Roger Sherman

Roger M. Sherman (born June 26, 1951) is an American filmmaker – a cinematographer, director, producer, still photographer, and author best known for his work in documentary cinema. He is a founder of Florentine Films. His most widely recognized documentaries are Alexander Calder (1998), Richard Rogers: The Sweetest Sounds (2001), Don't Divorce the Children (1989), Medal of Honor (2008), The Restaurateur (2010), Zapruder and Stolley: Witness to an Assassination (2011), his upcoming two-hour PBS special, The Search for Israeli Cuisine, The Rhythm of My Soul (2006), and The American Brew (2007). His films have won an Emmy Award, a Peabody Award, and two Academy Award nominations, among other honors. Early life and education Sherman was born at the Flower Fifth Avenue Hospital in New York City on June 26, 1951, to mother, Ray Morris Sherman and father, Lee Sherman (both deceased). He is the second of three sons. Ray founded a day camp for learning disabled children in Westchester that she ran as a volunteer for over a decade, and Lee was in the women's all-weather coat business. He attended Hunter College Elementary school until age seven when his family moved to Scarsdale, New York. Sherman graduated from Scarsdale High School in 1969. He attended Union College (1969-1971), majoring in political science and experimental education, played freshman soccer, and spent a semester in Bogotá, Colombia where he studied Spanish. He left Union and went to Denmark for his junior year abroad at The University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He studied architecture and history that fall and moved to Val d'Isere, France, where he worked that winter at a hotel at the base of La Daille lift and a restaurant on top of the mountain. After returning from his year abroad, he attended Hampshire College, in Amherst, Massachusetts, where he graduated in 1975 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in film and photography. Career In 1976, a year after graduating from Hampshire, Sherman and college roommate, Ken Burns, along with another friend from Hampshire College, Buddy Squires, founded Florentine Films. They started by working as a New England crew for companies filming in the region. At the time when magazine shows were beginning to launch, the team worked for RAI/Italian television, the BBC, Danish television, French television, etc. and marketed themselves across New England. They were soon joined by their fourth partner, Lawrence Hott.