ABOUT US
“If I say to you the king died and then the queen died, that’s a sequence of events. If I say the king died and the queen died of grief, that’s a story.” -- David McCullough
GKW Filmworks, Inc. is a collaboration between Trevor Ristow and Stephen Thomas Previtera, two friends who share a passion for history and storytelling.
History need not be a dry sequence of events. It is full of war, courage, revolution, leadership, heroes, villains -- even romance. It should entertain as well as inspire.
GKW Filmworks is dedicated to telling history as lively stories that engage audiences around the world and across generations.
Trevor Ristow
Trevor Ristow is a television and film producer and editor. He earned a BA in History from Columbia University where he studied with leading historians Fritz Stern and Mark von Hagen. His time as an undergraduate instilled in him a love of history that has endured to this day.
In 2000 he completed an MFA in Film Directing, also from Columbia, where his thesis film won the prestigious "Faculty Selects" honor. After school he sought out projects with historical themes and topics.
Ristow has produced and/or edited over one hundred television episodes, documentaries or narrative films for clients including History Channel, National Geographic, PBS, NBC, Discovery Channel, E! Network, and HBO. Series he's worked on have won six Emmy Awards, three Telly Awards, and multiple festival prizes.
He grew up in San Francisco and currently lives in Portsmouth, NH with his wife, Caroline, and sons, Beowulf and Winston.
Stephen Thomas Previtera
Stephen Thomas Previtera is an authority on First and Second World War military history and its related artifacts, and a renowned expert on decorations and badges worn by the soldiers of multiple countries and wars. A meticulous researcher with a loyal following, he has written six books on military artifacts utilized as references by enthusiasts, historians, researchers, and museums both in the US and abroad, including the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, the United States Military Academy at West Point, US Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, and the Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin, among others.
As a Creative Director, Previtera has directed and produced short films and broadcast video and radio for the banking, healthcare and food service industries, along with number of non-profit entities.
A guest speaker at the College of William & Mary, guest lecturer at the Science Museum of Virginia and a contributing writer to World War II magazine, Previtera has been interviewed by NPR radio, as well as magazines and newspapers, and a moderator and speaker at multiple writers conferences.
He lives with his wife and two daughters in Virginia, while conducting most of his research in Europe.
