Kevin McCarey

Raised in New York's Hudson Valley, Kevin McCarey attended SUNY Maritime College, graduating with a merchant marine deck officer's license. During the Vietnam War, he served as Third Officer aboard merchant ships carrying "booze and bombs" to the war zone, the subject of his forthcoming memoir "Oceans Apart." Later, McCarey took a job as boat captain of a research vessel in Puerto Rico. There he took part in the efforts to stop the bombing of Culebra, an adventure documented in his book, "Islands Under Fire." This led to work as an oceanographer on a variety of expeditions. In 1978, McCarey left the sea to study at the University of Oregon where he received an MA in Film Studies. In 1981 he was hired as a documentary writer-director for Turner Broadcasting. McCarey worked on the Peabody Award winning series "Portrait of America" featuring Hal Holbrook. He garnered three regional Emmy nominations, an Emmy and three CINE Golden Eagle Awards. This was followed in 1985 by "Trumpet of Conscience," a visual and musical interpretation of the last Christmas sermon by Martin Luther King Jr. McCarey refers to it as "the world's first and longest black gospel music video." The film won the prestigious Chris Award and was a PrimeTime Emmy honoree. The highest honor, though, was that "Trumpet" aired every Christmas for twelve years on the Turner Networks. In 1991, filmed a narrative short, "San Juan Story," starring Jacobo Morales and Rosana DeSoto. This was his first attempt at comedy, and the film was an Academy Award semi-finalist. Then in the 1990's he wrote and directed the four hour docudrama series "Pirate Tales" with Roger Daltrey. This featured extensive reenactments filmed aboard period vessels and in exotic locations from Tunisia to Panama. This was followed by the five hour docudrama series "Gunfighters of the West" with Brian Dennehy for TLC. This series too included extensive reenactments filmed in Calgary, Canada. The boy in McCarey urged him to take cameo roles in both series, which the director in him soon regretted. In 1998, he wrote and directed his first narrative feature "Coyotes," starring Leo Gannon and Kirsten Carmody. It was filmed on location in Baja Mexico. This was a no-budget film made with the help of good friends and various colleagues from National Geographic. An audience favorite at the Palm Springs Int'l Film festival, "Coyotes" won Best Feature Film at the Savannah Int'l Film Festival in 1999. Since 1996 Kevin McCarey has traveled the world for National Geographic Television and Features. He has written, directed, supervised and/or produced some 18 films on subjects ranging from the giant squid to the lions of the Kalahari. His most recent narrative short "Extinction" --is a poignant story set in South Africa.