Jacoba Atlas
Jacoba Atlas is an American
Atlas was a rock critic and film critic in the 1970s, serving as the West Coast correspondent of Melody Maker in the UK. She wrote for KRLA Beat, the Los Angeles Free Press and several other publications. She moved to television, working for NBC News in the 1980s, rising to senior producer on the Today show. She co-founded VU Productions with Pat Mitchell in 1990, writing and producing documentaries. Turner Broadcasting System hired her as an executive, after which she was an executive producer for CNN, then vice president at PBS in the 2000s.
In 2019, Atlas made Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools, airing on PBS.
Early life and education
Atlas is the daughter of Jewish dramatist Dorothy Cohen and
Writing career
Atlas first published as a journalist. She wrote an article about hippies in the KRLA Beat in August 1967.[5] She praised Harry Nilsson in early 1968.[6] For TeenSet magazine in 1968 she interviewed Jimi Hendrix at his "rented house in Benedict Canyon," recognized by Atlas as the house where the Beatles rested between concert legs in 1965.[7] She wrote reviews of the Doors in 1968 and Steppenwolf in 1969 for Hullabaloo, an early name for Circus rock magazine. She published frequently in Melody Maker in the UK – she was their West Coast correspondent[8] – including a piece based on a lengthy, relaxed interview with neighbor Joni Mitchell at her Laurel Canyon home in early 1970.[9] Atlas described her own Laurel Canyon house as small, with an inoperative fireplace, in an area recently plagued by smog.[10]
Atlas previewed the upcoming
She also wrote for the Los Angeles Free Press, starting with an interview with director Robert Altman discussing his 1970 film M*A*S*H.[14] Atlas wrote articles based on interviews with actors Mae West and George C. Scott, and an investigative piece about the backstory of the 1974 film Chinatown: the California water wars.[15] For Film Comment in 1975, she interviewed Mel Brooks.[16] Atlas was the film critic for the Free Press in the mid-1970s. She interviewed Goldie Hawn for Parents magazine in 1978. She contributed reviews to Ampersand college entertainment magazine.
In 1989 through Dutton, Atlas published a fiction novel, Palace of Light, with characters placed within union politics in the early years of Hollywood. In 1994, she wrote A Century of Women, published through TBS Books as a companion to the Turner Broadcasting System television series of the same name.[17]
Television
Atlas first worked in the television industry as a research assistant to
After TBS, Atlas worked for CNN, rising to the position of vice president and supervising producer. She helped launch CNN NewsStand, a news magazine, and was executive producer.[23] With CNN, she produced the documentary Soldiers of Peace: A Children's Crusade (1999), describing children in Colombia working toward peace. Starting in June 2000 at PBS, Atlas was senior vice president overseeing content for six years under president Mitchell, a role she shared with John Wilson: Atlas was based on the West Coast while Wilson was in Florida.[1][24] In June 2006, Atlas left PBS when they closed operations in Los Angeles.[25]
Atlas collaborated with Tavis Smiley on a series of documentaries for PBS. Atlas was involved with seven broadcasts including: "A Call to Conscience" (2010), "Too Important to Fail" (2011), "Education Under Arrest" (2013), and "Getting Ahead" (2016). One of the series was about Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel.[26]
Atlas wrote and directed Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools, based on the 2016 book of the same name written by Monique W. Morris. The documentary was broadcast in 2019 by PBS, telling about African American girls disproportionately sent to the juvenile justice system.[27]
Awards and recognition
Atlas won a
Filmography
- 2019: Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools[27]
- 2016: Defying the Nazis: The Sharps' War
- 2016: Tavis Smiley Reports: Getting Ahead[30]
- 2013: Tavis Smiley Reports: Education Under Arrest[31]
- 2013: Walking the Camino: Six Ways to Santiago[32]
- 2012: Tavis Smiley Reports: Dudamel: Conducting a Life
- 2011: Extraordinary Moms
- 2011: Miss Representation
- 2011: Tavis Smiley Reports: Too Important to Fail
- 2010: Tavis Smiley Reports: A Call to Conscience
- 2009–2015: Craft in America
- 1999: Soldiers of Peace: A Children's Crusade[1]
- 1998: Warner Bros. 75th Anniversary: No Guts, No Glory
- 1998: Assassinated: The Last Days of King & Kennedy[33]
- 1998: Dying to Tell the Story[1]
- 1997: The Coming Plague[1]
- 1996: The Good, the Bad & the Beautiful
- 1996: Survivors of the Holocaust[1]
- 1995: Anatomy of Love
- 1994: A Century of Women[1]
- 1992: The Home Show
- 1991: Danger: Kids at Work
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h "PBS Establishes Regionally-Based Senior Programming Team". PBS. June 10, 2000. Retrieved August 29, 2020.
