David Mrazek
D O C U M E N T A R Y---W R I T E R / D I R E C T O R / P R O D U C E R
Waubansee Productions
David Mrazek is
an award-winning producer and writer of web-based videos and numerous prime-time PBS and cable TV documentary
series. He can be reached at Waubansee Productions, LaGrange Park, IL, at: dmrazek@sbcglobal.net
His latest film, From Billions to None: The Passenger Pigeon's Flight to Extinction, is a compelling look at the forgotten story of a super-abundant bird species driven to extinction by humans in a matter of decades. The 100th anniversary of the extinction on September, 1, 2014 was commemorated by public television broadcasts of the documentary and an ambitious multi-media outreach effort called Project Passenger Pigeon (P3), mobilizing over 300 museums and institutions to raise awareness about species survival challenges on land and in the sea today.
The documentary is available for a home screening purchase license, as well as educational licensing. For more information go to billionstonone.com.
Mrazek co-produced and co-directed The Principal Story, which aired nationally on the PBS documentary series, P.O.V., fall of 2009. The Principal Story tells two stories, painting a dramatic portrait of the challenges facing America's public schools— and of the great difference a dedicated principal can make. The documentary, funded by The Wallace Foundation, is part of an ambitious outreach campaign to improve principal leadership training across the country. The Chicago Tribune gave the documentary four stars and described it as "excellent and emotionally compelling" and "a moving testament to the obsessive dedication it takes to keep a struggling school functioning, let alone put it on the path to improvement." The P.O.V website features Principal Story clips.
Other programs include NEH-funded projects such as Woodrow Wilson,
which won the 2002 International Documentary Association Achievement Award
for Limited Series, and the Peabody, duPont-Columbia and Emmy-Award winning
ten-part series The Great War and the Shaping of the Twentieth Century.
He was writer and producer of Keepers of the Biosphere, the second
episode of the four-part PBS science series, Intimate Strangers: Unseen
Life on Earth. He was most recently Series Producer and Co-writer
of the four-part PBS series, The Kingdom of David: The Saga of the
Israelites. His documentary feature film My Prague Spring won
the Gold Award at the 1993 Houston International Film Festival, Best of
Festival at the Berkeley Video Festival and the Cine Eagle.
A summary of additional documentary productions he has directed, produced, written, and/or edited appears below.
The Kingdom of David— PBS Series
Four-hour PBS
series is the story of the writing of the Hebrew Bible and of how the
stories in that book, of Abraham, of Moses and of David, gave birth to
a religion called Judaism. It
is the story focusing
on cutting edge scholarship about the origins of the Hebrew Bible;
how, amid chaos, a counter-culture tradition focused on prayer and personal
ethics began to arise, embodied in both the Pharisee Hillel and his spiritual
heir, a preacher named Jesus.
Devillier Donegan Enterprises. Initial national telecasts: Nov. 14 &
22. 2003.
Woodrow Wilson— The American Experience Presidents Series
Co-writer, Producer for “Woodrow
Wilson,” the three-hour series for the PBS history “Presidents”
series that dramatically reveals the passionate, prophetic man behind
the cold public facade. Considered one of our five greatest Presidents.
KCET/Hollywood and WGBH Boston. (Series
Credits)
Initial national telecast: January, 2002.
International
Documentary Assn. Distinguished
Achievement Award for Limited Series.
Chasing the Sun— PBS Series
Four-part
PBS series on the history of commercial aviation-- the stories of the
men, women and machines that changed the world.
Episode 2: "The Visionaries;" Co-writer, Producer (Episode
Credits)
Episode 3: "Into the Jet Age;" Co-writer, Producer (Episode
Credits)
KCET/Hollywood. Initial National
telecast: July, 2001.
The Duel—
The American Experience History Series
Co-writer, Co-producer for “The Duel,
”one-hour program
for the PBS history series that dramatically explored the causes behind
the fateful duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr.
(Series
Credits)
Red Hill Productions and Oregon Public Broadcasting.
Initial national telecast: Feb., 2000.
Intimate Strangers:
Unseen Life on Earth— PBS Series
Four-part national
PBS series that looks in depth at the importance of the unseen world of
microbes to all life on earth. (See 2 clips from the film)
Episode 2: "Keepers of the Biosphere;" Writer, Producer
"Keepers" followed two scientists, one in Costa Rican
forests, the other in the waters of the Sargasso Sea and the Pacific Ocean.
(Episode
Credits)
Baker & Simon Associates. Telecast date: Nov., 1999.
The Great War
& the Shaping of the 20th Century— PBS Series
Award-winning eight-part PBS
cultural history series that explores the impact of the First World War.
Episode 1:
"Explosion;" Co-Producer, Co-Editor
Episode 3: "Total
War;" Producer, Co-Editor
Episode 5: "Mutiny;" Associate Producer, Co-Editor
(Episode
Credits)
Co-production of KCET/Hollywood and BBC/London.
PBS/BBC Initial national telecast: Nov., 1996.
Peabody Award,
Emmy Award, duPont Columbia Award;
International Documentary
Assn.
Achievement Award for Limited Series.
My Prague Spring
Writer, Producer, Director, Editor
Feature documentary that presents an intimate, wry portrait of one Czech
family amidst radical change in the formerly Communist Czech Republic.
1993. (My Prague Spring Website)
Gold Award, Houston International Film Festival,1993.
Cine Eagle Award,1993.
Honorable Mention,Philadelphia International Film Festival,1993;
Best of Festival, Berkeley Video Festival,1994.
David Mrazek can be reached
at Waubansee Productions in La Grange Park, IL, at: dmrazek@sbcglobal.net
Writer/Producer
David Mrazek
Awards
Woodrow
Wilson:
IDA Distinguished Achievement Award for Limited Series.
The
Great War:
Peabody Award;
Emmy Award;
duPont Columbia Award;
IDA Achievement Award for Limited
Series.
My
Prague Spring:
Gold Award, Houston International Film Festival;
Cine Eagle Award;
Honorable Mention, Philadelphia International Film Festival;
Best of Festival, Berkeley Video Festival.
________________
MFA in Film Production,
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 1991.
BA with High Distinction
in English, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1986.
