Pare Lorentz Pare Lorentz ( December 11 , 1905 – March 4 , 1992 ) was an American filmmaker known for his movies about the New Deal . Born Leonard MacTaggart Lorentz in Clarksburg , West Virginia , he was educated at Wesleyan College and West Virginia University . As a young film critic in New York and Hollywood , Lorentz spoke out against censorship in the film industry . As the most influential documentary filmmaker of the Great Depression , Lorentz was the leading US advocate for government - sponsored documentary films . His service as a filmmaker for US Army Air Corps in World War II was formidable , including technical films , documentation of bombing raids , and synthesizing raw footage of Nazi atrocities for an educational film on the Nuremberg Trials . Nonetheless , Lorentz will always be known best as " FDR ' s filmmaker . " New Deal documentary films . Lorentz left West Virginia after college in 1925 , to begin a career as a writer and film critic in New York in 1925 . He contributed articles to leading magazines such as " Scribner ’ s " , " Vanity Fair magazine " , " McCall ' s " , and " Town and Country " . and co - authored a 1929 book , " Censored : the private life of the movie . " His work as a film critic led him to Hollywood , where he wrote several articles on censorship and a pictorial review of the first year of Franklin D . Roosevelt ' s presidency , " The Roosevelt Year : 1933 " . Roosevelt was impressed with the articles and the book , and in 1936 , as President of the United States , invited Lorentz to make a government - sponsored film about the Oklahoma Dust Bowl . Despite not having any film credits , Lorentz was appointed to the Resettlement Administration as a film consultant . He was given US $ 6 , 000 to make a film , which became " The Plow That Broke the Plains " , a film that showed the natural and man - made devastation caused by the Dust Bowl . Though the tight budget and his inexperience occasionally showed through in the film , Lorentz ' s script , combined with Thomas Chalmers ' s narration and Virgil Thomson ' s score , made the 30 - minute movie powerful and moving . The film , which had its first public showing on May 10 , 1936 at Washington ' s Mayflower Hotel , had a preview screening in March at the White House . Roosevelt was impressed and , after his re - election in 1936 , gave Lorentz the opportunity to make a film about one of the President ' s favorite subjects — conservation . Lorentz made " The River , " a film celebrating the exploits of the Tennessee Valley Authority . The TVA mitigated flooding but , more importantly to Lorentz and to Roosevelt , it put a stop to the prodigious pillaging of the forests by providing cheap , readily - available hydro - electric power to a wide area . This film won the " best documentary " category at the Venice International Film Festival . The text of " River " appeared in book form , and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in poetry the same year . It is generally considered his most masterful work . When Republicans gained seats in Congress in 1938 , and the Congressional balance of power shifted in a more conservative direction , the pipeline of Federal commissions for projects like Lorentz ' s was abruptly halted . In 1940 he produced " Power and the Land " promoting the Rural Electric Administration . He made one more movie before the US involvement in World War II , " The Fight for Life " ( 1940 ) , a semi - documentary on the struggle to provide adequate natal care at the Chicago Maternity Center , based on a book by Paul de Kruif . John Steinbeck worked on the project with Lorentz . US Army Air Corps World War II films . Lorentz went on to serve in the US Army Air Corps during World War II . He was promoted to the rank of colonel . While serving , he made 275 navigational films and minor documentaries for the Office of War Information and the US Information Agency , and filmed over 2 , 500 hours of bombing raids . In 1946 , Lorentz made a federally - funded movie about the Nuremberg trials which was intended to help educate the German people as to what had happened during the war . In the process of compiling material , Lorentz reviewed over a million hours of footage about the Nazis and their atrocities . The film that resulted , " Nuremberg " , played to " capacity audiences " in Germany for two years . However , it was not released in the United States until 1979 . Later life and legacy . In the prosperity of the post - War period , there was no revival of partnerships with the Federal government . He had ambitious plans to make documentaries about the New Deal and the United Nations , but funding was not available from government or private sources . His final film was " Rural Co - op " , which he wrote and directed in 1947 . Lorentz seems to have lived a quiet life after this period , working as a film consultant and living 37 miles north of New York City in the quiet town of Armonk until his death in 1992 . The International Documentary Association named its " Pare Lorentz Film Festival " and its grand prize in honor of Lorentz , granted to individuals whose work best represents the " democratic sensibility , activist spirit and lyrical vision " of Lorentz . " Several of these films are viewable online at the Pare Lorentz Center Film Library .