Who Is Christopher Koch?
Christopher Koch’s work has appeared on ABC, NBC, HBO, PBS, National Public Radio, The Discovery Channel, Turner Broadcasting, National Geographic Television, American Movie Classics, The Learning Channel, The Travel Channel, and the Hallmark Channel. His productions have been broadcast throughout the world and distributed on home video.
He has received six national EMMY awards including the first President’s Award for superior, socially responsible programming and the George Foster Peabody Award, a Cable ACE, the Environmental Media Award, the Overseas Press Club’s Edward R. Murrow Award, a Dupont-Columbia University Award, a George Polk, and an Ohio State.
Koch is a former executive producer of NPR’s evening news program, All Things Considered, and public television’s series on journalism, Inside Story, hosted by Hodding Carter. He began his journalism career at KPFA-FM in Berkeley, California and was Station Manager and Program Director of WBAI-FM in New York City He began his television career at KQED, the public television station in San Francisco and the ABC Documentary Unit, Close Up. He has directed and produced award-winning programs on the wilderness, science, technology, history, politics and the environment. He is an avid outdoorsman.
He received a Masters Degree with honors from Columbia University on a Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship and a BA from Reed College.
Koch taught English and media courses at Bennington College including introductory English, the English novel from Defoe to Conrad, the fiction of Herman Melville, and a senior seminar on culture and communication.
He produced the Peabody award winning documentary, Normandy: The Great Crusade, distributed throughout the world and on the Discovery Channel in the United States. It was the highest rated program on cable the year it premiered. He also created and produced for five years the award-winning series, Invention, in association with the Smithsonian Institution and broadcast on the Discovery Channel.
Koch is currently a professor at Montgomery Community College, where he teaches video production and a history of media.
Productions include:
Arabian Winds
Two Saudi Arabian princes and a British pilot set out from Riyadh on an unprecedented adventure in aviation, a five thousand kilometer glider expedition across the deserts and mountains of Saudi Arabia. The territory was spectacularly beautiful and much of it utterly unforgiving. Arabian Winds is the thrilling story of their expedition, its triumphs, the wonders they saw and one near brush with death. Produced, written and directed by Christopher Koch. Now airing on PBS.
Kicking It!
Follows six homeless soccer players battling poverty and addiction as they prepare to compete in the Fourth Annual Homeless World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa. Hailing from places as far reaching as Afghanistan, Kenya, Ireland, Spain, Russia and North Carolina, 500 dispossessed athletes use the level playing field of competitive sports to regain their dignity and transform their lives. Contributing Producer, this film was directed by my wife and partner Susan Koch.
America: Told One Person at a Time
Senior Producer on a twenty-six half-hour programs profiling extraordinary Americans filmed entirely in 35mm. Broadcast on The Odyssey Channel (now Hallmark).
Reel Models: The First Women of Film
Features the fascinating and unknown stories of early women filmmakers through rare film clips, archival footage, and interviews. Executive Produced and hosted by Barbra Streisand together with Shirley MacLaine, Susan Sarandon, Hilary Swank, and Minnie Driver. Premiered on American Movie Classics May 2000. Winner of a 2001 EMMY Award. Christopher Koch, producer/writer.
City at Peace
From first audition to opening night, this film chronicles the making of an original musical based on the lives of sixty Washington, DC teenagers. During the course of the year, this cross section of American youth overcome difference of race and class to discover a common humanity. Premiered at the1998 Los Angeles Independent Film Festival. Broadcast premier on HBO on May 1st, 1998. Christopher Koch, producer. Susan Koch, Director. Executive Producers: Barbra Streisand and Cis Corman.
Amazing Destinations
Series producer on thirty half-hour programs focusing on fascinating places around the world. Produced in association with Conde Nast and broadcast on the Travel Channel during 1998.
Sky Archaeology
Directed this one-hour science adventure. We trekked 45 miles through the Guatemalan rain forest to discover an ancient, lost Mayan city first observed from 22 miles in space. The Learning Channel, August 1998.
Killer Whales of Tysfjord
Directed this National Geographic Explorer special. Five hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle in Norway, underwater cameramen capture never-before-seen images of Killer Whales as they mate, mourn their dead, and herd thousands of herring in a feeding frenzy. Spring 19977.
Arctic Adventure
Directed this hour special produced for Audubon and Turner Original Productions. Native American actor Graham Greene visits an international Arctic Park that will span the Bering Sea and include parts of Russia and Alaska. April 1997, on TBS.
D.C. Follies
Directed and wrote an hour special for American Movie Classics about how Hollywood has viewed American politics from the silent films of the 1920s to today. First broadcast October 1996.
