McKiernan, Kevin

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McKiernan, Kevin

PERSONAL:

Education: University of St. Thomas, B.A.; Northeastern University, J.D.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Santa Barbara, CA. Office—Santa Barbara, CA.

CAREER:

Attorney, journalist, television producer. Practiced law in MA. Guest on television news programs, including the Evening News and the Today Show; coproducer, Spirit of Crazy Horse.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Major Armstrong Award, 1975, for national radio coverage; Pulitzer Prize nomination for news photography, 1976, for work at Minneapolis Tribune; Reginald Heber Smith Fellowship, 1979; Gold Appreciation Award, Direct Relief International, 1984; first place in Herbert Bayer Photojournalism Competition, 1987; first place in Interactive Art Competition, Contemporary Art Forum, 1990; Silver Award, Houston Film Festival, 1991, for The Spirit of Crazy Horse; Santa Barbara Hispanic Community Tribute Award, 1995; Winston Foundation for World Peace Grant, 1999; John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Grant, 1999; Soros Fund Documentary Fund Grant, 1999; Human Rights Prize, Santa Barbara International Film Festival, 2000, for Good Kurds, Bad Kurds; Best Documentary Award, Atlanta Film and Video Festival, 2000, for Good Kurds, Bad Kurds; Best Documentary Award, Rhode Island International Film Festival, 2000, for Good Kurds, Bad Kurds; Audience Award, Denver International Film Festival, 2000, for Good Kurds, Bad Kurds; Best Documentary Award, Sidewalk Moving Pictures Festival, 2000, for Good Kurds, Bad Kurds; Chris Award for Best Documentary, Columbus Film Festival, 2000, for Good Kurds, Bad Kurds; Sundance Documentary Fund Grant, 2001; Best Documentary Award, Sedona International Film Festival, 2001, for Good Kurds, Bad Kurds; Best Documentary Award, CINE Gold Eagle, 2001, for Good Kurds, Bad Kurds; Mole Journalism Award, Cyrano's Journal, 2001; Ochberg Fellowship, University of Washington Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, 2006.

WRITINGS:

Good Kurds, Bad Kurds: No Friends but the Mountains (video documentary), Access Productions (United States), 2000.

The Kurds: A People in Search of Their Homeland, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to periodicals, including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, Newsweek, and Time.

SIDELIGHTS:

Kevin McKiernan is a documentary filmmaker, foreign correspondent, and author. Nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1976, he has more recently covered the war in Iraq, providing firsthand observations from Kurdish and Arabic areas in Iraq and the Middle East. McKiernan has explored in depth the culture, society, and politics of the Kurds, the largest ethnic group in the world without their own state. The film Good Kurds, Bad Kurds: No Friends but the Mountains "documents director and free-lance journalist Kevin McKiernan's struggle to bring the often unheard of story of Kurds in Turkey to U.S. and international attention," commented Banafsheh Saifollahi in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. The film's title derives from McKiernan's discoveries about how the United States has approached the Kurdish struggle for their individual and national rights. "Good Kurds" were those in Iraq who helped the U.S. against the Saddam Hussein regime, whereas the "Bad Kurds" were the Turkish Kurds who mounted armed resistance against U.S. interests and Turkish oppression. "Kurds inside Turkey are forbidden to wear their national costume, speak their language, perform their music, or even bear Kurdish names," noted Pat Twair in Middle East. Within this restrictive atmosphere, there have been twenty-three Kurdish rebellions inside Turkey since 1923. By calling the Turkish Kurds "bad," the Americans have been able to express their views without criticizing or insulting its strategic ally Turkey. To help bring the Kurdish struggle down to a personal level, McKiernan also focuses on the troubles of the Xulam family.

McKiernan's The Kurds: A People in Search of Their Homeland offers a detailed explanation of Kurdish history since 1975. He covers the colonial powers that divided the original Kurdish homelands at the beginning of the twenty-first century. He reports on the difficult circumstances faced by Kurds in Iraq, Turkey, and Syria, and how regional trends and conflicts have affected them. In addition, the author notes how internal conflicts have continued even as the Kurds were exploited by foreign governments, finding parallels "between Native American history and the experience of the Kurds," commented a reviewer on the UCTV, University of California-Santa Barbara Web site. Kiernan's work "brings to life a population that, despite its geopolitical importance, has rarely been covered so thoroughly for a general audience," commented a Publishers Weekly contributor. A Northeastern University Alumni Magazine critic called the book a "remarkable piece of journalism."