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Rachel Lyon

Dallas, TX

Professor and Chair, Division of Cinema & Television-SMU

Tags: awards  broadcast premieres  documentary history  education  emmy awards  ethics  festival awards  funding  history documentaries  international television  internet  media arts organizations  nature, wildlife and sciences  new media  nonprofit organizations  production companies  public television  political/social issue documentaries  Sundance  television  the documentary career  theatrical premieres  u.s. broadcast television  u.s. cable television  u.s. public television  workshops, seminars & classes  

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Supplementary Information

Title/Occupation:  Director  Educator  Producer  Programmer  Writer 

Services Provided:  Film Schools Training Centers  Media Arts Organization  Seminars/Workshops 

Gender: Female

Race: Mixed Race/Multi-ethnic

Citizenship: USA

Brief Message to Members: Rachel Lyon is the Chair of Cinema & Television at SMU and an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker. Lyon has created over 60 documentaries and three feature films for PBS, NBC, CNN, National Geographic and the History Channel, among others.

Biography: Rachel Lyon is the Chair of Cinema & Television at SMU and an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker. Ms. Lyon has produced over 65 documentaries for theatrical, broadcast and limited series, including National Geographic 'Explorer' and PBS' 'Frontline.' Lyon is an Emmy Award-winning director, producer, and writer. Ms Lyon's recent ITVS and Independent Lens feature documentary, "Race to Execution," won eight Telly's and the Cine Golden Eagle. Shot by Jim Morrissette of Kartemquin Films, this powerful documentary addresses how race "infects" every aspect of America's death penalty system from the moment a victim is found to the stark finish in the execution chamber. Her latest film, "Juror Number Six," is an international Internet project with the Ford Foundation’s blackpublicmedia.org’s, Masculinity Project. Lyon’s documentaries include the acclaimed, "Race to Execution" for PBS’ Independent Lens, "Mr. Dreyfuss Goes to Washington" for the History Channel, "Shadow Over Tibet" for PBS and the Emmy Award winner, "Men Who Molest," for PBS’s Frontline. Lyon has created over 65 documentaries and three feature films for PBS, NBC, CNN, National Geographic and the History Channel, among others. Lyon's documentaries have impacted the national consciousness including break-through social-issue films such as her National Emmy-awarding winning Men Who Molest for FRONTLINE; exposing the black market trade of selling plutonium in "The Terror Trade" for CNN; revealing the devastating plight of Tibetan emigrants in "Shadow over Tibet," and disclosing the startling effects of fundamentalism in the three-part series, "The Glory and the Power." Ms. Lyon has consistently worked with top-notch, Academy Award winning talent and has served with the National Geographic Television, PBS, along with serving as senior producer for Ted Turner. Her "Mr. Dreyfuss Goes to Washington" is a behind-the-scenes history of Washington, DC hosted by Academy Award-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss for The History Channel. Her feature films are all based on literature including "Tell Me A Riddle," based on Tillie Olsen's novella, directed by Oscar winner, Lee Grant, starring Academy Award winners Melvyn Douglas and Lila Kedrova. Ms. Lyon's other features include the restoration of "Orson Welles' Othello," and "Thousand Pieces of Gold" based on the historical novel by Ruthann Lum McCunn, starring Academy Award winner Chris Cooper and Rosalind Chao. Lyon co-founded Women in Film in San Francisco and Chicago, serving on the Board in four cities. Electing to keep passing the skills on, she has been working within the university structure for the past decade while launching the Media and Culture at Bentley College in Boston, training international filmmakers at CUNY and Queens College, Reinhardt College, Northwestern University, New York University, and Columbia College.