Helen Whitney

Writing

Helen Whitney

Known for

Writing

Credits

14 titles

Oscar-nominated, Emmy and Peabody award-winning, film producer, director and writer Helen Whitney has been a prolific creator of documentaries and feature films. Her compelling subject matter has included topics such as youth gangs, presidential candidates, the McCarthy era, mental illness, Pope John Paul II, Great Britain’s class structure, homosexuality and photographer Richard Avedon. Among the actors she has worked with: Lindsay Kraus, Austin Pendleton, David Straithern, Brenda Fricker, Teresa Wright, Estelle Parsons. Throughout her career, she has maintained a deep interest in spiritual journeys, which she first explored with her documentary The Monastery, a 90-minute ABC special, abou…

Known for

American Inquisition poster
NR

An examination of the effect of McCarthyism on two ordinary Americans. Interviews with Paul McCarty and his family describe the loss of his job in a Paducah, Kentucky power plant in 1953 when his loyalty was questioned; he lost job after job for over twenty years. Interview with Luella Mundel, the object of false accusations based on her unconventional views and actions. Interviews with colleagues, friends, and a historian recreate the dramatic trial which devastated Mundel personally.

American Inquisition

1983

A Town's Revenge poster
NR

A teenager who tries to convince his town to farm without using pesticides finds many of the residents resistant to change.

A Town's Revenge

1989

First Love, Fatal Love poster
7.0

A docudrama telling the true story of a young woman who learns she has contracted the AIDS virus after an encounter with a fellow student while in college.

First Love, Fatal Love

1991

Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light poster
8.0

Richard Avedon was one of the great geniuses of 20th century photography, famous for his fashion photography done for the likes of Vogue, Versace, and Armani, and equally famous for his black and white portraits of American people, both famous and unknown.

Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light

1996

Into the Night: Portraits of Life and Death poster
8.0

We don’t know how. We don’t know when. But death comes for us all. To be human is to wrestle with this truth and with the great unanswered question: How do we live with death in our eye? We can deny, we can rail, we can challenge, we can accept. What is our story, and will it sustain us at the end? “Into the Night: Portraits of Life and Death,” a two-hour documentary, features men and women of uncommon eloquence and intelligence who are grappling with these questions. For them death is no longer an abstraction far off in the future, it is real. They come from all walks of life, all ages, dying and healthy, believers and unbelievers, well known and obscure. These are people who have been shocked into mortality and are forever changed. They have stories to tell, and we can listen and learn from them.

Into the Night: Portraits of Life and Death

2017

First Edition poster
6.6

First Edition is a 1977 American short documentary film about the Baltimore Sun directed by Helen Whitney. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.

First Edition

1977

Behind the camera

American Inquisition poster
NR

An examination of the effect of McCarthyism on two ordinary Americans. Interviews with Paul McCarty and his family describe the loss of his job in a Paducah, Kentucky power plant in 1953 when his loyalty was questioned; he lost job after job for over twenty years. Interview with Luella Mundel, the object of false accusations based on her unconventional views and actions. Interviews with colleagues, friends, and a historian recreate the dramatic trial which devastated Mundel personally.

American Inquisition

1983

American Inquisition poster
NR

An examination of the effect of McCarthyism on two ordinary Americans. Interviews with Paul McCarty and his family describe the loss of his job in a Paducah, Kentucky power plant in 1953 when his loyalty was questioned; he lost job after job for over twenty years. Interview with Luella Mundel, the object of false accusations based on her unconventional views and actions. Interviews with colleagues, friends, and a historian recreate the dramatic trial which devastated Mundel personally.

American Inquisition

1983

American Inquisition poster
NR

An examination of the effect of McCarthyism on two ordinary Americans. Interviews with Paul McCarty and his family describe the loss of his job in a Paducah, Kentucky power plant in 1953 when his loyalty was questioned; he lost job after job for over twenty years. Interview with Luella Mundel, the object of false accusations based on her unconventional views and actions. Interviews with colleagues, friends, and a historian recreate the dramatic trial which devastated Mundel personally.

American Inquisition

1983

A Town's Revenge poster
NR

A teenager who tries to convince his town to farm without using pesticides finds many of the residents resistant to change.

A Town's Revenge

1989

First Love, Fatal Love poster
7.0

A docudrama telling the true story of a young woman who learns she has contracted the AIDS virus after an encounter with a fellow student while in college.

First Love, Fatal Love

1991

Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light poster
8.0

Richard Avedon was one of the great geniuses of 20th century photography, famous for his fashion photography done for the likes of Vogue, Versace, and Armani, and equally famous for his black and white portraits of American people, both famous and unknown.

Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light

1996

Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light poster
8.0

Richard Avedon was one of the great geniuses of 20th century photography, famous for his fashion photography done for the likes of Vogue, Versace, and Armani, and equally famous for his black and white portraits of American people, both famous and unknown.

Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light

1996

Into the Night: Portraits of Life and Death poster
8.0

We don’t know how. We don’t know when. But death comes for us all. To be human is to wrestle with this truth and with the great unanswered question: How do we live with death in our eye? We can deny, we can rail, we can challenge, we can accept. What is our story, and will it sustain us at the end? “Into the Night: Portraits of Life and Death,” a two-hour documentary, features men and women of uncommon eloquence and intelligence who are grappling with these questions. For them death is no longer an abstraction far off in the future, it is real. They come from all walks of life, all ages, dying and healthy, believers and unbelievers, well known and obscure. These are people who have been shocked into mortality and are forever changed. They have stories to tell, and we can listen and learn from them.

Into the Night: Portraits of Life and Death

2017

Into the Night: Portraits of Life and Death poster
8.0

We don’t know how. We don’t know when. But death comes for us all. To be human is to wrestle with this truth and with the great unanswered question: How do we live with death in our eye? We can deny, we can rail, we can challenge, we can accept. What is our story, and will it sustain us at the end? “Into the Night: Portraits of Life and Death,” a two-hour documentary, features men and women of uncommon eloquence and intelligence who are grappling with these questions. For them death is no longer an abstraction far off in the future, it is real. They come from all walks of life, all ages, dying and healthy, believers and unbelievers, well known and obscure. These are people who have been shocked into mortality and are forever changed. They have stories to tell, and we can listen and learn from them.

Into the Night: Portraits of Life and Death

2017

First Edition poster
6.6

First Edition is a 1977 American short documentary film about the Baltimore Sun directed by Helen Whitney. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.

First Edition

1977

First Edition poster
6.6

First Edition is a 1977 American short documentary film about the Baltimore Sun directed by Helen Whitney. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.

First Edition

1977

Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero poster
8.0

For many Americans, the most difficult questions about 9/11 were not about politics, military strategy or homeland security. They were questions about God, about evil and about the potential for darkness within religion itself. What was it we saw on Sept. 11? Was it the true face of evil? Was it the face of religion? And where, if one is a believer, was God on that tragic morning? A PBS Frontline special.

Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero

2002

Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero poster
8.0

For many Americans, the most difficult questions about 9/11 were not about politics, military strategy or homeland security. They were questions about God, about evil and about the potential for darkness within religion itself. What was it we saw on Sept. 11? Was it the true face of evil? Was it the face of religion? And where, if one is a believer, was God on that tragic morning? A PBS Frontline special.

Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero

2002

The Mormons poster
NR

The Mormons is a four-hour PBS documentary about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The production originally aired in two-hour segments on April 30 and May 1, 2007. It was produced by Helen Whitney, and was the first joint production of Frontline and American Experience.

The Mormons

2007