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ROBERT C. WINN
PRODUCER/DIRECTOR
 
Robert C. Winn is an award-winning producer and director of documentaries living in Los Angeles. 
 
Robert focuses on documentaries that explore issues of social justice, immigration, and cultural dislocation. Recent projects as producer/director include Saigon, USA (2003) an hour long documentary with funding from the California Council for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting about the development of the Vietnamese American community 25 years after the fall of Saigon; Sandman (2002) a documentary about Jim Denevan, an artist in the Bay Area whose canvas is the beaches between Santa Cruz and San Francisco; and Grassroots Rising, a documentary about labor issues and the Asian Pacific Islander community in Los Angeles.
 
He has also produced and directed short-form documentaries, including At the Crossroads:  Women Leaders in Hong Kong (a fifteen minute documentary about how prominent women in Hong Kong are being affected by the change in sovereignty, recipient, Roy W. Dean award); Schooltime in the Land of the People’s Revolution and Living History on the Long River (a pair of short documentaries about life along the Yangtze River).  Robert has also participated, as editor or associate producer, on numerous other projects, including We’re Here to Speak for Justice:  Founding California’s Regional Centers (an hour-long documentary about the interplay between parents of the disabled, medical professionals and government officials leading to the founding of California’s Regional Center System for delivering services to the developmentally disabled), No Evidence (a documentary about an African American doctor who got his medical degree through a U.C. Davis affirmative action program) and Down for Pacoima (a documentary about an L.A. gang member’s struggle to create an identity apart from his gang) and South Coast Repertory:  A Personal History (a documentary about the growth of the South Coast Repertory Theater in Orange County).  Robert has also worked on public service announcements regarding current political and social issues, including heart disease prevention and California Propositions 209 and 227 affecting affirmative action and bilingual education. 
 
Robert received his bachelor’s degree from Occidental College in English and went on to pursue a masters in American Studies, with a focus on cultural studies and social history, and a J.D., both at Yale University.  While at Yale, he served as director of the Allard K. Lowenstein Human Rights Project and conducting a research project on human rights in the Middle East, leading to the publication of Plowshares and Swords:  The Economics of Occupation in the West Bank (Beacon Press), which received the Raphael Lemkin Award for Writing in Human Rights.  Robert continued this interest in human rights while practicing international trade law in Washington D.C.  Robert then went on to earn an M.F.A. at the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television.