- ^ a b c "Jacoba Atlas". Rock's Backpages Library. Retrieved August 29, 2020.
- ^ "Leopold Atlas". Guggenheim Foundation. Retrieved August 29, 2020.
- ISBN 9780809001835.
- ^ Atlas, Jacoba (August 26, 1967). "Hippies: How? Why? What Does It Mean?". KRLA Beat. Retrieved August 29, 2020. Hosted by Rock's Backpages Library.
- ^ Atlas, Jacoba (January 27, 1968). "Nilsson: An Underground Artist Surfaces". KRLA Beat. Retrieved August 29, 2020. Hosted by Rock's Backpages Library.
- ISBN 9781613743249.
- ISBN 9783319916743.
- ISBN 9780914090441.
- ^ Atlas, Jacoba (September 12, 1970). "Laurel Canyon: Hip Street USA". Melody Maker. Retrieved September 7, 2020. Hosted by Rock's Backpages Library.
- ^ Atlas, Jacoba (November 6, 1971). "There Aren't Many Girls In Hard Rock, But A New Day (And Attitude) Is Dawning". Billboard. Retrieved August 29, 2020. Hosted by Rock's Backpages Library.
- ^ Atlas, Jacoba (June 15, 1974). "Cocker Dies a Death". Billboard. Retrieved August 29, 2020. Hosted by Rock's Backpages Library.
- ^ Atlas, Jacoba (March 1969). "Jimi Hendrix #2". Circus. Retrieved August 29, 2020. Hosted by Rock's Backpages Library.
- ^ Atlas, Jacoba (March 25, 1970). "MASH director is non-plussed". Los Angeles Free Press.
- ^ Atlas, Jacoba (September 27, 1974). "The Facts Behind 'Chinatown'", Los Angeles Free Press, p. 23.
- ^ Atlas, Jacoba (March–April 1975). "Mel Brooks interview". Film Comment. Retrieved August 29, 2020.
- ISBN 9781570361425.
- ^ "Team". Pushout Film. September 8, 2019. Retrieved August 29, 2020.
- ^ Carmody, John (September 17, 1990). "The TV Column". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 28, 2020.
- ^ King, Susan (June 5, 1994). "Women Who Made a Difference". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 29, 2020.
- ^ Rosenberg, Howard (June 7, 1994). "A Mostly Positive 'Century' of Women". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 29, 2020.
- ^ "Nominees 1995: A Century of Women". Emmys. Retrieved August 29, 2020.
- ^ Rosenberg, Howard (June 16, 1999). "In Secular Land, Spirituality on Rise". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 7, 2020.
- ^ Everhart, Karen; Behrens, Steve (May 3, 2004). "As cume slips, duo aims to keep PBS 'relevant'". Current. Retrieved August 29, 2020.
- ^ Jensen, Elizabeth (June 14, 2006). "Embracing Digital Era, PBS Hires John Boland of KQED to Fill New Post". The New York Times. Retrieved August 29, 2020.
- ^ "Getting Ahead Production Team". PBS. September 14, 2016. Retrieved August 29, 2020.
- ^ a b "World Premiere of 'PUSHOUT: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools Documentary'". National Black Women's Justice Institute. September 9, 2019. Retrieved August 29, 2020.
- ^ "Survivors of the Holocaust". Peabody Awards. Retrieved August 29, 2020.
- ^ "Jacoba Atlas". Emmys. Retrieved August 29, 2020.
- ^ Roberts, Kimberly C. (October 7, 2016). "'Getting Ahead with Tavis Smiley' comes to WHYY". The Philadelphia Tribune. Retrieved September 7, 2020.
- ^ "Tavis Smiley Examines An Educational System Under Arrest". PR Newswire (Press release). TS Media. March 5, 2013. Retrieved September 7, 2020.
- ^ Lowe, Justin (October 31, 2014). "'Walking the Camino: Six Ways to Santiago': Film Review". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved September 7, 2020.
- ^ Linden, Sheri (April 2, 1998). "Assassinated: The Last Days of King & Kennedy". Variety. Retrieved September 7, 2020.
External links
- Jacoba Atlas at IMDb
- Jacoba Atlas at BFI.org