Richard Reiss grew up in Manhattan where he went to the public schools. As an undergraduate at Yale he majored in architecture and studied political science in a program directed by Donald Kagan. He currently lives and works in New York, where he directs television commercials for clients including MTV, ESPN, and New York State.
Richard's experience in creating brief documentary portraits of Americans for TV later led him to curiosity about the potential for creating an ensemble portrait of Americans. Linking the portrait group in interactive dialogue holds the promise of providing an easily accessible tool for understanding the relationship between citizens.
Some examples of quick portraits in commercial form directed by Richard Reiss are linked below. Our intention with One-Country.com would be longer clips that extend forward through time (by being regularly updated).
A Crest commercial about a dentist in rural New Hampshire.
A commercial for the Pennsylvania Department of Health, promoting early HIV testing.
A Pacific Telecom commercial featuring a couple that live on an island off Sitka, Alaska.
A DirecTV commercial set in Florida, about hurricane season.