Donna Kanter
TREASURER,
ACADEMY OF TELEVISION ARTS & SCIENCES Donna Kanter is a writer-producer-director
of films and television series, based on true stories and events.
As owner of The Donna Kanter Company, Inc., with 8 staff members, she
has been executive producer, writer, or director of 21 TV programs on
subjects ranging from Pope John Paul II's Vatican, The White
House: Inside the Gates, to Secrets of the Circus, The
Gardner Museum Heist, LUCY: Queen of Comedy (The Desilu Empire),
U.S. missiles, transportation crimes, and numerous police procedurals. Donna is currently creating a series
for A & E on a special unit of the FBI, and a documentary for HBO.
In August 2008, she wrote, produced, and directed F.L.I.P Mysteries:
Women on the Case for WE tv, based on female legal
and investigative professionals (F.L.I.P.) who solve crimes
on the Web with the most formidable police departments in the country. Donna directed LUNCH,
featuring 7 classic comedy writers who lunch together
every two weeks while their waitress inevitably appears just in time
to step on their punch lines. The documentary made its theatrical debut
in August 2008, and is a WGA Film Society selection. She is currently
directing LUNCH 2 with 12 writers and directors. Her
third short film, FRIENDS FOR LIFE, screened at the DGA
in September 2009. In 2006 she wrote and directed Inside
The Yellow Line for Court TV (Tru TV), based on the FBI's
elite Evidence Response Teams. In 2007-2008 her company completed
episodes #2 and #3, The Tell-Tale Bomb and Revenge
Ride. Donna created and directed Cold
Case Cops for the Discovery Channel and in 2006 wrote and directed
a second episode featuring the same Newark detectives (Case Re-opened:
Avenging the Victims). She has maintained a working relationship
with law enforcement for 18 years, enabling her company to produce programs
on the most unusual investigative units and cases of our times. In 2003, Donna Kanter was executive
producer and a writer of her third television movie, Long Way
to Home, for CBS, and her company produced four seasons of
Badge of Courage for Tru TV, with Jerry Orbach, Dennis Franz,
and Gordon Clapp hosting. A team member that has launched 14 series
pilots, Donna was creator and supervising producer of the ABC reality-drama
hybrid series, FBI: The Untold Stories (ABC). She
created the 2001 comedy pilot Payback (NBC and RTI/Italy),
wrote the pilot Injustice For All (NBC), and was Supervising
Producer of the NBC syndicated series, Save Our Streets
(2000-2004). Donna also wrote and directed The Bank of America
Shoot Out (Discovery), the syndicated pilots, Strange
Universe andThe Crusaders (Buena Vista), and directed
the pilot, Rescue, 911 (CBS). Kanter grew up in an atmosphere of comedy
writers and publishers, and gravitated towards investigative reporting,
beginning her career in Seattle as a labor reporter, producer, and Executive
Producer of KING TV News. She then became senior producer for David
Brinkley, for Newsweek, foreign editor at ABC, and investigative producer
for CBS. A graduate of the University of California,
Berkeley, Donna completed her M.A. in Romance Languages from the University
of Florence. She completed her PhD requirements at UCLA, and later
left her doctoral studies on the Italian Resistance at Yale to work
