James Callanan

Movies

Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words
Director of Photography
Justice Thomas tells his entire life’s story, looking directly at the camera, speaking frankly to the audience. Unscripted and without narration, the documentary takes the viewer through a complex and often painful life, dealing with race, faith, power, jurisprudence, and personal resilience.
Language Matters with Bob Holman
Cinematography
There are over 6,000 languages in the world. We lose one every two weeks. Hundreds will be lost within the next generation. By the end of this century, half of the world's languages will have vanished. Language Matters with Bob Holman is a two hour documentary that asks: What do we lose when a language dies? What does it take to save a language?
Rickover: The Birth of Nuclear Power
Cinematography
Dive into the life of the father of the nuclear Navy: Hyman Rickover. Combative, provocative, and blunt, Admiral Hyman G. Rickover was a flamboyant maverick and a unique American hero. When few thought it possible, then-Captain Rickover harnessed the power of the atom to drive the first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, whose trip under the polar ice pack was one of the great adventure stories of the 1950s. Later, Rickover built the world's first nuclear aircraft carrier and the first commercial nuclear power plant at Shippingport, PA. Rickover's achievements made him into a national celebrity, and he appeared on the cover of Time magazine. Many wonder whether America can maintain its technological pre-eminence and whether we can still build and manage large-scale projects. To understand these issues, Rickover considers the story of the man who created the nuclear Navy as well as the civilian nuclear power industry: Hyman G. Rickover.
American Experience: The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer
Director of Photography
J. Robert Oppenheimer was a national hero, the brilliant scientist who during WWII led the scientific team that created the atomic bomb. But after the bomb brought the war to an end, in spite of his renown and his enormous achievement, America turned on him - humiliated and cast him aside. The question the film asks is, "Why?"
The Attic
Director of Photography
Emma has a strong aversion towards her family’s new house, especially the attic. After moving in, she becomes miserable and reclusive. The rest of her family also seems unhappy and unsettled. The situation escalates one day when Emma is in the attic alone. All of a sudden someone who looks exactly like Emma attacks her viciously.
Marie Antoinette: A Film by David Grubin
Director of Photography
This was a very human account of the lives and deaths of Marie Antoinette and Louis the XVI focusing primarily on Marie. It is an account of their lives from birth to death and the circumstances leading to the downfall of the French monarchy.
RFK
Cinematography
David Grubin's probing and perceptive biography reassesses the remarkable and tragic life of Bobby Kennedy, whose early life was spent in the shadow of his elder brother John. After JFK's assassination, he discovered his own identity in the forefront of American politics before his career was also tragically curtailed by an assassin's bullet.
The Jeff Koons Show
Cinematography
A documentary on the life and work of artist Jeff Koons, told through the perspective of Koons himself, curators, gallerists, and fellow artists (Chuck Close, Julian Schnabel, etc.).
Miotte vu par Raúl Ruiz
Director of Photography
In the early 2000s filmmaker Raul Ruiz followed painter Jean Miotte to different locations (New York, France, Germany).
Raw Nerves: A Lacanian Thriller
Camera Operator
A noir mostly set in a bathroom stall and stairwell. A private dick trapped in a tight spot. A narrator searching for a way out of the story.
Raw Nerves: A Lacanian Thriller
Director of Photography
A noir mostly set in a bathroom stall and stairwell. A private dick trapped in a tight spot. A narrator searching for a way out of the story.