Jean de Segonzac

Director, screenwriter, and cinematographer Jean de Segonzac is known for his cinéma vérité style and socially rooted documentaries. Beginning his career as a cinematographer for "Great Performances" in 1972, de Segonzac began working consistently in the '80s and 90s. Moving from television to feature films, his first major success as a cinematographer was on the Oscar-winning documentary "Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt" about the AIDS Memorial Quilt. He then co-wrote the Peabody Award-winning "Road Scholar," chronicling the United States-spanning road trip made by journalist Andrei Codrescu and poet Allen Ginsberg. De Segonzac also filmed two thematically related documentaries, "Where Are We? Our Trip Through America" and "The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg." In 1994, he began working as the director of photography on the gritty police drama "Homicide: Life on the Street," making his directorial debut on it in 1996. Bringing his documentary style and sensibility to the show, de Segonzac easily transitioned to fiction, directing and serving as DP for other crime series, notably HBO's prison drama "Oz," in 1997. Carving his niche in reality-styled dramas, he began directing episodes of the procedural drama "Law & Order" and its spin-offs.