CHARLES STEINER - CAREER SUMMARY
Award-winning filmmaker, photographer and media educator.
Steiner is a widely published photojournalist and a videographer
whose footage has been aired on TV stations worldwide.
PHOTOGRAPHY
Steiner’s photojournalism has been in the public since he was in high school. He covered the years of protest and pop in the 1960's and 70's, taking photos of the civil rights movement in Mississippi, anti-war demos, be-ins and important political and popular personalities from Ali to Zappa, including Bob Dylan, Robert Kennedy, Janis Joplin, Mick Jagger, Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Marley and Andy Warhol.
In the 1980’s and ‘90s his photojournalism appeared in the major magazines of the US, Europe, and Japan, including LIFE, Newsweek, the New York Times Magazine, TIME, Paris Match and Stern. He’s photographed Eleanor Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, covered Pope John Paul II at the White House, Raquel Welch on Broadway, a military coup in Bolivia, the Palestinian/Israeli struggle, revolutionary guerillas in the Philippines and the end of Communism in Europe. Steiner is best known journalistically for his coverage of the Shah of Iran in exile [1979 - 80 for Paris Match] and the last years of Marcos and the People Power Revolution in the Philippines [1981-90 for Newsweek].
He has been a photography editor, did industrial/architectural photography, and continues as a fine art photographer. He’s had one-person shows in New York, Boston, Tokyo and Montreal and been included in numerous group exhibits. Recent shows include the group show “Andy Warhol: Dylan to Duchamp” at Eric Firestone Gallery, East Hampton NY (2010) and a one-person exhibit "Highway '67 Revisted" at Kedar Studio, Newark NJ (2011) and at the New Orleans Jazz Festival (2012).
TELEVISION / VIDEO
Since 1985 Steiner has been an independent documentary producer and videographer. A pioneer in the use of small video cameras for broadcast, his footage has aired on the newscasts of ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, and stations in Canada and Japan – featuring his exclusive reports on insurrections and upheaval in the Philippines, Poland and the former Soviet Union.
His own documentaries examine the relationship between culture and politics. NOTHING TO LOSE, about the culture of protest among young people in Poland, foretold the collapse of Communism. HOME BASE – A LOVE STORY looks at the legacy of American colonialism in the Philippines, while SOMETHING HAPPENED reveals aspects of the multiple cultures of Russia, Ukraine, Georgia and the Baltic republics during and after the velvet revolutions of the early 1990's.
Steiner also makes documentaries about - and with - performing artists, in locations from West Texas to East Bengal. He has been working with Japanese avant-garde dancer Min Tanaka since 1979, which will result in a feature-length documentary MOVING MAN. AMI PAGOL (I AM CRAZY) is about Bengali mystic musicians while DAYS OF SPLENDOR is about contemporary Jewish mysticism.
For two years Steiner produced a weekly program for New York City cable television, presenting new video documentaries. Steiner is an important producer/director of dance films and received the Pew Fellowship in Dance/Media at UCLA. He is a major contributor to the Lincoln Center Dance Library in New York, with over 75 programs in the collection.
PRINT JOURNALISM
Steiner's articles on political affairs in the US, the Middle East and Asia have been published in the San Francisco Chronicle, Scholastic magazines, Playboy Japan and the Far Eastern Economic Review, the latter a cover-story exclusive.
GRANTS AND AWARDS
Asian Cultural Council. Production Grant, 1987. AMI PAGOL
Hallwalls New Video Journalism Festival, 1990. Special Jury Award. NOTHING TO LOSE
American Film and Video Festival, 1990. Finalist. NOTHING TO LOSE
Jewish Video Competition, 1995. 2nd Prize. UMAN UMAN ROSH HASHANAH
Member, Board of Directors (1998-2003) Dance Films Association
Pew Fellowship in Dance/Media, 2000, UCLA Center for Intercultural Performance
Included in dancer Oguri’s Irvine Fellowship in Dance 2002
Artist-in-Residence 2009-2010, Ironworks Studio (Orange, NJ). Created a body of archival photo prints; organized and ran an after-school program in Digital Media for urban high school students.
VIDEO IN MUSEUMS AND PUBLIC PERFORMANCES
New York Library for the Performing Arts; Museum of Jewish Heritage; Judah Magnes Museum.
Video Designer for multimedia performance “If I Were You”, The Kitchen, NYC 1998
Video installation “Listening to TV” Dance Theater Workshop, NYC 1999
Walter Reade Cinema, Lincoln Center, screening of “Looking for Debdas Baul” 2007
“Height of Sky” (Cinematographer), aired on Sundance Channel 2009