A life
behind the lens.
Meet James Callanan.
A cinematographer, filmmaker, and teacher. Get to know the other voice behind Always Onward—and the curiosity about people that connects two lifelong friends.
Coming soon
Meet James
James Callanan is a cinematographer and filmmaker who has spent fifty years behind a camera. During a twenty-five-year collaboration with director David Grubin, he shot twenty-nine documentaries, most for PBS’s American Experience; their projects received four Emmy Awards for best non-fiction and three Peabody Awards.
He has taught cinematography at the School of Visual Arts and, more recently, in Morocco as a Fulbright Specialist. Now he joins his longtime friend Sal Oppedisano on Always Onward, bringing a filmmaker’s eye and a curiosity about the lives that shape us.
In this conversation
Proposed topics · Draft
- 01Seeing people through the camera
- 02What documentary filmmaking teaches us
- 03Fifty years of friendship
- 04Why every life has a story to tell
Episode notes
Links and references will accompany the released conversation.