Documentarian Joe Lavine will be the inaugural speaker in the first of a series of master\u2019s classes at Monmouth University hosted by MU\u2019s Communication Council, an advisory organization that makes a connection for faculty and students in the department with working professionals in the field of communication. <\/p>\n
Lavine is a vice president and senior producer for HBO Sports and oversees the sports documentary series Legends and Legacies<\/em> for the network.\u00a0 His presentation will focus on the business of documentary production and will be held on Thursday, March 1 at 7:30 p.m. in Young Auditorium, Bey Hall.\u00a0 The event is free and open to the public.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n After graduating from the University of Maryland with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Radio, Television and Film, Lavine began his career working as a messenger in the newsroom for New Jersey Public Television.<\/p>\n A year later, he found his true calling when he accepted a job as a producer for Major League Baseball [MLB] Productions, the official production company of MLB. He spent the next 13 years working on a multitude of baseball projects including This Week in Baseball<\/em>, The Greats Of The Game<\/em> and a number of official World Series films.\u00a0<\/p>\n Looking for new challenges, Lavine left MLB and became a freelance producer working on various network sports specials and major sporting events such as the Olympics and the Super Bowl. He also worked as a segment producer for HBO\u2019s Real Sports<\/em> With Bryant Gumbel for which he won two Emmy Awards.<\/p>\n It was at HBO where Lavine got his opportunity to produce long-form documentaries. The HBO Sports documentaries use sport as a way to tell stories about history, personal achievement and societal issues. Perhaps the best examples of this are Lavine\u2019s documentaries Nine Innings from Ground Zero<\/em>, a film about the 2001 World Series played in New York City just weeks after the 9\/11 tragedy, and Dare To Dream,<\/em> the inspiring story of the Women\u2019s National Soccer team. <\/p>\n Lavine also earned 14 Emmy nominations for his films including Where Have You Gone Joe DiMaggio?<\/em> and Ali-Frazier<\/em>. Both films were honored with the University of Georgia\u2019s Peabody Award.<\/p>\n Other documentaries that Joe has worked on include Breaking the Huddle: The Integration of College Football, Assault in the Ring, and Lombardi,<\/em> the life story of footballs legendary coach Vince Lombardi. All three were honored with Emmys for \u201cOutstanding Documentary of the Year\u201d.\u00a0 Lavine most recently completed Namath<\/em> which aired in January, 2012.<\/p>\n # # #<\/p>\n