Krawitz has been independently producing and directing documentary films since 1975. She has six films in non-theatrical distribution. LITTLE PEOPLE and DRIVE-IN BLUES were broadcast nationally on PBS and LITTLE PEOPLE received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Documentary. This 88-minute documentary film about dwarfs (co-directed with Thomas Ott) premiered at the New York Film Festival in 1982. The film was also shown at festivals in London, Nyon, and Edinburgh. LITTLE PEOPLE and its filmmakers were the subject of a story on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered". Her recent film MIRROR MIRROR explores issues related to women and body image and was broadcast on the PBS series "P.O.V."

Other films include COTTON CANDY AND ELEPHANT STUFF (about a small travelling tent circus) and DRIVE-IN BLUES (chronicling the demise of drive-in movie theatres). In 1976, Krawitz wrote and co-directed STYX, a 10-minute impressionistic documentary which features the Philadelphia subway and its commuters. The film is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art and received major prizes at the Rencontres Internaionales Henri Langlois in France and at the Short Film Festival in Bilbao, Spain. Ms. Krawitz has been invited to present and speak about her work at many universities and film festivals. She has served often as a grant panelist and film festival judge.

Jan Krawitz holds a Bachelor of Arts in film and photography from Cornell University and a Master of Fine Arts degree in film from Temple University. She taught for eight years at the University of Texas at Austin and is currently a Professor in the Department of Communication at Stanford University where she teaches in the graduate documentary film and video program. (09/09)

In Harm's Way
A film by Jan Krawitz, 1996, 27 min., Color
"For some of us there is an event in our lives after which nothing will ever be the same." IN HARM'S WAY's introductory narration sets the stage for ...

Mirror Mirror
A film by Jan Krawitz, 1990, 17 min., Color
MIRROR MIRROR provocatively explores the relationship between a woman's body image and the quest for an idealized female form. 13 women, of varying ag...