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After graduating
from Oberlin College, Jon began his career in New York with the CBS
News documentary unit. During his seven years with CBS, Jon worked with
Walter Cronkite on the award winning "Twentieth Century" and "21st Century"
series, as well as "Of Black America," hosted by Bill Cosby.
Other television projects include writing, directing and producing the WCBS "Eye on New York" series,
and the Emmy Award- winning documentary
"Countdown to a Contract." During this time, he also wrote
the book, Black
Americans: From Colonial Days to the Present.
In 1971 Jon formed Wilkman Productions, Inc. For PBS he worked as a program producer
on the Emmy Award-winning "Great American Dream Machine" series and the
Sigma Delta Chi Award-winning 90-minute PBS documentary "Attica." He was a
producer on the "What About Tomorrow," series for ABC, "Voices of America,"
a look at American regional life for McGraw Hill, "Transistor," documenting
the history of the transistor for AT&T" and "American Images" for the United
States Information Agency, winner of a CINE Golden Eagle Award.
Moving to Los Angeles in 1978, Jon continued producing films and videos for television
and commercial clients. He was producer, director writer on seven HBO
specials, including "Scandals," "Spies" and "Real Detectives," among
others. He received Emmys for two public television series, "Turning
Points" and "The Los Angeles History Project," produced in association with KCET.
Other documentary work includes such television specials as NBC's "L.A.
Law" hosted by Jane Pauley. He's also contributed documentary elements to
historically based dramatic films, "Fatherland," "American Stories," “Witch
Hunt,” and "Winchell," all produced by HBO Pictures. Jon has
a special
interest in history. With his wife and partner, Nancy, he produced,
directed and wrote a three hour biography of Thomas Edison ("The Edison
Effect") for the History Channel and A&E. Recent projects include
a seven-part series for Turner Classic Movies entitled "Moguls and Movie
Stars: A History of Hollywood. See:
www.tcm.com/moguls "Chicano Rock! The Sounds of East Los
Angeles," winner of the 2009 Best Documentary at the Reel Rasquache Festival
of the U.S. Latino Experience in Film and Art, a four-part series, "The Port
of Los Angeles: A History," "With Heart and Hand: The Restoration of the Gamble
House," and "At Issue: Immigration." Jon is also the co-author, with his wife Nancy, of
the recent
illustrated history Picturing Los Angeles, and Los Angeles:
A Pictorial Celebration.
Jon is a
member of the Directors Guild of America and the Writers Guild of America,
West. In addition to an active career as a producer, director and writer, he has lectured on the history and
production of documentaries at Fordham University and taught nonfiction
writing in the Department of Cinema/Television at the University of Southern
California. He was a three-term president of the
International Documentary
Association, during which he founded the First International Documentary
Congress in association with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
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