Films edited by Jim Klein have received Academy Award Nominations, a Prime Time Emmy Award for Documentary and won numerous awards at leading international film festivals, and have been nationally broadcast on POV, Independent Lens and HBO and internationally broadcast in more than a dozen countries.
Selected Documentary Films Edited by Jim Klein
- A Lion in the House (Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert)
- The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant (Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert)
- Scout’s Honor (Tom Shepard)
- Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai (Lisa Merton and Alan Dater)
- Concrete, Steel & Paint (Cindy Burstein and Tony Heriza)
- Care (Deirdre Fishel and Tony Heriza)
- Hippie Family Values (Beverly Seckinger)
- Knocking (Tom Shepard and Joel Engardio)
- If I Can’t Do It (Walter Brock)
- Sperm Donor X: A Different Conception (Deirdre Fishel)
- Men’s Lives (Josh Hanig and Will Roberts)
Fiction Films Edited by Jim Klein
- The Dream Catcher (Ed Radtke)
- The Speed of Life (Ed Radtke)
- True Nature (Patrick Steele)
- The NightOwls of Coventry (Laura Paglin)
Documentary
A Lion in the House
Nearly 4 hours long, this documentary is both intimate and epic, spanning six years in the lives of five American families who each have a child fighting cancer. Weaving the stories of the five kids, their families and their caregivers, A Lion in the House creates an extraordinary and complex portrait of human resilience.
Selected Awards and Screenings
- Winner of a Primetime Emmy Award
- Two-night National Special, PBS Broadcast, Independent Lens
- Best Documentary Audience Award, Hot Docs Film Festival
- Special Jury Citation, Full Frame Film Festival
- Official Selection, Sundance Film Festival
- Best Documentary Nominee, Independent Spirit Awards
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
To the residents of Moraine, Ohio, General Motors was more than just a car company, it was the lifeblood of a community. In the wake of GM’s 2008 announcement that it was closing the plant, stunned workers looked back at their careers at GM, reminiscing about the opportunities, friendships and pride that the factory line had given them. Through their words, this documentary stands as an elegy to a dying American manufacturing system–and a timely look at the U.S. auto industry in crisis.
Selected Awards and Screenings
- Academy Award Nominee, Best Documentary (Short Subject), 2009
- International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA)
Scout’s Honor
12-year-old Boy Scout Steven Cozza launches a campaign to overturn the Boy Scouts’ anti-gay policy. From Petaluma, California to the Supreme Court, the film chronicles a modern interpretation of the scouting ideals of courage and honor.
Selected Awards and Screenings
- National PBS Broadcast, P.O.V.
- Audience Award for Best Documentary, and Freedom of Expression Award, Sundance Film Festival
- Grand Prize Winner, USA Film Festival
Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai
Taking Root tells the dramatic story of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai whose simple act of planting trees grew into a nationwide movement to safeguard the environment, protect human rights, and defend democracy—a movement for which this charismatic woman became an iconic inspiration.
Selected Awards and Screenings
- Best Documentary Audience Award, Hot Docs Film Festival
- Full Frame Women in Leadership Award
- Best Documentary, International Images Film Festival for Women, Zimbabwe
- Audience Choice Prize and Ecocamera Award, Rencontres Internationales du Documentaire de Montréal
»More about Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai
Concrete, Steel & Paint
The complex story of men in prison, victims of crime, and an artistic partnership that helps break down barriers between them.
Selected Awards and Screenings
- Director’s Award, Hearts and Minds Film Festival
- Best Short Documentary, Peace on Earth Film Festival
- Social Justice Award, Big Muddy Film Festival
- Cultural Spirit Award, New Hope Film Festival
»More about Concrete, Steel & Paint
Care
Care pulls back the curtain on the poignant and largely hidden world of in-home elder care. Beautifully shot and deeply moving, the film reveals the deep bonds that form between paid care workers and elders while exposing the cracks in the U.S. care system.
Selected Awards and Screenings
- Sheffield International Documentary Festival
- AFI/Docs
- DOCNYC
Hippie Family Values
An intimate chronicle of hippie elders and their adult children, filmed over a 10-year period at a communal ranch in New Mexico. The founders of this back-to-the-land experiment are slowing down and facing declining health. Will the next generation be able to sustain the community?
