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Five years ago, Kevin Shaw ’91 was working as a Director’s Guild of America assistant director trainee on NBC’s Law and Order.  Today Kevin has made it to the big time as director and producer. His first full-length documentary, The Street Stops Here, will premiere on PBS nationwide Wednesday, March 31 at 9:00 p.m. CT (WTTW Channel 11 in Chicago).

The film chronicles the career of Bob Hurley, Sr., one of the U.S.’s most successful high school basketball coaches, and his lifelong commitment to save the lives of inner-city youth and to keep St. Anthony’s, a poor, tiny school in Jersey City, open, while trying to form a championship-bound team with a talented group of seniors. “His coaching methods may be debatable, but the film clearly demonstrates that his methods worked in helping his players break the cycle of poverty that engulfed their lives,” Kevin said.

The project has consumed the last three years of Kevin’s life, two of them in production, and the last one in marketing and promoting the film. His journey to the highest levels of an often fickle and ruthless industry hasn’t changed the person who, while at the Academy, is remembered as a “quiet leader with a great sense of humor and integrity,” said David Hibbs, who advised Kevin when he was sports editor of the Academy News.

After graduating from the Academy, Kevin majored in journalism at Michigan State University where he quickly became consumed in many Big Ten sports traditions. He worked as a reporter and sports editor at the university’s award-winning newspaper, The State News. After graduation, Kevin landed a job at ESPN writing, producing and editing daily features. He received an Emmy Award in 1998 for his work on SPORTSCENTER.  He was also a frequent contributor to Sunday NFL Countdown, Baseball Tonight, and ABC World News Now.

In 2000, Kevin struck out on his own, perfecting the craft of filmmaking, producing music videos, short films, and documentaries, and having his work shown on ESPN, ABC, the NFL Network, and the Big Ten Network, where he is currently directing episodes of the network’s documentary mini-series The Journey, Big Ten Basketball 2010. He has won Telly, Hugo, Aurora and Emmy awards for work created under his production company label, 23 Films. In 2003, Kevin was nominated for the Gordon Parks Emerging African American Filmmaker award sponsored by the New York non-profit independent film community, the IFP (Independent Film Project.)

Kevin has also taken on Hollywood features, from Jerry Bruckheimer’s National Treasure to Woody Allen’s film Melinda and Melinda. Kevin says that at the core of all his work is a compelling personal story combined with a powerful social message. His first film, Jeremiah Strong (2003) tells the story of a drifter trying to make amends for past mistakes. While searching for a low-rent apartment, Jeremiah discovers affordable housing isn’t the only thing that’s difficult to regain in life. The film, screened in more than 30 film festivals around the world, has won several honors for acting and cinematography. Kevin said the film made him a better storyteller. “As cliché as it might sound, you can’t judge a book by its cover. Everyone has a story, no matter where you are in life. The question remains, will you take time to listen, to walk in that person’s shoes to get a better understanding of where they came from and how they got to where they are today? Understanding other people’s points-of-view is key to just basic human interaction, yet it’s something we don’t do enough.”

Kevin is hoping for the same success with The Street Stops Here. Kevin was attracted to this project because of Hurley’s reputation as the best basketball teacher in the country. “It’s only a matter of time before he’s elected into the Basketball Hall of Fame.” Kevin added that Hurley could have had a college or professional coaching career. Instead, “his school and the kids at St. Anthony meant more to him than any of those material accomplishments. In this day and age, that feat alone speaks volumes about Hurley’s character.”

Kevin’s next project will tackle the thorny subject of the Chicago public schools and whether its controversial “turnaround” program, which uses unorthodox methods to improve schools in primarily low-income neighborhoods, works.

“The Street Stops Here” premieres on all PBS stations Wednesday, March 31at 9:00 p.m. CT.