Kevin Shaw

As a director, producer, cinematographer and editor, Kevin Shaw has created award-winning films for prestige platforms. His latest film, One Golden Summer, was the Opening Night selection for the 61st Annual Chicago International Film Festival, where the film won the Audience Award and the Chicago Award for Best Film from a Chicago filmmaker. The film debuted on TBS and the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) in Spring 2026.

Shaw directed, filmed and edited, Let the Little Light Shine, which was nominated for an Emmy Award and a Peabody Award, debuted on PBS’ award-winning series POV, and played at several film festivals and theaters around the country to stellar reception, where the Chicago Tribune lauded the film for carrying “the visceral impact of all six Rocky films and a few Creed films put together.”

Shaw’s debut documentary about Basketball Hall of Fame coach Bob Hurley, The Street Stops Here, aired nationally on PBS and ESPN in 2010 to rave reviews. The following year, Shaw’s Big Ten Network short documentary on a quadriplegic trying to regain the ability to walk won the Edward R. Murrow Award for Sports Reporting Excellence. His cinematography talents were recognized in 2015 with a National Sports Emmy for ESPN’s FIFA World Cup Show Opens and Teases. Later that year, Shaw produced a documentary about the relationship between megastar Shaquille O’Neal and his collegiate coach, Dale Brown. Shaq and Dale premiered on ESPN. 

Shaw was a segment director and cinematographer on America to Me, and a cinematographer on City So Real, from Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Steve James, where they both debuted at the Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim and aired on Starz and Hulu respectively.

Other work Shaw debuted in 2025 was the PBS short film Linnentown, the story of an Athens, GA community whose family homes were razed in a 1960s urban renewal project, and now they, along with civic-minded neighbors, unite to try to reclaim their forgotten history and seek redress.

Throughout his career, Shaw has been supported by the Sundance Institute, Firelight Media, ITVS, PBS, Black Public Media, the International Documentary Association, Catapult Film Fund, the Field Foundation and Kartemquin Films.

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ABOUT LET THE LITTLE LIGHT SHINE

A high-achieving elementary school near downtown Chicago is a lifeline for Black children – until gentrification threatens its closure. The National Teachers Academy (NTA) is a top ranked school with a thriving population of mostly low-income and Black students. But as the neighborhood grows and gentrifies, a parents’ group eager for a high school in the community seeks to close NTA and replace it with a high school campus. As Chicago Public Schools administrators and city politicians debate the future of the school, the film brings you inside NTA to meet the students, parents, and educators fighting to save their beloved institution.

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