Ian Robertson Kibbe’s Kartemquin journey began as an intern in 2009. Over the past two decades, he has gone on to create award-winning work with organizations including Kartemquin Films, PBS, NPR, The Onion, Gatorade, and Time Magazine. With a background spanning roles as editor, DP, producer, and director, Ian brings a versatile production skill set that keeps him grounded in both the creative and technical sides of storytelling.
He produced Raising Bertie (2017, Kartemquin Films), a critically acclaimed documentary directed by Margaret Byrne that follows three young boys coming of age in rural North Carolina. Filmed over six years, the film explores the intersection of race, class, and opportunity in a community surrounded by for-profit prisons. Hailed as “astounding and powerful” by IndieWire and “essential” by The Village Voice, the film premiered at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival before airing nationally on PBS’s POV.
Most recently, Ian produced Greener Pastures, directed by Sam Mirpoorian, a film about the mounting economic and mental health crisis facing Midwestern farmers. The film screened at over 50 festivals and won more than 15 awards, including the 2025 Primetime Emmy Television Academy Honors Award. Backed by Doc Society, Catapult Film Fund, and Exposure Labs, Greener Pastures also won the Grand Jury Prize at Mountainfilm and was broadcast nationally on PBS’s Independent Lens.
Ian has also directed several award-winning short documentaries, and recently produced, Once Upon a Wetland—an Oscar-qualifying short doc currently playing at festivals nationwide that celebrates Durham, North Carolina’s Beaver Queen Pageant, a wildly imaginative, beaver themed drag pageant.Raised mixed-race, white and Afro-Caribbean, Ian gravitates toward stories that challenge binaries and embrace contradiction. Beyond film, he was a founding member of The Flavor Savers, a comedy-rap-dance group known for chaotic live shows and mesh tank tops, and is passionate about environmental sustainability, community engagement, and prairie restoration.