John A. Kuri

Second generation Hollywood filmmaker John Kuri is the son of 8-time Oscar® nominated and twice Oscar® winner Emile Kuri, the first person in history born in Mexico to win an Oscar®. John's pedigree was shaped by the early years of Walt Disney Studios and a world's first, Disneyland, where his career began. John is an award winning producer, director, screenwriter, published author, both historical and fiction, journalist, commercial rated pilot, and jazz guitarist. In 2008 John was appointed by Dr. Roy Godson, president of the Washington, D.C. based education and research foundation National Strategy Information Center, as a Senior Fellow on its Culture of Lawfulness Project. Sponsored in part by the US Dept. of State and Georgetown University's Center for Democracy and Civil Society, the NSIC work has taken John to Italy, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, Mexico, Panama and Colombia for challenging interactions and mentoring with local and national government officials, journalists, television executives, producers, presenters, and writers. John's Disney experience included his apprenticeship as an art director, encompassed positions in management in all areas of the company ranging from television and motion picture production to theme park design and operations for both Disneyland and Disney World, Florida. Following his Disney years John gained broad experience with many major studios in Hollywood on a variety of feature films and television productions. John's films have received awards and nominations including the Emmy®, the Golden Globe, the Cable Ace, the Christopher Award for excellence in television, the Western Heritage Award, and the Golden Halo. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Writers Guild of America, the Directors Guild of America, and the Art Directors Guild. John has production experience in many U.S. states including Hawaii, in Canada's Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, and Montreal, as well as Ireland, England, Panama, Abu Dhabi in the UAE and Japan. In addition to his screenplays, eleven of John's works have been published. His historical novel, "Cheyenne Rising Sun," arrived in bookstores in September of 2004 and rose to #1 on bestseller lists in several cities. In 2018 it was selected for inclusion in the archives of the American Philosophical Society, the first learned society in the United States and founded by Benjamin Franklin. John's third novel, "Takin' It Back," previewed in June 2005 at Book Expo America in NYC and its hardcover edition was released in September of that year. Shaquille O'Neal, Bill Walton, NYPD Commissioner William J Bratton, and the NBA endorsed the book. The CBS one-hour special "Pride, Passion, and Power" introduced John and promoted the novel. His fourth book, "ROD," released June 2008 at Book Expo America. During his career John has produced numerous movies. His IMDB filmography lists over 140-screen credits. He is the co-creator of the Warner Brothers/ABC police drama, "Ohara," starring Pat Morita and Catherine Keener. Through his company he co-wrote, produced and then directed 2nd unit for his MGM movie, "Captive Hearts." Following that John wrote "Determined to Live: An American Epic," and it was published. He then wrote the screenplay adaptation that became a motion picture he produced (and directed 2nd unit) for Disney and ABC under the title, "One More Mountain." Following that John designed, wrote and directed a cutting-edge multi-media CD-ROM science fiction game, "Dreggs." In addition, he has credits in art direction on over twenty film and television programs. He has written, directed and edited several documentary shorts and music videos. He was nominated for an Emmy® for NBC's movie of John Steinbeck's, The Red Pony, starring Henry Fonda. He produced Ron Howard's film, "Skyward," starring Bette Davis, as well directed the flying sequences, for which he also piloted the camera plane. He has flown wingtip formation with WWII aircraft-P-51 Mustang and Hawker Sea Fury, and the Blue Angels for the TV series "Airwolf" at the Reno Air Races. The NY Times praised John's aerial work as being "Swoopingly beautiful." An LA Times story in the "Calendar" section praised one of John's films, "Conagher," ranking it in the top 20 westerns and one of the most historically accurate movies depicting the old west. John directed and edited two documentary shorts that present the role of music on the Civil Rights Movement and Protest Movement, and a third short film on the Birth of Rock & Roll - for the NARAS 50th Anniversary Grammy® celebration. He directed the pilot for a music performance series titled "Stay Tuned," hosted by Peter Coyote. John produced, wrote, directed, edited, and operated one of the principal cameras during the production of several of the concerts in cities including New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Concert performances were shot with multiple cameras. John produced and directed films of both the Lincoln Center North American Premiere of "Mongolia Concert" and Central Park Summer Concert's "Sudan Music and Dance Festival." A devotee of jazz guitar, John plays in Los Angeles with his jazz sextet, Elixir & Friends. They are seen in this video link in concert at Levitt Pavilion in Pasadena. John has guest lectured at UCLA, UCI, and Saddleback College. He moderated a panel on "Interactive Writing" for Media World, was a panelist for the seminar "Digital Dreams" at the Mill Valley Film Festival, and was a panelist on the subjects of "Feature Film Distribution" and "Screenwriting" for the Newport Beach Film Festival. His script "enCounter: north" was selected by the 2019 Global Script Challenge, the Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards, and the Screencraft Drama Screenplay Competition. His script "Anastacia" was a quarter-finalist in 2019 Shore Scripts Feature Film Contest and is a Semi-Finalist for the 2020 Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards. His documentary short "The Big T: Testosterone" was an official selection of the 2018 edition of the Directors Circle of Shorts International Film Festival. John has over twenty screen credits in art direction category including his work with director Gordon Parks for the Paramount Studios feature motion picture "Leadbelly." John participated in the Red Bull High Performance "Hacking Creativity" project, an exploration of human potential studying what creativity is, means, if it can be learned, and how to apply such knowledge. For more information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_A._Kuri