STEVEN ASCHER is an Academy-Award nominated
director, producer, writer and educator. The Boston Globe calls his work "filmmaking at its finest."

Troublesome Creek: a Midwestern (co-directed with Jeanne Jordan)
won the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at Sundance, was nominated for an Oscar and received many other awards. It was released theatrically and broadcast on PBS The American Experience, the BBC premier documentary strand Storyville, ZDF Germany and many others.

Ascher and Jordan's feature documentary, So Much So Fast premiered at Sundance, was released theatrically to critical acclaim, and has been
broadcast on PBS FRONTLINE, BBC Storyville, ZDF Germany, and many
other networks around the world.

Raising Renee, part III in the Families in Trouble trilogy, premiered at Full Frame, won the Audience Award at Independent Film Festival Boston and Best Documentary at the Syracuse Film Festival. It will be broadcast on HBO, Knowlege Canada, SVT Sweden and AVRO Netherlands.

Among his awards are the Prix Italia, a Peabody award and an International Documentary Association Distinguished Achievement Award. He was
nominated for a Directors Guild of America Award and an Independent
Spirit Award. He received the Michael DeBakey Journalism Award and an Insight Award from the National Association of Film and Digital Media Artists.

He is author of The Filmmaker's Handbook: a Comprehensive Guide
for the Digital Age (with Ed Pincus) a bestselling text and a staple of
universities and film schools internationally.The Independent calls it
"the bible." The Boston Globe calls it the "gold-standard technical reference." Ascher has written a greatly expanded third edition, published in
September 2007 and is at work on the upcoming fourth edition, due in 2012.

Ascher produced, wrote and directed the drama, Del & Alex, starring Thomas Derrah and Polly Corman (broadcast on A&E and many European networks). He co-directed Life and Other Anxieties which was chosen
for the Whitney New American Filmmakers series. He has produced and directed several pieces for PBS Newshour, films for the PBS series Art Close Up, which won and were nominated for Emmys, and an episode of the
Emmy-nominated Postcards From Buster.

He has directed TV spots and image, training and marketing pieces for major
corporations, government agencies and nonprofits including Disney, Sheraton, Cisco Systems, Health Dialog, McGraw Hill, Biogen, the Texas Rangers and the IRS. Recognition includes a Telly Award, the Brandon Hall Gold Medal and two Gold Remis from Worldfest Houston.

He has produced and directed installations for museums and institutions around the world including the Australian National Maritime Museum,
Science City and traveling exhibits for the U.S. Information Agency.
Awards include the Interactive Video Award of Excellence.

He graduated from Harvard University summa cum laude and has taught
filmmaking at Harvard and at MIT. He has lectured and held master classes in many countries, including Tokyo University, VGIK national film school in Moscow, the CPB/PBS Producers Academy and the Aristoteles Workshop in Romania sponsored by the European network Arte. He has served as a juror at Sundance, the Independent Film Festival of Boston, the Emmys, the National Student Film Festival and the McKnight Fellowship.

He has received grants from the Artists Foundation, the LEF Foundation,
the Paul Robeson Foundation and many state humanities and arts councils. His films have screened at numerous festivals internationally, including the Sydney Film Festival (Audience Award Winner), San Francisco Film Festival (Audience Award Winner) and they are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Library of Congress, Harvard Film Archive,
UCLA and the Sundance Collection.

Ascher's writing on film has appeared in publications such as
Documentary Magazine, the U.S. Department of State's eJournalUSA,
and the book, The Film Industry: Opposing Viewpoints. He contributed
to Honest Truths: Documentary Filmmakers on Ethical Challenges in Their Work.

Writing on Ascher's work has appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Boston Globe, Variety, Ecran Total and books including Documentary Storytelling by Sheila Curren Bernard.

Interviews and discussions can be found at The Washington Post,
Indiewire and PBS.