Michael Kirk

Michael Kirk is a documentary filmmaker and partial creator of the PBS show Frontline, where he worked as senior producer until 1987. Kirk owns a production company, the Kirk Documentary Group, in Brookline, Massachusetts. He is a former Nieman Fellow in Journalism at Harvard University. He has produced such documentaries as "Inside the Meltdown," about the 2008 financial crisis, "Bush's War," about the Iraq War under George W. Bush, and "The Way the Music Died," about the dire straits of the record industry.

Works

A Very British Murder with Lucy Worsley

This documentary takes a look at some of the most horrible and despicable murders in modern British history. From Jack the Ripper in the 1880s to Agatha Christie's best known stories.

Release Date2013-09-23

Charactersd Himself

Episode Count3

Vote Count3

Danger! Women at Work

Three women inherit a 10-ton truck and decide to go into business. Hi jinks ensue.

Release Date1943-08-23

Charactersd Tommy

Vote Count1

Frontline

Since it began in 1983, Frontline has been airing public-affairs documentaries that explore a wide scope of the complex human experience. Frontline's goal is to extend the impact of the documentary beyond its initial broadcast by serving as a catalyst for change.

Release Date1983-01-17

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count9

Vote Count46

The Grudge

An American nurse living and working in Tokyo is exposed to a mysterious supernatural curse, one that locks a person in a powerful rage before claiming their life and spreading to another victim.

Release Date2004-10-22

DepartmentProduction

JobCo-Producer

Vote Count3025

The Grudge 2

A young woman encounters a malevolent supernatural force while searching for her missing sister in Tokyo, a mean high school prank goes horribly wrong, and strange things begin happening in a Chicago apartment building.

Release Date2006-10-12

DepartmentProduction

JobCo-Producer

Vote Count1061

Endgame

As the United States begins one final effort to secure victory through a “surge” of troops, FRONTLINE investigates how strategic and tactical mistakes brought Iraq to civil war. The film recounts how the early mandate to create the conditions for a quick exit of the American military led to chaos, failure, and sectarian strife. In Endgame, producer Michael Kirk (Rumsfeld’s War, The Torture Question, The Dark Side, and The Lost Year in Iraq) traces why the president decided to risk what military planners once warned could be the worst way to fight in Iraq — door-to-door — and assesses the likelihood of its success. Top administration figures, military commanders, and journalists offer inside details about the new strategy.

Release Date2007-06-19

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

America's Great Divide: From Obama to Trump

A deep look into the growing divide in America from the Barack Obama era through the presidency of Donald Trump.

Release Date2020-01-13

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count2

The Choice 2024: Harris vs. Trump

The documentary investigates the lives and characters of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump as they seek the presidency. In a historic election, those who know the candidates best reveal key moments that shape how they would lead America. Award-winning filmmaker Michael Kirk and his team sat down with Trump and Harris’ friends, advisors and critics, as well as authors, journalists and political insiders to present deeply reported narrative arcs of both candidates’ lives, going all the way back to their childhoods. What emerges in FRONTLINE's "The Choice 2024: Harris vs. Trump" is the story of two fighters: One seeking vindication and promising a return to greatness, and the other seeking to move beyond the past and promising a greater future.

Release Date2024-09-24

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count6

Netanyahu at War

The inside story of the bitter clash between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. Amid violence in the Middle East, the film traces Netanyahu's rise to power and his high-stakes fight with the president over Iran's nuclear program.

Release Date2016-01-05

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count1

Trump's American Carnage

From his first days as president to his last, how Trump stoked division, violence and insurrection. FRONTLINE investigates Trump’s siege on his enemies, the media and even the leaders of his own party, who for years ignored the warning signs of what was to come.

Release Date2021-01-26

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Democracy on Trial

FRONTLINE investigates the roots of the criminal cases against former President Trump stemming from his 2020 election loss. With the presidential race for 2024 underway, veteran political filmmaker Michael Kirk and his team examine the House Jan. 6 committee’s evidence, the historic charges against Trump and the threat to democracy.

Release Date2024-01-30

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count2

Poutine contre les USA

Release Date2018-01-16

DepartmentCreator

JobCreator

United States of Secrets

FRONTLINE reveals the dramatic inside story of how the U.S. government came to monitor and collect the communications of millions of people around the world, and the lengths they went to as they tried to hide this massive surveillance program from the public. The series is gripping viewing for those who want to understand the context of the Snowden affair—and what it means for all Americans.

Release Date2014-05-13

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count2

Vote Count1

Losing Iraq

Examines the unfolding chaos in Iraq and how the U.S. is being pulled back into the conflict. Drawing on interviews with policymakers and military leaders, the film traces the U.S. role from the 2003 invasion to the current violence, showing how Iraq itself is coming undone, how we got here, what went wrong, and what happens next.

