David Mrazek

D O C U M E N T A R Y---W R I T E R / D I R E C T O R / P R O D U C E R

Waubansee Productions

David Mrazek is an award-winning producer and writer of web-based videos and numerous prime-time PBS and cable TV documentary series. He can be reached at Waubansee Productions, LaGrange Park, IL, at: dmrazek@sbcglobal.net

His latest film, From Billions to None: The Passenger Pigeon's Flight to Extinction, is a compelling look at the forgotten story of
a super-abundant bird species driven to extinction by humans in a matter of decades. The 100th anniversary of the extinction on September, 1, 2014 was commemorated by public television broadcasts of the documentary and an ambitious multi-media outreach effort called Project Passenger Pigeon (P3), mobilizing over 300 museums and institutions to raise awareness about species survival challenges on land and in the sea today.

The documentary is available for a home screening purchase license, as well as educational licensing. For more information go to billionstonone.com.

Mrazek
co-produced and co-directed The Principal Story, which aired nationally on the PBS documentary series, P.O.V., fall of 2009. The Principal Story tells two stories, painting a dramatic portrait of the challenges facing America's public schools— and of the great difference a dedicated principal can make. The documentary, funded by The Wallace Foundation, is part of an ambitious outreach campaign to improve principal leadership training across the country. The Chicago Tribune gave the documentary four stars and described it as "excellent and emotionally compelling" and "a moving testament to the obsessive dedication it takes to keep a struggling school functioning, let alone put it on the path to improvement." The P.O.V website features Principal Story clips.

Other programs include NEH-funded projects such as Woodrow Wilson, which won the 2002 International Documentary Association Achievement Award for Limited Series, and the Peabody, duPont-Columbia and Emmy-Award winning ten-part series The Great War and the Shaping of the Twentieth Century. He was writer and producer of Keepers of the Biosphere, the second episode of the four-part PBS science series, Intimate Strangers: Unseen Life on Earth. He was most recently Series Producer and Co-writer of the four-part PBS series, The Kingdom of David: The Saga of the Israelites. His documentary feature film My Prague Spring won the Gold Award at the 1993 Houston International Film Festival, Best of Festival at the Berkeley Video Festival and the Cine Eagle.

A summary of additional documentary productions he has directed, produced, written, and/or edited appears below.

The Kingdom of David PBS Series
Four-hour PBS series is the story of the writing of the Hebrew Bible and of how the stories in that book, of Abraham, of Moses and of David, gave birth to a religion called Judaism. It is the story focusing on cutting edge scholarship about the origins of the Hebrew Bible; how, amid chaos, a counter-culture tradition focused on prayer and personal ethics began to arise, embodied in both the Pharisee Hillel and his spiritual heir, a preacher named Jesus.
Devillier Donegan Enterprises. Initial national telecasts: Nov. 14 & 22. 2003.

Woodrow Wilson The American Experience Presidents Series
Co-writer, Producer for “Woodrow Wilson,” the three-hour series for the PBS history “Presidents” series that dramatically reveals the passionate, prophetic man behind the cold public facade. Considered one of our five greatest Presidents.
KCET/Hollywood and WGBH Boston. (Series Credits)

Initial national telecast: January, 2002.

International Documentary Assn. Distinguished Achievement Award for Limited Series.

Chasing the Sun PBS Series
Four-part PBS series on the history of commercial aviation-- the stories of the men, women and machines that changed the world.
Episode 2: "The Visionaries;" Co-writer, Producer (Episode Credits)
Episode 3: "Into the Jet Age;" Co-writer, Producer
(Episode Credits)
KCET/Hollywood. Initial National telecast: July, 2001.

The Duel The American Experience History Series
Co-writer, Co-producer for “The Duel, ”one-hour program for the PBS history series that dramatically explored the causes behind the fateful duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. (Series Credits)
Red Hill Productions and Oregon Public Broadcasting.
Initial national telecast: Feb., 2000.

Intimate Strangers: Unseen Life on Earth PBS Series
Four-part national PBS series that looks in depth at the importance of the unseen world of microbes to all life on earth. (See 2 clips from the film)
Episode 2: "Keepers of the Biosphere;" Writer, Producer
"Keepers" followed two scientists, one in Costa Rican forests, the other in the waters of the Sargasso Sea and the Pacific Ocean.
(Episode Credits)
Baker & Simon Associates. Telecast date: Nov., 1999.

The Great War & the Shaping of the 20th Century PBS Series
Award-winning eight-part PBS cultural history series that explores the impact of the First World War.
Episode 1: "Explosion;" Co-Producer, Co-Editor
Episode 3: "Total War;" Producer, Co-Editor
Episode 5: "Mutiny;" Associate Producer, Co-Editor
(Episode Credits)
Co-production of KCET/Hollywood and BBC/London. 

PBS/BBC Initial national telecast: Nov., 1996. 

Peabody Award, Emmy Award, duPont Columbia Award;
International Documentary
Assn. Achievement Award for Limited Series.

My Prague Spring
Writer, Producer, Director, Editor
Feature documentary that presents an intimate, wry portrait of one Czech family amidst radical change in the formerly Communist Czech Republic. 1993. (My Prague Spring Website)
Gold Award, Houston International Film Festival,1993.
Cine Eagle Award,1993.
Honorable Mention,Philadelphia International Film Festival,1993;
Best of Festival, Berkeley Video Festival,1994.


David Mrazek
can be reached at Waubansee Productions in La Grange Park, IL, at: dmrazek@sbcglobal.net


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DavidMrazek

Writer/Producer
David Mrazek

Awards

Woodrow Wilson:
IDA Distinguished Achievement Award for Limited Series.

The Great War:
Peabody Award;
Emmy Award;
duPont Columbia Award
;
IDA Achievement Award for Limited Series.

My Prague Spring:
Gold Award, Houston International Film Festival;
Cine Eagle Award;
Honorable Mention,
Philadelphia International Film Festival;
Best of Festival, Berkeley Video Festival.

________________

MFA in Film Production, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 1991.

BA with High Distinction in English, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1986.