For the past thirty years, Stephen Ives has become well-known for making documentaries. He won an Emmy Award for his work. He made a famous series called The West, which many people watched on PBS. In 1987, he helped with two important series called The Civil War and Baseball. One of his films about a theater company aired on HBO in 1999.
Another film he made about a small opera company got him nominated for a big award. He also made a film about a famous horse called Seabiscuit, which won him an Emmy. His series about war reporters was praised by the Los Angeles Times. He has made many films for PBS, including one about World War I that was watched by 10 million people in 2017. He won a writing award for it too. He worked on two PBS series in 2021 called American Veteran and Citizen Hearst. He was in charge of a film called Ailey, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2021, was shown in theaters by Neon, and aired on American Masters in January 2022.