Haskell Wexler

Haskell Wexler - Academy Award winning Cinematographer, and filmmaker, Haskell Wexler grew up and made his first films in Chicago.  He tried to enlist in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade at 15 years of age.  He joined the Merchant Marines during WWII, where he was a Maritime Union organizer.  He worked to break the color barrier on Merchant Marine vessels and for more equitable working conditions.

After the WWII, he got more involved in film and eventually, came to Los Angeles and worked as a  cameraman in dramatic feature film.  He has won two Academy Awards for Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf, and Bound for Glory. His own film, Medium Cool, was a landmark hybrid of documentary and fiction.  He has also partnered with other filmmakers, and activists to make many documentaries which expose U.S. complicity in wars and assassinations.  He has mentored many filmmakers and still keeps a full schedule of work well into his eighties.