Howard Dratch Productions

Howard Dratch is a seasoned creative producer, director, and writer whose film and television productions span more than three decades.

He conceives and delivers dramatic films and TV shows that characteristically focus on politically and culturally relevant topics, raise awareness, and provoke important questions about public policy and social justice.
Routes OF RHYTHM

Director, Producer, Writer | TV mini-series for PBS

“Far reaching yet accessible, packed with information and still fun to watch…Routes of Rhythm proves to be a road that, once you get on, you won’t want to get off.” –Los Angeles Times

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PATH TO WAR

Executive Producer | Dramatic feature film for HBO

“…From whatever angle you approach it, though, Path to War is a tremendous achievement—not as a history lesson but as a profoundly emotional experience.”–Tom Shales, The Washington Post

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On company
Business

Producer | TV mini-series for PBS

“Documenting the 30 year history of the [C.I.A.] on film would seem to be as difficult as capturing a vampire’s image in a mirror…Nevertheless, this encyclopedic three hour film [is] a warning to beware…”

–Greg Kilday, Los Angeles Herald Examiner

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ABOUT HOWARD DRATCH

An award-winning filmmaker, whose work has been shown in theaters and on television around the world, Howard B. Dratch is best known for Path to War, a feature-length drama that focuses on the story of LBJ and the Vietnam War. The film premiered on HBO and was nominated for eight Emmy Awards, four Golden Globes and the Humanitas Award. It also received special recognition by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and the Producers Guild of America for best made-for-television motion picture of the year.

Howard’s other productions include two multi-part PBS series: Routes of Rhythm, which traces the origins of Cuban music from Spain and Africa to the New World and includes host Harry Belafonte, plus Dizzy Gillespie, Gloria Estefan, Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, Ruben Blades, King Sunny Ade, and more; and On Company Business, a controversial documentary about the CIA and U.S. foreign policy, which garnered the coveted FIPRESCI International Critics’ Prize at the Berlin Film Festival. His other films include Routes of Exile: A Moroccan Jewish Odyssey, about Jews and Arabs in the Middle East; Chile in the Heart, a film on poet Pablo Neruda narrated by Alan Ginsburg; Earthmovers: The Power to Move Mountains, about earthmoving machinery and its impact on the environment; A Snowmobile for George, an indepth look at the impact of environmental deregulation during the George W. Bush Administration, and more.

After completing graduate school at Berkeley, Dratch worked as an investigative reporter in the 1970s, then trained as a Director at AFI’s Center for Advanced Film Studies. In 1995, he was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to be guest Film Director at the Hungarian National Academy of Dramatic Art and Film in Budapest. He also taught filmmaking at both USC and the California Institute of Technology. For Dratch’s current and future film and television productions, visit www.imdb.com