James Moll
Encyclopedia
James Moll is a film director
and producer
.
His company, Allentown Productions, has been based at Universal Studios
since 1994, primarily producing film and television projects focused on stories of non-fiction
.
Moll graduated from the USC School of Cinematic Arts
in 1987.
He began his professional career as an intern
reading scripts for film producer
Lauren Shuler Donner
, who later hired him as an assistant to French writer-director Francis Veber
for Veber’s American remake of “Les Fugitifs” (Three Fugitives
).
Moll serves on the Executive Committee of the Documentary Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
, and is co-chair of the Documentary Award for the Directors Guild of America
.
, which is led by former Nirvana
drummer Dave Grohl
.
Moll is director and producer of the 2008 feature-length documentary Running the Sahara
about three men who ran 4,300 miles across the Sahara
desert from Senegal
to Egypt
. Matt Damon
is the executive producer
of the film, which promotes the H2O Africa Foundation
, co-founded by Damon to raise awareness of clean water initiatives in Africa
.
In 2009, Moll was nominated for two Emmy Awards, winning one of them, from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for Inheritance. The film profiles Monika Göth Hertwig and her struggle dealing with her father's involvement in The Holocaust
. Monika's father, S.S. Captain Amon Göth
, was executed for war crimes in 1946. Amon Göth attained international notoriety after being portrayed by Ralph Fiennes
in the movie Schindler’s List.
He directed and produced the feature-length documentary Price for Peace, which premiered prime time
on NBC
on Memorial Day 2002, hosted by Tom Brokaw
. The late author Stephen Ambrose
and Steven Spielberg
are the executive producers. The film focuses on America’s involvement in the Pacific Theater of Operations
during WWII. It was produced in collaboration with DreamWorks
and the National World War II Museum
in New Orleans.
In March 1999, James Moll received the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for directing The Last Days
. Steven Spielberg
is executive producer
of the film, which chronicles the lives of five Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust
.
Moll is Founding Executive Director of the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education
(also known as the Shoah Foundation), having established the non-profit organization
with June Beallor in 1994 for Steven Spielberg
. Moll and Beallor ran the day-to-day operations the Shoah Foundation from its inception in 1994 until 1998, and later worked with the foundation on the production of documentaries. The goal of the Shoah Foundation was to collect tens of thousands of videotaped testimonies from survivors of the Holocaust
around the world. Within five years, the number of testimonies in the archive
was over 52,000, in thirty-two languages.
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
and producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
.
His company, Allentown Productions, has been based at Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
since 1994, primarily producing film and television projects focused on stories of non-fiction
Non-fiction
Non-fiction is the form of any narrative, account, or other communicative work whose assertions and descriptions are understood to be fact...
.
Moll graduated from the USC School of Cinematic Arts
USC School of Cinematic Arts
The USC School of Cinematic Arts, until 2006 named the School of Cinema-Television , is a film school within the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California. It is the oldest and largest such school in the United States, established in 1929 as a joint venture with the Academy of...
in 1987.
He began his professional career as an intern
Intern
Internship is a system of onthejob training for white-collar jobs, similar to an apprenticeship. Interns are usually college or university students, but they can also be high school students or post graduate adults seeking skills for a new career. They may also be as young as middle school or in...
reading scripts for film producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
Lauren Shuler Donner
Lauren Shuler Donner
Lauren Shuler Donner is an American film producer who specializes in mainstream youth and family-oriented entertainment.-Early life and career:...
, who later hired him as an assistant to French writer-director Francis Veber
Francis Veber
Francis Paul Veber is a French film director, screenwriter and producer, and theater playwright. Many of his French comedies feature recurring types of characters, named François Pignon and François Perrin...
for Veber’s American remake of “Les Fugitifs” (Three Fugitives
Three Fugitives
Three Fugitives is a 1989 comedy film starring Nick Nolte, Martin Short, Sarah Rowland Doroff and James Earl Jones and written and directed by Francis Veber. It is a remake of Les Fugitifs, a 1986 French comedy starring Gerard Depardieu and Pierre Richard and also directed by Veber.- Plot :Lucas ...
).
Moll serves on the Executive Committee of the Documentary Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures...
, and is co-chair of the Documentary Award for the Directors Guild of America
Directors Guild of America
Directors Guild of America is an entertainment labor union which represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry...
.
Career
James Moll directed the 2011 feature documentary Foo Fighters: Back and Forth, profiling the career of the rock band Foo FightersFoo Fighters
Foo Fighters is an American alternative rock band originally formed in 1994 by Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl as a one-man project following the dissolution of his previous band. The band got its name from the UFOs and various aerial phenomena that were reported by Allied aircraft pilots in World War...
, which is led by former Nirvana
Nirvana (band)
Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...
drummer Dave Grohl
Dave Grohl
David Eric "Dave" Grohl is an American rock musician, multi-instrumentalist, and singer-songwriter who is the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter for Foo Fighters; the former drummer for Nirvana and Scream; and the current drummer for Them Crooked Vultures...
.
Moll is director and producer of the 2008 feature-length documentary Running the Sahara
Running the Sahara
Running the Sahara is a documentary feature film that chronicles the Ray Zahab, Charlie Engle, and Kevin Lin's attempt to run across the entire Sahara desert...
about three men who ran 4,300 miles across the Sahara
Sahara
The Sahara is the world's second largest desert, after Antarctica. At over , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as Europe or the United States. The Sahara stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean...
desert from Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
to Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
. Matt Damon
Matt Damon
Matthew Paige "Matt" Damon is an American actor, screenwriter, and philanthropist whose career was launched following the success of the film Good Will Hunting , from a screenplay he co-wrote with friend Ben Affleck...
is the executive producer
Executive producer
An executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...
of the film, which promotes the H2O Africa Foundation
H2O Africa Foundation
The H2O Africa Foundation has merged with WaterPartners to form Water.org. Water.org was co-founded by Matt Damon and Gary White of WaterPartners in July 2009....