Release Date2014-07-29

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count3

Pelosi's Power

An examination of the powerful and polarizing Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, from veteran FRONTLINE filmmaker and chronicler of U.S. politics Michael Kirk and his team. Pelosi’s Power traces Pelosi’s life and legacy, how she has gained and wielded power across three decades, and how she has faced grave challenges to her leadership and to American democracy from Trump and his allies.

Release Date2022-03-22

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count1

League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis

Drawing on the book of the same name, League of Denial crafts a searing two-hour indictment of the National Football League’s decades-long concealment of the link between football related head injuries and brain disorders.

Release Date2013-10-08

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count7

Frontline: President Trump

The key moments that helped shape President-elect Donald Trump.

Release Date2017-01-03

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count2

Lies, Politics and Democracy

Frontline’s season premiere investigates American political leaders and choices they’ve made that have undermined and threatened democracy in the U.S. In a two-hour documentary special premiering ahead of the 2022 midterms, Frontline examines how officials fed the public lies about the 2020 presidential election and embraced rhetoric that led to political violence.

Release Date2022-09-06

DepartmentProduction

JobProducer

Vote Count2

Top Secret America - 9/11 to the Boston Bombings

Journalist Dana Priest traces the battle against terrorism in the United States, from Sept. 11 to the April 15, 2013 bombings at the Boston Marathon.

Release Date2011-09-06

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Biden's Decision

The inside story of Biden’s rise to the presidency, and the personal and political forces that shaped him and led to his dramatic decision to step aside.

Release Date2024-08-06

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Trump's Comeback

FRONTLINE examines defining moments over Donald Trump’s life and career, his 2020 election loss, felony convictions and his historic comeback.

Release Date2025-01-22

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count2

The Choice 2020: Trump vs. Biden

A look into what has shaped President Donald Trump and presidential candidate Joe Biden, where they came from and how they lead.

Release Date2020-09-22

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count10

America After 9/11

From veteran FRONTLINE filmmaker and chronicler of U.S. politics Michael Kirk and his team, this documentary traces the U.S. response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the devastating consequences that unfolded across four presidencies. Drawing on both new interviews and those from the dozens of documentaries Kirk and his award-winning team made in the years after 9/11, this two-hour special offers an epic re-examination of the decisions that changed the world and transformed America. From the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to the January 6 insurrection, America After 9/11 exposes the legacy of September 11 — and the ongoing challenge it poses for the president and the country.

Release Date2021-09-07

DepartmentProduction

JobProducer

Putin's Road to War

Release Date2022-03-22

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count6

Taliban Takeover

The Taliban take over Afghanistan, and the threat of ISIS and Al Qaeda intensifies. On the ground, reporter Najibullah Quraishi (Leaving Afghanistan, Taliban Country) investigates uncertainty and fear among the Afghan people and revisits the lead-up to the U.S. defeat and the Taliban’s return.

Release Date2021-10-12

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Karl Rove: The Architect

One of the most polarizing figures in 21st Century American politics is examined in Karl Rove - The Architect, an hour-long PBS profile of the man generally regarded as President George W. Bush's most trusted and influential advisor. Whether one admires or deplores Rove's tactics, few would argue that they aren't effective.

Release Date2005-04-12

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

The Secret History of ISIS

Recently released top secret files from the early 2000's expose the lies told to the American people by senior US government in this PBS documentary, which outlines the real creators of ISIS.

Release Date2016-05-17

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count1

Secrets, Politics and Torture

“Secrets, Politics and Torture” unspools the dueling versions of history laid out by the CIA, which maintains that its now officially-shuttered program was effective in combating terrorism, and the massive Senate torture report released in December of 2014, which found that the program was brutal, mismanaged and — most importantly — didn’t work

Release Date2015-05-19

DepartmentProduction

JobProducer

The Choice 2016

An interwoven investigative biography of U.S. presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump that draws on dozens of interviews from those who know them best—friends and family, advisers and adversaries—as well as authors, journalists and political insiders.

Release Date2016-11-05

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count6

Putin and the Presidents

FRONTLINE investigates Russian President Vladimir Putin’s clashes with multiple American presidents as he’s tried to rebuild the Russian empire. Veteran filmmaker Michael Kirk (Putin’s Revenge, Putin’s Road to War) and his team trace the miscalculations and missteps of U.S. presidents over five administrations, culminating in Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Release Date2023-01-31

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count2

Clarence and Ginni Thomas: Politics, Power, and the Supreme Court

As controversy erupts around Clarence and Ginni Thomas, FRONTLINE tells the inside story of their path to power. This investigation from veteran filmmaker Michael Kirk and his team traces how race, power and controversy collide in the rise of the Supreme Court justice and his wife and how the couple has reshaped American law and politics.