Jobs: Not What They Used to Be
Produced, directed, and wrote an hour special for public television on the future of work. Hosted by Hodding Carter. Broadcast on public television in the spring of 1996.
Blacklist: Hollywood on Trial
Directed and wrote a ninety-minute documentary on the Hollywood blacklist of the 1940’s and 1950’s. Hosted by Alec Baldwin and featuring readings by Morgan Freeman, Rob Reiner, and Martin Sheen. Broadcast on American Movie Classics on February 27, 1996. Winner of a 1996 Rockie Award for Best Arts Documentary at the Banff Television Festival. Winner of the 1996 prime time Emmy Presidential Award and nominated for 2 other national Emmys.
CyberSpace
Produced, directed, and wrote a one-hour special in association with Time Warner's The News Exchange for broadcast on the Discovery Channel, April 5, 1995.
Normandy: The Great Crusade
Directed and wrote a two-hour special commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Europe. The program premiered on the Discovery Channel on May 30, 1994. It has been broadcast internationally, distributed on home video and in a CD-ROM version, and is a winner of the 1994 George Foster Peabody Award. Narrated by Charles Durning.
Invention
Series Producer of a half-hour award-winning magazine program for The Discovery Channel in association with the Smithsonian Institution. Five seasons (59 programs) and a one-hour special on Leonard da Vinci, Leonardo's Legacy were videotaped on location throughout the world from 1990 – 1995. The series was the Discovery Channel’s highest rated original series when it premiered.
People Count: The Facts of Life
Produced, directed and wrote a one-hour special on global population and consumption broadcast on Turner Broadcasting in connection with the World Population Conference held in Cairo in September 1994. Later rebroadcast on PBS. Narrated by Alfre Woodard. Made possible by a grant from the Pew Charitable Trust Fund.
Citizen Carter
Directed and wrote a one-hour special on former President Jimmy Carter broadcast in 1994 on The Discovery Channel.
Inside Story
Executive Producer of this weekly half-hour examination of the American news media. Broadcast on PBS from August 1983 through November 1984.
I also produced two episodes of Inside Story.
Nicaragua A House Divided - a one hour special on the Chomorro family. Broadcast October 13, 1983. Winner of the 1983 National Emmy for Outstanding Background Analysis of a Single Current Story.
Inside The USSR- American journalists in Moscow. Broadcast April 14, 1983 on PBS. Winner of the Edward R. Murrow Award and a 1983 National Emmy for Outstanding Coverage of A Continuing News Story.
Crime File
A series of half hour programs on American Criminal Justice. Hosted by criminologist and political science professor, James Q. Wilson. Broadcast on PBS, 1985 to 1990. Over 50,000 copies had been sold from 1985 through September 1994, earning over $930,000 to the Federal treasury.
All Things Considered
The daily, two-hour evening news program distributed by National Public Radio. Awards include an Alfred I. Dupont-Columbia University, a George Polk, and National Headliners. Producer and Executive Producer from July 1979 to October 1981.
All Things Considered On Main Street
Produced a one-hour television special based on the daily news show. Broadcast January 20, 1982. Broadcast on PBS on March 4, 1991. Winner of a 1991 Gold Cine Award.
Early Career
KQED-TV in San Francisco.
Koch was the station’s first documentary producer to field produce in videotape instead of film. His program, One Step at a Time, on drug rehabilitation, won a San Francisco State Media Award for excellence. He also produced The Fine Art of Goofing Off for PBS, three half hours of adult animation on leisure in America that was featured prominently in Life magazine.
Pacifica Radio
Station Manager and program director of WBAI in New York City. Selected broadcasts include:
The Case of Special Agent Levine. This was the first broadcast ever of a former FBI agent reporting on the inner working of J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI. The program led to an investigation of Pacifica by the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee chaired by Senator Dodd.
A View from the North. A seven part series reporting from North Vietnam in 1965. Koch was the first American journalist to travel to North Vietnam after the French pulled out in 1954. He also published articles and pictures in Life magazine, Newsweek, Diplomat, The Denver Post, and an entire issue of IF Stone’s Weekly.
This Little Light a 12 part series on Freedom Summer in Mississippi in 1964. Koch was the first radio journalist in Philadelphia, Mississippi, after the disappearance of three civil rights workers who were later found murdered.
Program director of KPFK, Los Angeles, where Koch produced a 2 hour daily live show, Free Lunch, which covered the youth and cultural movements of the late 1960’s
Bennington College
Taught Communications and Culture, The English Novel from Defoe to Conrad, The Fiction of Herman Melville, and an Int