Brian Kaufman is a pioneering visual journalist who has driven the evolution of newspaper-produced video journalism from its earliest iterations to its respected place within the documentary film industry.

As Executive Video Producer at the Detroit Free Press for nearly 20 years, Kaufman’s work spanned a broad range, from investigative shorts to feature films on social and environmental issues. He played an integral role in a USA Today Network project about the US/Mexico border that was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting. The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has recognized Kaufman’s work with three National Emmy awards and a nomination in the craft category of Nature and Wildlife Cinematography.

Most recently, Kaufman co-directed Coldwater Kitchen, a character-driven film set in a Michigan prison, where chef Jimmy Lee Hill runs a highly regarded culinary training program that gives incarcerated men new skills and new hope. The documentary received a 2023 James Beard Media Award and was accepted to the 2025 American Film Showcase, a premiere diplomacy program that organizes screenings and workshops with American filmmakers in more than 60 countries.

Formerly, Kaufman directed and edited 12th and Clairmount, an entirely-archival film that transports viewers back in time to explore the causes and aftermath of the 1967 Detroit Rebellion. Variety Magazine called the film, “a revelatory portrait of the city … illuminating and innovatively crafted.” CriterionCast described it as, “a devastating piece of non-fiction filmmaking … part oral history and part sociological scholarship.”

In addition to his film work, Kaufman regularly pursues large-scale photography projects that visually reimagine landscapes strained by the cascading effects of climate change. He has developed the work into a week-long course at Maine Media Workshops called, “Painted Landscape: Nature in Motion.” Kaufman taught a character-driven storytelling workshop at the college for over a decade and has been instrumental in facilitating the education of video journalism to other newspaper photographers and reporters, including a USA Today Network initiative that dramatically increased video traffic in newsrooms nationwide.

Kaufman’s career began at the Naples Daily News in SW Florida, where he helped launch Studio 55, the first newspaper-based television newscast in the country. He holds a Visual Journalism degree from Brooks Institute of Photography. Brian was born and raised in Mt. Center, California and is currently based in southern Maine.

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