Career

His work includes the documentary, Gaza Strip

Gaza Strip (film)

Gaza Strip is a 2002 documentary film by James Longley which records events taking place in 2001 during the Second Intifada.The film focuses on 13-year-old Mohammed Hejazi, a second-grade dropout the filmmaker encountered at the Karni crossing in the Gaza Strip, where Palestinian children often...

, released in 2002. His production, Iraq in Fragments

Iraq in Fragments

Iraq in Fragments is a documentary feature directed by James Longley. Longley shot the film in Digital Video on a Panasonic DVX100 miniDV camcorder. The film premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. The film is also a part of the Iraq Media Action Project film collection. It was nominated for...

, presents a view of Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

 and Iraqis during the first two years of Iraq war. It was awarded three jury awards at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival

2006 Sundance Film Festival

The 2006 Sundance Film Festival was held from 19 January to 29 January 2006. It was held in Park City, Utah with screenings in Salt Lake City, Utah; Ogden, Utah; and the Sundance Resort. It was the 22nd iteration of the Sundance Film Festival, and the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the...

 and was nominated for an Academy Award for Documentary Feature

Academy Award for Documentary Feature

The Academy Award for Documentary Feature is among the most prestigious awards for documentary films.- Winners and nominees:Following the Academy's practice, films are listed below by the award year...

, but lost to An Inconvenient Truth

An Inconvenient Truth

An Inconvenient Truth is a 2006 documentary film directed by Davis Guggenheim about former United States Vice President Al Gore's campaign to educate citizens about global warming via a comprehensive slide show that, by his own estimate, he has given more than a thousand times.Premiering at the...

. His short film Sari's Mother premiered at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival

Toronto International Film Festival

The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...

 and was nominated for an Academy Award for Documentary Short but lost to Freeheld

Freeheld

Freeheld is a 2007 documentary film directed by Cynthia Wade, and produced by Wade, Matthew Syrett and Vanessa Roth. It chronicles the story of Laurel Hester in her fight against the Ocean County, New Jersey Board of Chosen Freeholders to give her earned pension benefits to her partner, Stacie. On...

.

In 2009, Longley was awarded a $500,000 MacArthur Fellowship "Genius Grant."

Between 2007 and 2009 Longley was working on a film in Iran. The film was cut short during the time of the elections and ensuing protests in June, 2009. On Sunday, June 14, The New York Times Lede blog reported he "was arrested with his translator while interviewing people on a street in Tehran, near the Interior Ministry," and later interviewed him about his and his translator's experiences. This film is currently on hold indefinitely.

He is the founder of Daylight Factory, a production company committed to creating documentary films about international subjects with international appeal.

Longley is an active contributor to The D-Word

The D-Word

The D-Word is a worldwide online community for professionals in the documentary film industry. Discussions include creative, business, technical, and social topics related to documentary filmmaking....

, a worldwide online community of documentary filmmakers. He graduated from Wesleyan University

Wesleyan University

Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college founded in 1831 and located in Middletown, Connecticut. According to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Wesleyan is the only Baccalaureate College in the nation that emphasizes undergraduate instruction in the arts and...

. Currently Longley is making a documentary film in Pakistan. He is working with Project Kashmir producer and director Susain.

External links

• Daylight Factory website
• Iraq In Fragments website
• James Longley on the Internet Movie Database
  Internet Movie Database
  Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
  
  
• A Website developed by James in Russia