Roger Weisberg

I joined public television station, Thirteen/WNET New York, in 1976.  As a staff producer, I produced dozens of programs on a broad range of social, political, criminal justice, and health care issues. In 1982 I formed an independent production company, Public Policy Productions, to extend the reach and impact of my documentaries.  Since founding the company, I have produced and directed 31 documentaries on subjects ranging from health care, aging, and the environment to defense policy, child welfare, and persistent poverty. These documentaries aired in primetime on PBS in the U.S., and many were broadcast around the world.  

My documentaries have won over 150 awards including Peabody, Emmy, and duPont-Columbia awards.  Some of my films are vérité style documentaries with no narration, while others are narrated by prominent actors including Meryl Streep, Helen Hayes, and James Earl Jones, as well as distinguished journalists including Marvin Kalb and Walter Cronkite. I received an Academy Award nomination in 2001 for SOUND AND FURY and in 2003 for WHY CAN’T WE BE A FAMILY AGAIN? 

Many of my previous PBS productions have taken viewers inside our nation’s health care system, including SOUND AND FURY, WHAT'S AILING MEDICINE, OUR CHILDREN AT RISK, BORDERLINE MEDICINE, WHO LIVES - WHO DIES, CAN'T AFFORD TO GROW OLD, and HEALTH CARE ON THE CRITICAL LIST.  My previous PBS health care documentary on the struggles of the uninsured, CRITICAL CONDITION, aired during the last major health care reform debate in 2008 and 2009.  Now, as the focus of health care reform shifts from the access crisis to the cost crisis, we hope that our new film, MONEY AND MEDICINE, can contribute to the debate over cost containment and deficit reduction that is heating up as we approach the 2012 election.