Harry From

Harry From (born 12 December 1934 in Bucharest, Romania - died 5 May 1996 in New York, USA) was a theater and film director, and movie producer.

He received his MA (Cinematography and Film Direction) from Ion Luca Caragiale University Bucharest in 1958. and his PhD in Social Psychology from City University of New York (CUNY) in 1974. At CUNY he studied with Stanley Milgram, who later became his colleague.

He was a film director at the Sahia Film Studio in Bucharest 1959-6 and a movie reviewer for the Bucharest Press 1958-60. He worked at Chamber Theater, Tel Aviv 1962-63, as artistic director of the Comedia Theater Tel Aviv 1963-66; and as artistic advisor for Tel Aviv Municipality 1962-66. He was a member of the Jerusalem Theatre, Israel 1964.

He was an independent director, writer, producer for various organizations including Time Life Films, Harper & Row, NYC 1969-77.

He was director and producer of the Off-Broadway Rhinoceros (play), 1970.

Director, producer, and co-writer (Movies): The City and the Self(*), 1972; Psychodrama, 1973; Invitation to Social Psychology(*), 1974; Conformity and Independence(*), 1975; Human Aggression(*), Nonverbal Communication(*), 1976; Night Patrol, 1977. (TV) Dr Berger Plan, 1986; Love is (a series of three one-hour shows), and a special TV program entitled 2090, 1990. Five of the films, marked with (*), were produced together with Stanley Milgram, the first two while Harry From was his graduate student.

He Directed and shot the film Water Water Water in Venezuela, Bangladesh, Niger and China in 1994-96, but never completed it due to his untimely death.

He was recipient of the Jerusalem Theatre for Youth Award.

Five Silver Awards: NY International Film Festival, Chicago Film Festival Award, Ohio Film Festival Award, American Film Festival Award.

He was a member of the TV Academy of independent producers, of the Israeli Film Institute and of the American Film Institute.

His love for the Romanian writer Mihail Sebastian prompted him to create in 1994 the Mihail Sebastian Foundation and at the same time to obtain from Sebastian's family in Paris the nine hand-written notebooks that constituted Sebastian's diary of the fascist years, from 1935 to 1944. In the winter of 1994 he met in Paris Mr. Gabriel Liiceanu, the owner and president of the Publishing Co. Humanitas from Romania, and convinced him to publish the Sebastian's diary. Harry From never saw the printed Sebastian diary; he died six months before its publication.

He was survived by his wife of 32 years and their daughter.