Brian Kaufman Email & Phone Number

My evolving career at the Detroit Free Press as a photojournalist, video journalist and documentary filmmaker has allowed me to work on many of the city and state's largest news stories. Three of those projects have been awarded National Emmys and another was nominated in the craft category of Nature and Wildlife Cinematography. More than two dozen stories have been awarded local Emmys across a broad range of categories. My environmental work was recognized in 2017 with an Edward R. Murrow Award and Gannett has twice recognized me as a leader in the field of visual journalism through companywide awards. I have been part of collaborations across the USA Today Network, including a project with the Arizona Republic in 2018 that was awarded a Pulitzer Prize. The launch of Freep Film Festival in 2014 established the Free Press as a trailblazer of newspaper-produced video storytelling and our films have screened at many of the nation's most prestigious film festivals since then. In 2017, I directed and edited “12th and Clairmount,” which Variety Magazine called, “a revelatory portrait of the city ... illuminating and innovatively crafted.” Most recently, I co-directed and edited “Coldwater Kitchen,” which IndieWire listed as a “must-see film” ahead of its world premiere at DOC NYC in November 2022.

My second professional passion is teaching. I have coached at The Mountain Workshops, The Eddie Adams Workshop and the National Press Photographers Association’s Multimedia Immersion workshop. At Maine Media Workshops, I teach an annual video storytelling class where students find, film and edit character-driven stories over the course of a week. I’ve written in-depth educational materials on the topics of editing theory and Adobe Premiere, and my workflow is featured in Ken Kobre’s textbook “Videojournalism: Online, Broadcast and Documentary Storytelling,” as well as LinkedIn Learning. In 2013, I helped lead a USA Today Network initiative that taught reports how to shoot video and dramatically increased video traffic in newsrooms nationwide. As time allows, I volunteer to judge visual journalism contests and sit on the juries of film festivals.

As part of the team that launched Studio 55 – the first newspaper-based television newscast in the country – I filmed and edited two video packages per week for inclusion in the show and co-produced a segment on high school football in Southwest Florida.