John Gordon Hill, Director

John Gordon Hill’s filmmaking career spans over thirty years, and includes extensive experience directing and shooting dramatic works, documentaries, and television commercials.  Among his many broadcast productions, he directed and photographed twenty-five episodes of America’s Most Wanted, ten segments of Cop Files for Fox Television, and two hour-long documentaries on the Alaska Highway and the Klondike Gold Rush for Discovery Channel’s Rediscovering America with David Hartman.  He co-wrote, directed and shot Terminal 187, a half-hour drama on teen violence, which aired on KCTS and played the Seattle and Bumbershoot Film Festivals. 

John has directed hundreds of television commercials including work for Panasonic, Valley Medical Center, Pike Place Market, NW Ford Dealers, Simplot and many others.  His diverse corporate clients include Philips, Intel, Panasonic, Microsoft, Airborne Express, Kenworth, Nintendo, Experience Music Project, Vulcan Productions, and Cornish College of the Arts.  Other documentary work includes films on lesbian mothers, the historic preservation of train stations, the history of Seattle’s Chinatown, the liturgy of the Episcopal Church, the video portions of Microsoft’s CD-ROM Encarta Africana, and over one hundred oral histories of World War II pilots for the Flying Heritage Collection. 

Hill has received a CLIO, a CINE Golden Eagle, and numerous Tellys, Addies, and regional Emmys.  Most recently he completed Dawn on the Island, an oral history of Mercer Island, and Who Will Speak for Me? on the spread of HIV/AIDS in the African American community.  He is a member of the Directors Guild of America, teaches at the University of Washington and Seattle Central Community College, and has directed plays for the 14/48 Festival at ConWorks and numerous productions at Youth Theatre Northwest.  He is an amateur pianist and composer.