When School of Cinematic Arts brochures brag of the Academy Award-winning faculty, Mark Harris is perhaps the foremost filmmaker being alluded to—he’s won three for documentary films. Outside the School, Harris has made a name for himself as one of the most celebrated documentarians of the societal issues that keep us up at night.

Harris’ Oscars are for The Redwoods (1967), which he produced for the Sierra Club; The Long Way Home (1997), which tells the story of Jewish refugees and the creation of the state of Israel; and Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport (2000), about the British rescue operation that saved children from Nazi occupation. “I’ve made films about exploited Filipino and Mexican farmworkers, impoverished villagers in Colombia, and the child welfare system in Los Angeles. I’ve also explored slavery, the Holocaust, the humanitarian crisis in Darfur… I’ve dealt with child labor, child poverty, child abuse, child neglect, and teenage murderers.  I’ve also documented revolution and war in Ukraine and the complicity of doctors and psychologists in torture in Iraq and our military prisons,” Harris wrote in a recent essay, adding that his son used to say: “If it’s genocide, call Dad,”

As celebrated at he is as a documentarian, Harris is also known as being the architect of SCA’s documentary program, and a talent for convincing aspiring George Lucases to become documentarians (although he’s also written many a recommendation for law school applications). He began teaching at SCA in 1975, teaching classes on making educational films, then documentary history. In 1985, he and collaborator Trevor Greenwood (The Redwoods) started the documentary program. “I vividly remember is the first screening of the films in the initial documentary production class. We proved that students could make quality short documentaries in a semester and that they deserved a separate class in which to make them, which was not a given when we started,” says Harris.

Although he will miss the classroom and “my interaction with the very talented students who study here,” Harris is retiring to pursue more film projects, intent on focusing his lens on the contradictions of our society. He attributes his interest in documentary filmmaking to experiences that include coming-of-age lessons learned as a Jewish kid in the suburbs, raised by parents who put up appearances that didn’t always conform to their core beliefs; to witnessing previously unfathomable poverty as a Peace Corps volunteer in Tanzania, and equally unbelievable racism as a cub reporter in Chicago.  But Harris’ goal is always to influence positive change. Despite all the horrors I’ve documented,” he wrote: “I still believe we can build a better world for future generations. I always look for hope, resilience, the possibility of reform and redemption.”