Louis J. Presti
Senior Producer, NJN Production Department

Senior producer/director Lou Presti has been with New Jersey Network since its early days in 1970 as head of the network’s motion picture unit. Since that time, Presti has been making compelling films about New Jersey’s natural landscapes and resources as well as the different communities that make up the Garden State. He became senior producer/director in 1974.

During his tenure at NJN, Presti and his team have documented New Jersey like few others before them, exploring New Jersey’s remote regions from the mountains of the northwest to the serenity of the Delaware Bayshore. Presti has earned numerous awards and recognition in his more than three decades with NJN. Most recently, he received The Cincinnati History Prize in recognition of his work in television by the Society of the Cincinnati of New Jersey. He also received the William Dwyer Award for History, recognizing his career commitment to bringing New Jersey history to the television screen. In 1984, Presti and his team earned NJN’s first Emmy Award for In the Barnegat Bay Tradition, a documentary about the folk traditions of duck decoy carving and sneakbox boating. That film was the first in an acclaimed trilogy on New Jersey boating that included Sea Bright Skiff and Schooners on the Bay.

Other Emmy Award-winning programs produced by Presti include On The Run, a look at runaway children; You, Me and Technology, a series of thirteen instructional programs focusing on man and technology; and Survival of Species: A Matter of Habitat, which examines the resurgence of the osprey, the falcon and the eagle in New Jersey. Presti also produced the acclaimed documentary, My Pine Barrens Land, a compelling portrait of the New Jersey Pinelands funded by the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. The film was distributed nationally and internationally and is one of NJN’s most widely distributed productions.

Presti has also produced many NJN productions that serve the educational needs of New Jersey students. With David Cohen of the NJ Historical Commission, he has produced the New Jersey Legacy series, ten half-hour programs that explore the history of New Jersey’s past; as well as NJN’s Around and About New Jersey series, which consists of eight short programs that educate students about New Jersey’s different regions. A curriculum on CD accompanies the NJ Legacy series. The series is available to schools and the general public.

Presti also produced the Emmy-Award winning Bear Country, New Jersey, which focuses on the state’s growing black bear population; and La Festa, which looks at the Italian-American street festivals still in place in Trenton and Brooklyn. Both programs aired in 1996 and were distributed nationally and internationally to PBS stations through American Program Service. In 1997, Presti produced Down Jersey, which explores South Jersey’s historic Delaware Bayshore.

Presti’s most recent productions include completion of the NJ Legacy series; Eye of the Mariner (New Jersey’s lighthouse) – which has been shown nationally on PBS over the past few years; Touring New Jersey – a scenic depiction of the state through four seasons set to music and NJN’s first exercise in high-definition production; and just this past year – Spirit of the Bay: Tuckerton Seaport about the state’s maritime traditions.

In 2004, Lou Presti completed the Thunderbolts of Millville – a moving documentary about the pilots – many of whom are in the film – who were trained on P-47s during World War II. A successful premiere in Cumberland County included many veterans who trained there, plus the documentary received extensive press coverage. The Thunderbolts of Millville has been picked up by American Public Television and will be distributed nationally to PBS stations this spring. 2005 will see at least two more programs by Presti – one program looks at the state’s Italian American heritage and the second presents the inspiring talent of Glen Rudderow, an artist who paints pastoral scenes of south Jersey. Both programs will be broadcast this spring on NJN.

With an eye to serving the residents of and visitors to New Jersey, NJN this year packaged many of Lou Presti’s documentaries into a two DVD set with four hours of programming – all with a focus on tourist or eco-tourist destinations in the Garden State. Along with the NJ Legacy series, the state now has a film package of its history and scenic locations of which to be proud.

Other Presti productions that have been distributed nationally include The Every Child Can Succeed series, The Great American Eating Machine series, It Figures series, You Me and Theology series, The World of the American Craftsmen series, Crossroads to Victory, The Superchiefs Go to Ireland, Deer Crossing, The 11th Year, The Berg: A State of Mind, In the Barnegat Bay Tradition, Yankee Doodles Odyssey, Classical Caravan and My Pine Barrens Land. Presti is a graduate of the University of Miami, where he earned a BA degree in radio, television and motion pictures. Prior to his tenure at NJN, Presti was a TV film instructor with the University of New Hampshire and produced films independently.

Lou Presti Documentaries

A Legacy of Achievement: The Italian Americans
Aqui Si Habla Espanol
Bayshore Artists
Black Bears of New Jersey
Classical Caravan
Crossroads to Victory
Deer Crossing
Departed This Life
Down Jersey
Isse, Nessi, Sansi
Every Child can Succeed, Series
Famous Tiller Sharks
Fare Ye Well Old House, Series
Fields of Gold
In the Barnegat Bay Tradition
It Figures series
Jersey Gold, The Return of the Striped Bass
La Festa
Legacy in Gold, The State House
Lighthouse: Eye of the Mariner
My Pine Barrens Land
New Jersey Legacy series
On the Run
Reflections of a Bayshore Painter
Schooners on the Bay
Sea Bright Skiff
Survival of the Species: A Matter of Habitat
Ten Crucial Days Festival
The Awakening*
The 11th Year
The Berg: A State of Mind
The Every Child Can Succeed series
The Great American Eating Machine series
The Superchiefs Go to Ireland
The World of the American Craftsmen series
Those Amazing Habitats
Thunderbolts of Millville
Touring New Jersey
Spirit of the Bay: Tuckerton Seaport
You, Me and Technology series
Yankee Doodles Odyssey