About the Actor
Eric Sevareid, in full Arnold Eric Sevareid (born Nov. 26, 1912, Velva, N.D., U.S. died July 9, 1992, Washington, D.C.), American broadcast journalist, an eloquent commentator and scholarly writer with Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) News (1939 77) who pioneered a new journalism by introducing opinion and analysis in news reports. After graduating from the University of Minnesota (1935), Sevareid worked as a reporter for the Minneapolis Journal (1936 37), which had hired him as a cub reporter in 1930. He then worked at the New York Herald Tribune in Paris until Edward R. Murrow recruited him to join CBS as a news correspondent to cover the outbreak of World War II in Europe (1939). As one of Murrows Boys, Sevareid was the last American to broadcast from Paris and the first to announce that France was poised to surrender to the Germans (1940). After fleeing Paris with his wife and newborn twin sons, he joined Murrow in London to broadcast during the Battle of Britain bombing raids. In late 1940 he returned to the United States until 1943, when he was assigned to the Far East, where he had to parachute from a plane in China and navigate his crew out of Japanese-controlled jungles. His postwar assignments took him to France, Germany, Britain, and the United States, where he became a celebrity in the 1960s when his commentaries were featured on the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. Besides his two-minute television editorials, which aired until his retirement in 1977, Sevareid wrote a weekly syndicated column and published such books as Not So Wild a Dream (1946), In One Ear (1952), Small Sounds in the Night (1956), and This Is Eric Sevareid (1964).
About the Director
Filmmaker Scott Garen has over twenty years of successful and highly diversified production experience as a writer, director, producer and executive producer of network television specials, documentaries, music videos and dramatic programs. Scotts documentary experience was honed on Between the Wars - the CBS broadcast of a Mobil Showcase Presentation of 16 documentaries, hosted by Eric Sevareid; numerous independent documentaries and reality programs for HBO, PBS and syndicated television; as well as 75 award-winning documentaries for the Channel One Network and MTV, including award-winning documentaries with Jean-Michel Cousteau. Scotts expertise in the production of entertainment specials was sharpened through an overall deal to write, produce and direct with the Walt Disney Company where he created five high-budget prime-time specials for NBC as well as breakthrough projects for Disneys home video arm. Scott also created prime-time entertainment specials for Columbia/Rastar, Dick Clark Productions and five prime-time entertainment specials for Johnny Carson Productions, which achieved ratings in the top-ten programs for the weeks of their airing. His work on the NBC telefilm, Treasure Island, extended Scotts expertise into the arena of dramatic production. Music video production added to Scotts dexterity with film and video through his creation of high-end music videos for Elton John, Michael Bolton, LL Cool J and Bobby McFerrin, among others. Scotts music video work with Billy Joel was honored with a Grammy nomination for best music video. This uniquely diversified experience allows Scott to draw on a wide range of production techniques in his approach to material. His work has earned numerous awards, including: Four New York Festival Awards, Five Telly Awards, Three Chicago International Television Awards, Two National Educational Media Awards, Cine Golden Eagles, Two Emmy Nominations, a Du Pont Peabody Nomination and Two International Documentary Association Awards. Scott has a B.A. and M.F.A. in Film and Video from the California Institute of the Arts. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Kari, and their daughter, Ventana.
