John Maggio (director)

John Maggio is an American documentary film director, writer and producer.^[1][2] He is best known for his feature documentary films for HBO including The Perfect Weapon (HBO), Panic: The Untold Story of the 2008 Financial Crisis (HBO), The Newspaperman (HBO) and A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks (HBO).^[3][4]

John Maggio
Born	Buffalo, New York, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Director, writer, producer
Years active	2001–present

Life and career

Maggio began his career as a musician as one of the founding members of the band, The Crosswalk with Cody ChesnuTT.^[5] Their debut album, Venus Loves A Melody was produced by Hollywood Records in 1999 with the legendary engineer Bob Clearmountain.^[6] After the band was dropped from their label Maggio pursued a career in documentary film and has been a partner at Brooklyn based film company Ark Media since 2003.^[7][8] In 2021, his film A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks (HBO), had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival.^[9] In 2023, his film Milano: The Inside Story of Italian Fashion had its premiere at the Milan Fashion Week.^[10] His latest film, Paul Anka: His Way, had its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2024.^[11] He is currently at work on a film documenting the immigration crisis in America.

Filmography

Year	Title	Contribution	Note
2005-2018	American Experience	Director, writer and producer	7 Episodes
2008-2016	Frontline	Director, writer and Producer	4 Episodes
2017	The Newspaperman	Director	Documentary
2019	Panic: The Untold Story of the 2008 Financial Crisis	Director and producer	Documentary
2020	The Perfect Weapon	Director and producer	Documentary
2021	A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks	Director and producer	Documentary
	Music Box: Mr. Saturday Night	Director and producer	1 Episode
2022	Year One: A Political Odyssey	Director and producer	Documentary
2023	Milano: The Inside Story of Italian Fashion	Director and producer	Documentary
2024	Paul Anka: His Way	Director and producer	Documentary
2025	Seen & Heard: The History of Black Television	Executive Producer	2 Episodes

Awards and nominations

Year	Result	Award	Category	Work	Ref.
2001	Nominated	Slamdance Film Festival	Grand Jury Prize	Virgil Bliss
2002	Nominated	Independent Spirit Awards	John Cassavetes Award
2007	Nominated	News & Documentary Emmy Award	Outstanding Science, Technology and Nature Programming	American Experience - The Boy in the Bubble
2009	Nominated		Outstanding Informational Programming	Frontline - Growing Up Online
2010	Nominated	Writers Guild of America Awards	Documentary Script – Current Events	Frontline - College, Inc.
2012	Won		Outstanding Script for Breaking Report	Frontline - Educating Sergeant Pantzke	[12]
2018	Won	News & Documentary Emmy Award	Outstanding Business and Economic Documentary	Panic: The Untold Story of the 2008 Financial Crisis	[13]
	Nominated	Producers Guild of America Award	Outstanding Producer of Documentary Motion Pictures	The Newspaperman	[14]
	Nominated	Writers Guild of America Awards	Documentary Script – Other Than Current Events	American Experience - Into The Amazon	[15]
2020	Nominated		Documentary Script – Other Than Current Events	American Experience - The Poison Squad	[16]
2021	Nominated	News and Documentary Emmy Awards	Outstanding Politics and Government Documentary	The Perfect Weapon	[17]
2022	Nominated		Best Documentary	A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks	[18]
	Nominated		Outstanding Arts and Culture Documentary
	Nominated		Best Editing