He has made a number of documentary films for HBO, the most recent, HATE.COM, aired in 2000. In 1998 Guttentag wrote, produced, and directed ASSASSINATED: THE LAST DAYS OF KENNEDY AND KING, a two-hour special for Turner Original Programming on the final year in the lives of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. The executive producer of the film was Oliver Stone.
Guttentag produced and directed MEMPHIS PD: WAR ON THE STREETS HBO, for which he received the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award. In 1997, he won an Emmy Award for "Images of Life," a CBS special on the 60th anniversary of LIFE Magazine. In 1999 he won an Emmy for "A Second Chance," an HBO film on which he was an executive producer. He was writer, producer, and director of "The Cocaine War: Lost in Bolivia," an ABC News/Peter Jennings Reporting special. The film was an investigation of the drug-war in South America, and involved months of accompanying DEA agents as they fought the war in Bolivia. In 1995, he made "5 American Kids -- 5 American Handguns," an HBO documentary special on children and handguns, and another Emmy Award nominee. The film was honored by Jim and Sara Brady and The Center to Prevent Handgun Violence for its contribution to the fight to protect children from gun violence.
In 2002, he was creator, executive producer and director of the short-lived "Law & Order: Crime & Punishment" TV series. Returning to the short film format, he directed TWIN TOWERS (2003) about two brothers, one a firefighter, one a police officer, who are remembered for their bravery in New York City on 11 September 2001.
His 2007 documentary NANKING, made with Dan Sturman, explores the 1937 Japanese "rape of Nanking", one of the most tragic events in history.
Guttentag is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the American Film Institute. In 1998-99 he was a John S. Knight Fellow at Stanford University. He currently co-teaches a class on the film and television business at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford.
Best Achievement in Documentary Short Subjects 1988: YOU DON'T HAVE TO DIE - Producer (w. Malcolm Clarke)
Nominated for Achievement in Documentary Features 1989: CRACK USA: COUNTY UNDER SIEGE - Producer (w. Vince DiPersio)
Nominated for Achievement in Documentary Features 1991: DEATH ON THE JOB - Producer (w. Vince DiPersio)
Nominated for Achievement in Documentary Short Subjects 1994: BLUES HIGHWAY - Producer (w. Vince DiPersio)
Best Achievement in Documentary Short Subjects 2002: TWIN TOWERS - Producer (w. Robert David Port)
5 nominations, 2 Awards