, co-founded by Damon to raise awareness of clean water initiatives in Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
.
In 2009, Moll was nominated for two Emmy Awards, winning one of them, from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for Inheritance. The film profiles Monika Göth Hertwig and her struggle dealing with her father's involvement in The Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
. Monika's father, S.S. Captain Amon Göth
Amon Göth
Amon Leopold Göth was an Austrian Nazi and the commandant of the Nazi concentration camp at Płaszów, General Government...
, was executed for war crimes in 1946. Amon Göth attained international notoriety after being portrayed by Ralph Fiennes
Ralph Fiennes
Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes is an English actor and film director. He has appeared in such films as The English Patient, In Bruges, The Constant Gardener, Strange Days, The Duchess and Schindler's List....
in the movie Schindler’s List.
He directed and produced the feature-length documentary Price for Peace, which premiered prime time
Prime time
Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast programming during the middle of the evening for television programing.The term prime time is often defined in terms of a fixed time period—for example, from 19:00 to 22:00 or 20:00 to 23:00 Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast...
on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
on Memorial Day 2002, hosted by Tom Brokaw
Tom Brokaw
Thomas John "Tom" Brokaw is an American television journalist and author best known as the anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News from 1982 to 2004. He is the author of The Greatest Generation and other books and the recipient of numerous awards and honors...
. The late author Stephen Ambrose
Stephen Ambrose
Stephen Edward Ambrose was an American historian and biographer of U.S. Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon. He was a long time professor of history at the University of New Orleans and the author of many best selling volumes of American popular history...
and Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
are the executive producers. The film focuses on America’s involvement in the Pacific Theater of Operations
Pacific Theater of Operations
The Pacific Theater of Operations was the World War II area of military activity in the Pacific Ocean and the countries bordering it, a geographic scope that reflected the operational and administrative command structures of the American forces during that period...
during WWII. It was produced in collaboration with DreamWorks
DreamWorks
DreamWorks Pictures, also known as DreamWorks, LLC, DreamWorks SKG, DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC, DreamWorks Studios or DW Studios, LLC, is an American film studio which develops, produces, and distributes films, video games and television programming...
and the National World War II Museum
National World War II Museum
The National World War II Museum, formerly known as the National D-Day Museum, is a museum located in the Central Business District of New Orleans, Louisiana, at the corner of Andrew Higgins Boulevard and Magazine Street. It focuses on the contribution made by the United States to victory by the...
in New Orleans.
In March 1999, James Moll received the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for directing The Last Days
The Last Days
The Last Days is a documentary, directed by James Moll and produced by June Beallor and Kenneth Lipper in 1998. Steven Spielberg was one of the executive producers, in his role as founder of the Shoah Foundation. The film tells the the stories of five Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust...
. Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
is executive producer
Executive producer
An executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...
of the film, which chronicles the lives of five Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
.
Moll is Founding Executive Director of the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education
USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education
The USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education, formerly Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, is a nonprofit organization established by Steven Spielberg in 1994, one year after completing the Academy Award-winning film Schindler's List...
(also known as the Shoah Foundation), having established the non-profit organization
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
with June Beallor in 1994 for Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
. Moll and Beallor ran the day-to-day operations the Shoah Foundation from its inception in 1994 until 1998, and later worked with the foundation on the production of documentaries. The goal of the Shoah Foundation was to collect tens of thousands of videotaped testimonies from survivors of the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
around the world. Within five years, the number of testimonies in the archive
Archive
An archive is a collection of historical records, or the physical place they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organization's lifetime, and are kept to show the function of an organization...
was over 52,000, in thirty-two languages.
As director
- Foo FightersFoo FightersFoo Fighters is an American alternative rock band originally formed in 1994 by Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl as a one-man project following the dissolution of his previous band. The band got its name from the UFOs and various aerial phenomena that were reported by Allied aircraft pilots in World War...
: Back and Forth (2011) - Running the SaharaRunning the SaharaRunning the Sahara is a documentary feature film that chronicles the Ray Zahab, Charlie Engle, and Kevin Lin's attempt to run across the entire Sahara desert...
(2008) - Inheritance (2006)
- Price for Peace (2002)
- The Last DaysThe Last DaysThe Last Days is a documentary, directed by James Moll and produced by June Beallor and Kenneth Lipper in 1998. Steven Spielberg was one of the executive producers, in his role as founder of the Shoah Foundation. The film tells the the stories of five Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust...
(1998)
As film and television producer
- Foo Fighters: Back and Forth (2011) (Producer)
- When I Rise (2010) (Producer)
- New Kids on the Block: A Behind the Music Special (2008) (Executive Producer)
- Running the SaharaRunning the SaharaRunning the Sahara is a documentary feature film that chronicles the Ray Zahab, Charlie Engle, and Kevin Lin's attempt to run across the entire Sahara desert...
(2008) (Producer) - Inheritance (2006) (Producer)
- Ten Days that Unexpectedly Changed America: Massacre at Mystic (2006) (Producer)
- The Four Chaplains: Sacrifice at Sea (2004) (Producer)
- A Remarkable Promise (2004) (Producer)
- Voices from the List (2004) (Producer)
- Burma Bridge Busters (2003) (Producer)
- Price for Peace (2002) (Producer)
- Broken Silence (2002 – TV Mini Series) (Producer)
- The Lost Children of Berlin (1997) (Producer)
- Survivors of the Holocaust (1996 – Emmy Winner) (Producer)
- Out on a Limb (1992) (Associate Producer)