Release Date2023-05-09

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

McCain

Senator John McCain's complicated relationship with President Trump and his own Republican party. A look at McCain's life and politics, from POW in Vietnam, to choosing Sarah Palin as running mate, to his dramatic vote against the GOP's health care bill.

Release Date2018-04-17

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count1

Misunderstood Minds

A look at children who have trouble learning in school.

Release Date2002-03-27

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count1

United States of Conspiracy

How trafficking in conspiracy theories went from the fringes of U.S. politics into the White House.

Release Date2020-07-28

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count3

President Biden

FRONTLINE tells the story of how crisis and tragedy prepared Joe Biden to become America’s next president. Those who know him best describe the searing moments that shaped President-elect Biden and what those challenges reveal about how he will govern.

Release Date2021-01-19

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Vote Count2

Zero Tolerance: How Trump Turned Immigration into a Political Weapon

"Zero Tolerance" - FRONTLINE investigates how President Trump turned immigration into a powerful political weapon that fueled division and violence. The documentary goes inside the efforts of three political insurgents to tap into populist anger, transform the Republican Party and crack down on immigration.

Release Date2019-10-22

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Frontline: Divided States of America

Review the partisanship that gridlocked Washington and charged the 2016 presidential campaign.

Release Date2017-01-17

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count1

The Man Who Knew

Agent John O'Neill considers assassinating bin Laden before al-Qaida could act, prompting his separation from the FBI and his hiring as World Trade Center security director, just weeks before his death in the attacks.

Release Date2002-10-03

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

L'homme qui murmure à l'oreille de Trump

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

The Killer at Thurston High

In May 1998, a year before the massacre at Columbine High, 15-year-old Kip Kinkel murdered his mother and father, and then opened fire at Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon, killing two fellow students and wounding 25 others. In this first in-depth television examination of a school shooter, FRONTLINE reveals the intimate inside story of how the “shy and likeable” Kip Kinkel from a solid middle-class family became the boy police call “a cold-hearted killer.”

Release Date2000-01-18

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Predator on the Reservation

For more than twenty years, Doctor Stanley Patrick Weber was suspected of taking advantage of his activity as a pediatrician officiating on Indian reservations to sexually abuse many children. How is it possible that Dr. Weber, despite being repeatedly accused of abusing his young patients, was able to continue to practice, simply transferred from reserve to reserve?

Release Date2019-02-12

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

American Porn

It's one of the hottest industries in America. Easier to order at home than a pizza, bigger than rock music, it's arguably the most profitable enterprise in cyberspace. AT&T has been in the business. Yahoo! has profited from it. Westin and Marriott have made more money selling it than selling snacks and drinks in their mini-bars. And with estimates as high as $10 billion a year, it boasts the kind of earnings that most American businesses would envy. It's pornography.

Release Date2002-02-07

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count1

The Dark Side

On Sept. 11, 2001, deep inside a White House bunker, Vice President Dick Cheney was ordering U.S. fighter planes to shoot down any commercial airliner still in the air above America. At that moment, CIA Director George Tenet was meeting with his counter-terrorism team in Langley, Virginia. Both leaders acted fast, to prepare their country for a new kind of war. But soon a debate would grow over the goals of the war on terror, and the decision to go to war in Iraq. Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and others saw Iraq as an important part of a broader plan to remake the Middle East and project American power worldwide. Meanwhile Tenet, facing division in his own organization, saw non-state actors such as Al Qaeda as the highest priority. FRONTLINE’s investigation of the ensuing conflict includes more than 40 interviews, thousands of pages of documentary evidence, and a substantial photographic archive.

Release Date2006-06-20

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count1

Trump président, une création fatale

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Bush’s War Part II

Frontline examines the war in Iraq and offers an inside look at a number controversies surrounding the war including September 11, al-Qaida, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraid, WMDs, and Fallujah.

Release Date2008-03-25

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Bush’s War Part I

Frontline examines the war in Iraq and offers an inside look at a number controversies surrounding the war including September 11, al-Qaida, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraid, WMDs, and Fallujah.

Release Date2008-03-24

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Trump's Power & the Rule of Law

FRONTLINE goes inside the high-stakes showdown between President Donald Trump and the courts over presidential power. Trump allies, opponents and experts talk about how he is testing the extent of his power; the legal pushback; and the impact on the rule of law.

Release Date2025-07-15

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count1

The War Behind Closed Doors

FRONTLINE examines the hidden story of what is really driving the Bush administration to war with Iraq. The investigation asks whether the publicly reported reasons — fear of Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction or a desire to insure and protect America’s access to oil — are only masking the real reason for the war. Through interviews with well-placed sources in and outside of the administration, FRONTLINE unravels a story known only to the Washington insiders.

Release Date2003-02-20

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Cheney's Law

Inside the bruising closed door battles within the Bush administration over the power of the presidency and the rule of law.

Release Date2007-10-16

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector