Janet Tobias
Janet L. Tobias | |
---|---|
Nationality | American |
Occupation | Film director, producer, and writer |
Known for | No Place On Earth |
Website | Sierra/Tango Productions |
Janet Tobias is a media executive specializing in healthcare as well as an Emmy Award-winning director, producer, and writer.[1]
She directed most notably No Place On Earth in 2012, a docudrama about the Verteba & Priest’s Grotto caves in the Ukraine used by Jews escaping the Holocaust. Her screenplay for the film, co-written with Paul Laikin, was a finalist for the 2014 Award for Documentary Screenplay from the Writers Guild Of America.[2]
Tobias is currently directing Unseen Enemy, a documentary on the threat of pandemics in the 21st century set to premiere in late 2015, and to air on CNN in 2016.[3]
Career
After growing up in the Midwest and graduating from Yale University, Janet Tobias started her television career at CBS’s 60 Minutes as Diane Sawyer’s associate producer.[4] She then moved to ABC’s Prime Time Live where she produced, wrote, and directed both domestic and international stories ranging from a case study of organ donation to a portrait of the Kuwaiti royal family after the Gulf War.[5]
In 1992, Tobias moved to Dateline NBC where she worked as a national producer, supervising pieces on medical ethics and the home health care industry. Following Dateline, she worked as an editorial producer of ABC News' Law and Justice unit where she developed stories for Nightline, 20/20, and World News Tonight; she was also the executive producer for PBS's Emmy Award-winning program Life 360.[6]
In 2001, she founded a television and film production company called Sierra/Tango Productions with former ABC anchor Forrest Sawyer. Sierra/Tango has produced over a dozen documentaries on social issues ranging from medical ethics to the life of teenagers in America.[7] Tobias is also the founder of Ikana Health, which focuses on the mobile web, social media and video as it relates to healthcare information and improving patient outcomes.[8]
In 2009, Tobias was appointed to the Forum on Drug Discovery, Development and Translation of the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Sciences, serving two terms until 2015. In 2010, she became an adjunct professor of Medicine in the Department of Health Evidence & Policy at Mount Sinai School of Medicine where she works on preventing diabetes in minority populations.[8] In 2014, she became a research professor of Global Public Health in New York University's College of Global Public Health.[9]
Ms. Tobias is a member of the Writer’s Guild of America and currently resides in New York City.
Filmography
Tobias's filmography includes:[10]
Director
- 2012: No Place On Earth (director/producer/writer)
- 2001: Frontline (1 episode: Juvenile Justice) (director/producer/writer)
Producer
- 2012: No Place On Earth (director/producer/writer)
- 2005: Voices of Civil Rights (co-executive producer)
- 2004: Battle for America’s Schools (executive producer)
- 2003: MSNBC Reports: The Next War (executive producer)
- 2003: Living Dangerously (producer) (two episodes: Alaska Climber, Airborne)
- 2003: MSNBC Investigates (one episode: Nature's Weapon: The Hidden Plague) (executive producer)
- 2002: Ten Year Old Dog (executive producer)
- 2002: Monuments (executive producer)
- 2001: Life 360 (executive producer)
- 2001: Redemption (executive producer)
- 2001: Flying (executive producer)
- 2001: Junk (executive producer)
- 2001: Roots (executive producer)
- 2001: Voice (executive producer)
- 2001: Fate (executive producer)
- 2001: Six Degrees of Separation (executive producer)
- 2001: Frontline (1 episode: Juvenile Justice) (producer)
- 2000: Nightline (Juvenile Justice, 5 episodes) (senior producer)
- 1999: Y2K: The Winter of Our Disconnect (executive producer)
Screenwriter
- 2012: No Place On Earth
- 2001: Frontline (1 episode: Juvenile Justice)
Awards
- National Emmy and American Bar Association awards[11]
- 2 Cine Golden Eagles’[5]
- The George Foster Peabody Award
- 2 Casey Medals for Meritorious Journalism
- National Headliner Award
- Sigma Delta Chi Award
- Honorable mention Robert F. Kennedy Journalism and Overseas Press Awards
- Hampton’s International Film Festival Audience Award[12]
References
- ↑ Chariton, Jordan. "CNN and Sierra Tango Productions Partner on Global Influenza Documentary". The Wrap.
- ↑ "WGA Awards 2014: Complete list of winners and nominees". LA Times.
- ↑ Pederson, Erik. "CNN Films' 2016 Slate Includes Pics On Steve Jobs, BASE Jumping, Pathogens". Deadline.
- ↑ Krajeski, Justin. "TIFF Futures: 'No Place On Earth' Director Janet Tobias On Telling "One of the Best Stories I Ever Heard"". Indiewire.
- 1 2 "Filmmakers". No Place On Earth.
- ↑ "PBS Breaks Out New Programming Genre With "Life 360" on Friday Nights at 9:00 P.M.". PBS Press Release. 27 July 2001.
- ↑ "About Section". Sierra Tango Productions.
- 1 2 "About Section". Ikana Health + Media.
- ↑ "NYU GIPH Faculty". NYU Global Institute of Public Health.
- ↑ "Janet Tobias". IMDB.
- ↑ "Immediate Release: 23rd Annual News & Documentary Emmy Award Winners" (PDF). Emmy Online.
- ↑ "Janet Tobias - Awards". IMDB.