Curtis Craven
Producer/Director
Hecho a Mano Productions

Curtis Craven has nearly forty years experience as a producer/director/shooter with an emphasis on cultural, historical and environmental documentary. He has witnessed the full arch of technology, from film to tape to digital. Since the early 1970's, he has lived, worked and traveled extensively in Mexico, Texas and Florida. During the years 1991-1996 he was a Senior Producer for the Texas Parks & Wildlife PBS Television Series, where he produced, shot and edited scores of 7-9 minute segments for the show. In 1997 he left TPWD and formed Hecho a Mano Productions to pursue various personal and commercial projects. As a freelancer, he shot for numerous reality television shows and EPK’s including FOX, Miramax, Disney, the History Channel, TLC, MTV, Austin City Limits and Yahoo Music. Today, as a shooter, his clients include The Nature Conservancy, Audubon Texas, and the Texas Parks & Wildlife Foundation. TheThree of his documentaries on Mexican folklife and traditional culture—Handmade in Mexico, Burning Judas and Vanilla: the Sacred Orchid—have aired nationally on PBS. Vanilla was a recipient of an Austin Film Society’s 2009 Production Grant (post production).

Between 2014 – 2017, Hecho a Mano Productions was contracted to produce an extensive web series for the Texas Historical Commission. This project consisted of scores of short (3-5 minute) videos and audio tracks covering the diversity, depth and complexity of Texas history. Curtis acted as director, collaborating with Ron Kabele as editor. The videos are still in use and can be found on the THC social media and YouTube sites.

Most recently, with funding from the Texas Historical Commission, Friends of Caddo Mounds and the Summerlee Foundation, Curtis, again in collaboration with his editor Ron Kabele, completed the 30 minute documentary, Koo-hoot Kiwat: the Caddo Grass House. With KLRU-TV as the presenting station, the film was broadcast throughout the country, reaching millions of viewers. In 2019 it received a Lone Star Emmy for the Texas Heritage/Special category.

In 2021 Mr. Craven completed the hour-long documentary Life In the Logwoods (60 minutes) which examines the East Texas timber industry—the people, environment and the history. The film is still being broadcast on PBS stations and received a Lone Star Emmy for photography. Mr. Craven is presently seeking distribution for his latest feature documentary, A Way of Life: East Texas Cowboys (1:15).