for Ralph Nader as a researcher and journalist. She is editor of Amici
Per La Vita (Friends
For Life), the story of renowned feature film still
photographer Louis Goldman, and the cardinal of Florence and his priests
who risked their lives to save the teenager during the Holocaust. Paulist
Press published Friends for Life in December 2008. Donna
wrote the foreword, and is adapting the book into a screenplay. A two-time Emmy winner, Donna Kanter
is a member of the Writers Guild, Directors Guild, is a founding member
of New York Women in Film, and fellow/recipient of the AFI's Directing
Workshop for Women. Donna is Treasurer of the TV Academy
(2006-2010). In 2006 she completed two terms/4 years as governor
of the Writers' Peer Group, and was elected Governors' Appointee
to the Executive Committee (2004-2006). She has also been a member
of the design team for the Emmys for 5 years. She produced REAL COPS, REAL DOCS for
the Television Academy in October 2006, IS THE MOW DOA? in March 2007
and TELEVISION: THE NEW INDEPENDENT FILM in October 2008. Her
company has conducted numerous television interviews and TV videos on
vintage television and the history of television, while Donna has interviewed
Warsaw Ghetto and Italian Holocaust survivors for the Shoah Foundation. PROGRAMS A CIVIL ACTION: IN PURSUIT OF JUSTICE
(Touchstone, for Court TV) 2000
BADGE OF COURAGE 2002 - GORDON CLAPP, HOST (COURT TV) BADGE OF COURAGE 2001 - DENNIS FRANZ,
HOST (COURT TV) BADGE OF COURAGE 2000 - JERRY ORBACH,
HOST (COURT TV) BADGE OF COURAGE 1999 - JERRY ORBACH,
HOST (COURT TV) BECAUSE WE CARE 1998 - CBS Special
on Cambodia - Writer CASE REOPENED: AVENGING THE VICTIMS (DISCOVERY
CHANNEL) 2004 CHILDREN ON THEIR BIRTHDAYS (AFI, DWW),
SHORT FILM 1996 COLD CASE COPS (DISCOVERY CHANNEL) 2002 ERTS ( A&E), 2010 EYES TO THE SKIES (TRAVEL CHANNEL) 2003 FALLEN STARS (TRAVEL CHANNEL) 2002 FAMOUS FACES, INFAMOUS PLACES (TRAVEL
CHANNEL) 2002 FRIENDS FOR LIFE (SHORT FILM), 2008 FBI: STOLEN TREASURES (TRAVEL CHANNEL)
2003 F.L.I.P. MYSTERIES: WOMEN ON THE CASE
(WE tv) 2008 FT. KNOX (TRAVEL CHANNEL) 2004 GREAT HEISTS (TRAVEL CHANNEL) 2003 HIGH ROLLERS (TRAVEL CHANNEL) 2003 INSIDE THE FBI (TRAVEL CHANNEL) 2003 INSIDE THE YELLOW LINE: ERTs: MIAMI (COURT
TV) 2004 LAS VEGAS CAUGHT ON TAPE (TRAVEL CHANNEL)
2003 LAS VEGAS CELEBRITY SECRETS (TRAVEL CHANNEL)
2002 LONG WAY HOME, aka AFTERMATH (CBS), MOW
2003 LUCY: TV'S COMEDY QUEEN (TRAVEL CHANNEL)
2004 LUNCH (DOCUMENTARY) 2008 LUNCH 2 (DOCUMENTARY) 2009 POPE JOHN PAUL II'S VATICAN (TRAVEL
CHANNEL) 2004 REVENGE RIDE: ERTs: DALLAS (COURT TV)
2006 RINGLING BROS. REVEALED (TRAVEL CHANNEL)
2003 SAVE OUR STREETS (NBC STATIONS), 1999-2001 TALES OF OBSESSION (TRAVEL CHANNEL) 2002 THE ANGRY EARTH (TRAVEL CHANNEL) 2003 THE FLOOD: WHO WILL SAVE THE CHILDREN?
(NBC), MOW 1996 THE LAST VICTIM (NBC), MOW 1993 THE TELL-TALE BOMB: ERTs: SAN DIEGO (COURT
TV) 2005 THE WHITE HOUSE: INSIDE THE GATES (TRAVEL
CHANNEL) 2004 U.S.S. GEORGE WASHINGTON (TRAVEL CHANNEL)
2004 The Kanter Company, Inc. 2100 West Magnolia Blvd.,
Suites A & B Burbank, California 91506 Tel: 818-784-9500 - Main Tel: 818-784-9501 - Direct Fax: 818-990-6160 - Fax donna@kantercompany.com; info@kantercompany.com Web site: http://www.kantercompany.com