A beautiful film, told with such sensitivity, integrity, and respect.Sonali Gulati, Virginia Commonwealth University
Beverly Seckinger’s curious and empathetic camera brings you close to a group who have made a communal life together for forty years – not without heartache and heartbreak, but beyond the isolation of nuclear families and privatized child-rearing.Christina Crosby, Wesleyan University
An intimate and moving examination of an almost mythical life. The people in the film epitomize the dream of a simpler existence, close to the land and deeply connected with the environment and each other.Ellen Hansen, Emporia State University
»More about Hippie Family Values
Knocking
Seven million Jehovah’s Witnesses in 230 countries worldwide spend 1.3 billion hours a year ministering door-to-door. Knocking follows two families who stand firm for their controversial and misunderstood faith. Narrated by filmmaker Joel P. Engardio, who was raised in a Witness household but chose not to join, Knocking reveals how Jehovah’s Witnesses have helped to shape history beyond the doorstep.
Selected Awards and Screenings
- National PBS broadcast, Independent Lens
- Best Documentary USA Film Festival
- Best Documentary Indianapolis International Film Festival
- Best Documentary Long Island International Film Festival
- Best Documentary Trenton Film Festival
- Cleveland International Film Festival
- AFI Dallas International Film Festival
- Sarasota International Film Festival
If I Can’t Do It
An unflinching portrait of one cantankerous and courageous disabled man who, with many others, is pushing for independence and an equal slice of the American pie.
Selected Awards and Screenings
- Prime Time Emmy nomination
- Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism
- Premiered on POV, 1998
Sperm Donor X: A Different Conception
From the strangeness and humor of picking an anonymous donor to the creation of joyous families of both biological and adopted children, Sperm Donor X: A Different Conception provides a powerful challenge to old ideas about making a family.
»More about Sperm Donor X: A Different Conception
Men’s Lives
A personal and social exploration of the roles of men in America, the film was one of the most widely distributed social documentaries of the 1970’s, with more than one thousand copies in circulation.
Selected Awards and Screenings
- Mannheim International Film Week
- Gold Ducat American Film Festival
- Blue Ribbon Academy Award
- Best Student Documentary National Council on Family Relations
- Family Life Award San Francisco Film Festival
- Special Jury Award Flaherty Film Seminar
- PBS National Broadcast, 1979
Fiction
The Dream Catcher
An abandoned teen hops a freight train in Philadelphia intent on reaching his uncle in Indiana, whom he believes will help him with financial difficulties including a pregnant girlfriend. In Ohio, he meets another homeless teen, who escorts him to his uncle. Finding his uncle equally broke, the duo head on to Oklahoma City to try to find the first teen’s long-gone ex-con father.
Selected Awards and Screenings
- Winner, 10 international film festival awards
- Gold Hugo nomination, Chicago International Film Festival
- Winner of two awards, Locarno International Film Festival
- Best Director Award, Los Angeles Independent Film Festival
- Winner Press Award, Paris Film Festival
The Speed of Life
An audience favorite at film festivals worldwide, The Speed of Life tells the story of Sammer, a quiet 13 year old kid from Brooklyn who steals video cameras from tourists. He and his small gang retreat to Brooklyn to sell their goods, but Sammer always keeps the tapes. Alone in his dark bedroom, Sammer sifts thru other peoples holiday footage, intrigued by all the seemingly happy faces and far away places. While slowly stashing enough money away so he, too, can travel to distant lands, Sammer must first deal with an older brother who’s soon to get out of jail, while also caring for his ailing foster mother.
Selected Awards and Screenings
- Special Jury Prize, Venice Film Festival
- Director’s Choice Award, Sedona International Film Festival
- Göteborg Film Festival
- Munich Film Festival
True Nature
Part drama and part supernatural thriller, True Nature tells the story of a family reunited when their college-age daughter is found after a year-long disappearance. With no memory of what happened to her, she soon discovers that her very presence threatens to expose the secrets and fragile lies by which her family has lived.
Selected Awards and Screenings
- Official Selection of more than 35 film festivals
- Winner of more than a dozen film festival awards
NightOwls of Coventry
A feature narrative that tells the tale of cultural turf warfare in the 1970’s, where a seedy all-night deli is the “theatre of battle.” NightOwls screened theatrically in both the US and Canada.
Selected Awards and Screenings
- Calgary International Film Festival
- Cedar-Lee Theater Cleveland Museum of Art
- IFP Los Angeles, Photos
- Hollywood Theatre, Portland, OR, Photos
- Rhode Island Internation Film Festival
- Newport Beach Film Festival
- Cinequest San Jose
- Cleveland International Film Festival