Independent documentary filmmaker John Junkerman conceived, produced, and directed ‘The Mississippi: River of Song,’ a four-part Smithsonian series for PBS about contemporary music along the course of the Big River. Junkerman has been making feature documentaries since the early 1980s. His first film, ‘Hellfire: A Journey from Hiroshima,’ was nominated for an Academy Award and won the Grand Prize at the San Francisco International Film Festival. This was followed by a Japanese production, ‘Uminchu: The Old Man and the East China Sea,’ which portrayed the life of an 81 year-old marlin fisherman on a small Okinawan island: He directed the Emmy award-winning ‘Dream Window: Reflections on the Japanese Garden,’ which was also produced by the Smithsonian.
