New York filmmaker who collaborated on a number of documentaries with Michael Roemer in the 1960s, notably "Cortile Cascino/The Inferno" (1962), shot for the NBC series "White Paper" but deemed too controversial to air. Young's first fiction feature as a director was the 1977 adaptation of Miguel Pinero's harrowing stage play "Short Eyes".Young's films are noted for their gritty, unglamorous qualities and fine use of locations. Highlights include "Rich Kids" (1979), a realistic portrait of two upper-class Manhattan juveniles watching their parents' world fall apart, "Alambrista!" (1978), about the exploitation of a naive Mexican after he has crossed the border to the US, and "The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez" (1983), based on the true story of a Mexican who killed a US sheriff in 1901.
Young has begun to reach a wider audience in the 1980s with films such as the Farrah Fawcett vehicle "Extremities" (1986) and the concentration camp drama "Triumph of the Spirit" (1989), starring Willem Dafoe.
Profession(s):
director, producer
Sometimes Credited As:
Robert Milton Young
Robert Young
Directors Guild of America Award Dramatic Special "Murder in Mississippi" 1990
United States Film Festival Special Jury Prize "The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez" 1983
Venice Film Festival San Giorgio Prize "Nothing But a Man" 1964
1987 TV movie directing debut, "We Are the Children"
1977 Fiction feature directing debut, "Short Eyes"
1964 First fiction feature as co-producer and co-writer (with director Michael Roemer), "Nothing But a Man"
1962 Co-directed (with Michael Roemer), edited, photographed and wrote documentary "Cortile Cascino/The Inferno" (58 mins) for NBC series "White Paper"; considered too controversial to air
1956 Co-directed (with Murray Lerner and Lloyd Ritter) the feature-length documentary "Secrets of the Reef"
