GOOD TALK WITH VIVIAN KLEIMAN

Vivian Kleiman, Producer/Director, is a Peabody Award-winning documentary filmmaker known for tackling challenging subjects and filmic approaches, on such subjects as international adoption; the burning of a Black church in South Carolina by an aspiring member of the Ku Klux Klan; women in a Tijuana slum whose actions led to the first multi-billion dollar cleanup of a toxic spill on the U.S.-Mexico border; and a former Marine who journeyed from rejection to acceptance of his gay son.

A longtime collaborator with Black gay filmmaker Marlon Riggs, her work with him includes his landmark experimental documentary Tongues Untied (Additional Cinematography.)

Recently, Kleiman directed and produced NO STRAIGHT LINES: THE RISE OF QUEER COMICS, a feature-length documentary that chronicles queer comic books from the margins of the Underground Comix scene to mainstream acceptance. Honored to premier at the Tribeca Film Festival, the film won the Grand Jury Award at LA’s Outfest, the most prestigious LGBT film festival in the U.S.

Among her other professional awards: Organization of American Historians’ Eric Barnouw Award, International Documentary Association’s Outstanding Achievement Award, and National Emmy Award Nomination for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Research. Kleiman holds the distinctive record as producer or executive producer of eight co-productions with the Independent Television Service (ITVS), created by U.S. Congress to produce programs by independent filmmakers for national public television.

As an educator, Kleiman served a Lecturer at Stanford University’s Graduate Program in Documentary Film Production for nine years.