He was born in Ohio and raised in Long Beach. He joined the Army after
high school and served three years in France before moving to San
Francisco. He graduated from San Francisco State University in 1967 and
became an editor at KPIX-TV. In 1971, Mr. Cinquegrana edited the lead
story about the Patty Hearst kidnapping for the CBS Evening News,
earning KPIX an Emmy.
Mr. Cinquegrana received the AFI Independent Filmmakers' Award in 1977
and used the $10,000 prize to make Goodnight Miss Ann (1978), a documentary about boxing
clubs in Los Angeles. The film won many awards, including the Golden
Gate Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival and an
Academy Award nomination for best short documentary.
In 1980, Mr. Cinquegrana directed 'Toxic Time Bomb' for HBO, a
documentary about the threats posed by toxic waste in America. He also
directed 'New Beginning', about deep ocean mining. The next year, Mr.
Cinquegrana was among five filmmakers selected by Francis Ford Coppola for his First
Directors program at Zoetrope Studios. Mr. Cinquegrana moved to Los
Angeles in 1982 to work on a film about Zoetrope Studios, but the
project was shelved when the studio was sold.
Mr. Cinquegrana returned to San Francisco, where spent the rest of his
life working on many projects including 'The Mob', a documentary series
for PBS, and 'The Digital Divide', about the social consequences of the
computer revolution.
