Andrew Jacobs (journalist)

Andrew Jacobs
Born Newark, New Jersey
Residence Beijing, China
Nationality American
Alma mater New York University
Occupation Journalist
Employer The New York Times
Known for Directed and produced Four Seasons Lodge (2008), a documentary
Home town South Orange, New Jersey
Religion Jewish[1]
Awards
  • Part of team of reporters that won Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for coverage of the September 11 attack in Manhattan (2002)
  • Part of team of reporters that won Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting (2009)
  • "Honorable mention" by The Society of Publishers in Asia for coverage of the government's crackdown on dissent during the Beijing Olympics (2009)
  • "Honorable mention" by The Society of Publishers in Asia for “Uneasy Engagement”, with several other New York Times writers (2010)

Andrew Jacobs is an American correspondent for The New York Times.

Jacobs has been based in Beijing, China, since April 2008, covering the country for The New York Times. He is also the director and producer of a 2008 documentary, Four Seasons Lodge.

Early life

Jacobs, who is Jewish and one of three children, was born in Newark, New Jersey, to Martin G. Jacobs, a nephrologist, and Barbara Jacobs.[1][2][3] His sisters are Wendy, a county commissioner in Durham, North Carolina, and Ellen, a psychotherapist in Manhattan, New York City.[3] He grew up in the adjacent suburb of South Orange, New Jersey.[4] He graduated from Columbia High School, and from New York University, where he studied architecture and urban design.[5][4][6][2]

In 1989, after graduating from NYU Jacobs was an English teacher in Wuhan, China at Hubei University.[2][7] In 1991, he served as press secretary for Tom Duane during his successful run for the New York City Council.[2]

Journalism career

Jacobs is now a correspondent based in Beijing, China, since April 2008, covering the country for The New York Times.[8][9] Jacobs has focused his writing on Chinese politics, writing about matters including Uighur-Han Chinese relations, Chen Guangcheng's escape, and the loss of power of Bo Xilai.[7][10]

Jacobs contributed to the Associated Press, Village Voice, and New York Newsday during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.[2] Later, he served as editor of Manhattan Spirit and Our Town, founded and was news editor of QW magazine, and edited a number of New York City newsweeklies, including The Brooklyn Phoenix and The Villager.[2][11][12]

He began writing for The New York Times in 1995.[8][9] Jacobs has reported for various New York Times desks, including National, Business, Culture, and Styles.[8]

Awards

In 2002, he was part of a team of reporters who won a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for coverage of the September 11 attack in Manhattan.[8][2] In 2009, Jacobs was part of a team of reporters that won the Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting related to the Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal.[13]

In 2009, the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) acknowledged his coverage of the government's crackdown on dissent during the Beijing Olympics entitled "In the Shadow of the Olympics" with an honorable mention in the category Excellence in Human Rights Reporting.[14][15] In 2010, SOPA also acknowledged him and several other New York Times writers with the Award for Excellence in the category Excellence in Feature Writing for “Uneasy Engagement,” a 10-part series that explored China's growing influence in the world.[14][8] In 2011, he and a group of New York Times reporters were finalists for a Gerald Loeb Award, for their reporting on Google's clash with the Chinese government over censorship issues.[16][8]

Film career

Jacobs directed and produced Four Seasons Lodge, a feature-length 2008 documentary shot two years prior.[5][17][1][18][19][4] It is about a community of elderly Jewish Holocaust survivors in their 80s and 90s in their last summer (because the premises were being sold) at a 44-acre (180,000 m2) vacation bungalow colony in Ellenville in the Catskills in upstate New York.[4][5][1][18][20][9][21] The documentary was based on a piece that was part of a five-part series he wrote for the New York Times "Metro" section.[4][5][1][18][20][9][21]

Jacobs filmed a half dozen of the survivors interacting, rather than interviewing them.[22][23] Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Albert Maysles was one of four cinematographers who shot the film.[1][18][5][20][9] Jacobs took 250 hours of film that was shot, and from it made the 97-minute documentary.[19]

The film opened at the Hamptons International Film Festival in October 2008.[1] The documentary won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Miami Jewish Film Festival.[9]

Television and radio appearances

Jacobs has appeared on CNN, the BBC, NPR, and CBC.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Tim Murphy (October 17, 2008). "Documentarian Andrew Jacobs on Partying With Holocaust Survivors at the ‘Four Seasons Lodge’". Vulture.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 "Four Seasons Lodge; A documentary film by Andrew Jacobs", First Run Features
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Dr. Martin G. Jacobs Obituary". The Star-Ledger. February 13, 2013. Retrieved August 3, 2014.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Haley Sweetland Edwards (March 27, 2009). "A Homegrown Director who had to tell this Story", The New York Times
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Marilyn Silverstein (February 6, 2007). "A season of survival; A journalist’s film-in-progress celebrates life after the Holocaust". New Jersey Jewish News. Retrieved August 3, 2014.
  6. ↑ "Four Seasons Lodge; Filmmaker Bios – Andrew Jacobs, Director". First Run Features.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Andrew Jacobs". ChinaFile.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 "Andrew Jacobs of the New York Times Speaks at USALI". US-Asia Law Institute. December 2, 2014.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 "A Fine Revenge: The Four Seasons Lodgers Live to Tell – Roll Stage & Screen: Creative Living in the Hudson Valley". Roll Magazine.
  10. ↑ Barbie Zelizer, Keren Tenenboim-Weinblatt (2014). Journalism and Memory. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 1137263946.
  11. ↑ Ed Gold (March 23, 2010). "Joe Jr. was a diner with that extra-special flavor". The Villager.
  12. ↑ "Isis Venture Partners sells Manhattan Newspaper Group to Straus News", February 1, 2013
  13. ↑ "The Pulitzer Prizes – 2009 — Breaking News Reporting; Spitzer Wrestles Over Response, Paralyzing Albany". pulitzer.org.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 "The SOPA 2010 Awards for Editorial Excellence". Sopasia.com. p. 19. Retrieved August 3, 2014.
  15. ↑ "The SOPA 2009 Awards for Editorial Excellence", Sopasia.com, p. 19
  16. ↑ "Gerald Loeb Awards Finalists for 2011". UCLA Anderson School of Management. Retrieved November 14, 2013.
  17. ↑ "The Filmmakers: Four Seasons Lodge". fourseasonsmovie.com.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 Ella Taylor (November 10, 2009). "In the Catskills, Holocaust Survivors Forge a Bond", The New York Times.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Nathan Burstein (November 23, 2009). "Life goes on at Four Seasons Lodge". The Jerusalem Post.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 "Home Away From Home; A new documentary chronicles the end of the road for Holocaust survivors’ Catskills bungalow colony". Tablet Magazine. November 12, 2009.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Andrew Jacobs (September 8, 2005). "Where 80 Is Young, All Friends Are Old Friends", The New York Times.
  22. ↑ Iris Mann (December 3, 2009). "Winter Treasures on Screen – Holiday Preview". Jewish Journal.
  23. ↑ Michelle Orange (December 10, 2014). "Movie Reviews: Broken Embraces, Paa, A Single Man, Armored". LA Weekly.

External links