Ron Blatman
Executive Producer/ Producer
Ron Blatman is an award-winning documentary producer whose work sits at the intersection of environmental storytelling, urban policy, and civic education. With a background spanning architecture, city planning, real estate, and public service, he brings a rare depth of perspective to the stories of how places shape — and are shaped by — the people who live in them.
Before his career in documentary production, Ron built a distinguished record in real estate development and finance — working in his native San Francisco and on Wall Street in New York. In the early 1990s, he served as Director of Business Development in the San Francisco mayor’s office, where he gained an insider’s understanding of the complex relationship between civic leadership, development, and urban transformation.
It is this lived experience — across the public, private, and creative sectors — that informs the depth and nuance of his work as a filmmaker. Ron’s ability to speak the language of planners, financiers, architects, and policymakers alike gives Saving the City its rare analytical rigor and human warmth in equal measure.
Saving the City: Remaking the American Metropolis
Executive Producer / Producer · Multi-Part Documentary Series
Ron created Saving the City out of years of traveling to and studying cities from a variety of perspectives. The multi-part documentary series asks — and answers — the question: how do we make our cities better places? Uniquely organized by subject rather than city, the series compares how different cities across North America tackle the same urban challenges, from housing and parks to why cities matter in the first place.
Through nearly 300 in-depth interviews, the series uncovers what works, what doesn’t, and what every city can learn from one another. Opening episodes currently in production include Why Cities Matter, Housing, Parks, and Family Friendly.
Saving the Bay: The Story of San Francisco Bay
Executive Producer / Producer · Four-Part PBS Series · Narrated by Robert Redford
Narrated by Robert Redford, Saving the Bay is a landmark four-part, high-definition documentary series tracing San Francisco Bay from its geologic origins following the last Ice Age, through years of catastrophic exploitation, to the restoration efforts of today. The series takes viewers on an unforgettable journey around the Bay and the larger northern California watershed — from the Sierra Nevada mountains to the Farallon Islands in the Pacific Ocean.
The series aired nationally as a PBS prime time special and continues to air as a recurring pledge drive program on KQED/San Francisco and KVIE/Sacramento. On premiere night on KQED (October 8, 2009), it achieved the single highest rating of any PBS program in the nation that evening — with the audience growing every 15 minutes until the final credits. All four hours are available for streaming on Vimeo on Demand.
