Peter Landesman

A true renaissance man, filmmaker Peter Landesman enjoyed numerous other careers in addition to directing feature films. Born in New York, Landesman relocated to Israel for a period during his late 20s, and worked during that time as a painter. His focus would eventually shift from graphic art to the written word, however, as he returned to the U.S. and began a career as a novelist, beginning with 1995's The Raven, a thriller about a tragic shipwreck. Eventually, Landesman's interest in writing turned toward investigative journalism. He began writing for publications like The Atlantic Monthly, even collaborating with his then-wife, photojournalist Kimberlee Acquaro, on some hard hitting pieces about the plight of women in war-torn Rwanda for Mother Jones and The New York Times. In 2004, Landesman wrote a groundbreaking article about the horrific world of human trafficking for New York Times Magazine. His piece was later adapted into the feature film "Trade" (2007). Landesman decided to try still another avenue for his next project, adapting the non-fiction book Four Days in November about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy into a dramatic feature film. In addition to researching and writing the script, Landesman also directed the movie, which would come to be titled "Parkland" (2013), named for the hospital where the dying Kennedy was treated. He took a similar approach to his next project, adapting a screenplay from an article about the issue of traumatic head injuries in American football into the film "Concussion" (2015), which he also directed.