Charles Ferguson

Charles was born in San Francisco, California. His full name is Charles Henry Ferguson. Originally, he did not have a filmy background. He completed his high school from Lowell High School (in 1972). He joined the University of California in Berkeley to get a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics in 1978. He then gained his Ph.D. in political science in 1989 from M.I.T where he later did his postdoctoral research. He was a consultant who worked independently. His expert advice reached high levels like the White House, the Department of Defence and other high-tech firms based in the US and in Europe like Apple, Motorola, Xerox and so on.

In 1994, Charles, along with Randy Forgaard, founded an Internet software company called Vermeer Technologies which was one of the earliest companies in that category. The company later created a tool called FrontPage which was a website development program. He later sold the company to Microsoft for $133mil. The tool is now merged with MS Office. After giving away his company for a hefty amount, he returned to his alma mater to continue to pursue writing and research as a visiting scholar. He has written four books related to IT, social issues, political issues, etc. He supports various non-profit organizations and is a lifelong member of Council on Foreign Relations. Even though most of his life was spent working away from the film industry, he had always been intently interested in movies. He attended Telluride Film Festival and many other film festivals for more than ten years.

He started producing a feature-length documentary called No End in Sight: The American Occupation of Iraq just after forming Representational Pictures, Inc. The movie was awarded specially by the jury at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007. In 2008, it was nominated for an Oscar. He later made another documentary called Inside Job Click to look into! >> Read More... . It was screened at the New York Film Festival and also at Cannes. The movie was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature which it also won.

During 2013, he was planning on making a documentary on Hillary Clinton but reportedly backed out saying there was too much pressure from her allies as well as from the Republican Party. He also openly told everyone via Huffington Post that nobody was ready to help him make the documentary. Later in the same year, he also called Bill Clinton a ‘’really good actor’’ for saying in an interview with him that he just couldn’t help Commodity Futures Modernisation Act of 2000 because he couldn’t change Alan Greenspan’s mind about it.