Lorentz, Pare (1905–1992)

US documentary film-maker. A journalist and movie critic, he became the film adviser to the US Resettlement Administration under President Franklin D Roosevelt; for this he wrote and directed two classic documentaries, The Plow that Broke the Plains (1936) and The River (1937). As head of the new US Film Service, he made The Fight for Life (1940). In 1941 he filmed several short subjects for RKO, then a number of documentaries for the military in World War II. From 1946–47 he was chief of the film section of the War Department's Civil Affairs Division. Lorentz was born in Clarksburg, West Virginia.