We produce documentary films about the people and ideas that shape our world.
Kunhardt Films specializes in documentaries about the people and ideas that shape American history. The company, founded in 1987, is run by Peter Kunhardt and his two sons Teddy and George. The Kunhardts have won 8 Emmy Awards, 2 Peabody Awards, a DuPont, an IDA, and two NAACP Image Awards. The production company is in Pleasantville, NY.
Kunhardt Films' latest film, Fragments of Paradise, will be screened at the 2022 Venice Film Festival. Recent productions include the 4-part series Lincoln's Dilemma (Apple TV+, 2022); Emmy Award Nominated A Choice of Weapons: Inspired By Gordon Parks (HBO, 2021) and the Emmy Award Nominated 3-part series Obama: In Pursuit of a More Perfect Union (HBO, 2021).
Past films include The Soul of America (HBO, 2020), Emmy and Peabody Award winning True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight For Equality (HBO, 2019); the IDA winning John McCain: For Whom The Bell Tolls (HBO, 2018); Emmy Award winning and NAACP nominated King In The Wilderness (HBO, 2018); PGA nominated The Newspaperman: The Life and Times Of Ben Bradlee (HBO, 2017); Becoming Warren Buffett (HBO, 2017); and Sundance Film Festival Audience Award winning and Emmy winning Jim: The James Foley Story (HBO, 2016). Other films include Emmy nominated Living with Lincoln (HBO, 2015); Emmy nominated Nixon By Nixon: In His Own Words (HBO, 2014); Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr. (PBS); Makers: Women Who Make America (PBS); The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross; (PBS, 6 hours, winner of the Emmy Award, Peabody Award and DuPont Award); Emmy nominated Gloria: In Her Own Words (HBO, 2011).
Other works include: Finding Your Roots (PBS, 10-hours, 2010); This Emotional Life (PBS, 6-hours, 2010); two seasons of African American Lives for PBS, Teddy: In His Own Words (HBO, 2009, Primetime Emmy winner), a biography of Teddy Kennedy which followed two other Kennedy documentaries for HBO (JFK: In His Own Words (Primetime Emmy winner) and Bobby: In His Own Words); Looking for Lincoln (PBS, 2009), Oprah’s Roots (PBS, 2007) which traced Oprah Winfrey’s genealogical roots; ‘til the River Runs Clear (PBS, 2007) the story of Pete Seeger’s grassroots effort to clean up the Hudson River; Mandate: The President and the People (PBS, 2005) which traced the evolution of the office of the presidency and aired on PBS on Inauguration Day; The Road To 9/11 (PBS, 2005), about the historical roots of Islamic terrorism; Freedom: A History of US (PBS, 2003), an eight-hour children’s series based upon Joy Hakim's award-winning books, hosted by Katie Couric; In Memoriam: New York City, 9/11/01 (HBO, 2002), a one-hour film about the response to the terrorist attacks of September 11; Echoes from the White House (PBS, 2001), a one-hour documentary celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Executive Mansion; The American President (PBS, 2000), a ten-hour series profiling forty-one presidents of the United States with commentary by Harvard University’s Richard Neustadt; P.T. Barnum: America's Greatest Showman (Discovery, 1995), a three-hour special; The People's Palace (PBS, 1992), a documentary about the New York Public Library; and Lincoln (ABC, 1992) a four-hour biography series.