Kikim’s first major project was In Search of Law and Order, a three-hour, three-part series on effective ways of dealing with kids and violence, which aired nationally on PBS in April 1998 and on England’s Channel Four in February 1999. Kikim Media has also supplied PBS with several programs about the history of science, medicine and technology: Naked to the Bone, an hour-long documentary about medical imaging technologies that have transformed the way we see inside the body (which was broadcast nationally in September 1997); Stopwatch, a documentary on Frederick Winslow Taylor and the legacy of his ideas about efficiency, which was broadcast in October 1999; The Next Big Thing?, a documentary broadcast in January 2001 which examined how society shapes technology, based on Beyond Engineering, the seminal book by Robert Pool; and The Defiant Virus, currently in production, about the search for an AIDS vaccine. Kikim also produced the award-winning Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet, the story of the 7th century Arabian merchant who continues to influence the lives of more than a billion Muslims today.

Schwarz has done cutting edge work throughout his career. Abortion Clinic, a landmark documentary he coproduced and wrote for Frontline’s inaugural season, earned the series its first Emmy Award. The following year Schwarz co-produced Living Below the Line for Frontline, which was honored with two more Emmy Awards as well as the Grand Prize in the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards. Since then Schwarz has produced or executive produced literally hundreds of programs for public television, including several weekly series. He also spent two years on a Fulbright Fellowship teaching broadcast journalism in Malaysia, India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

Schwarz joined PBS affiliate KQED as Senior Producer in 1988, became Director of News and Current Affairs in 1990, and served as Senior Executive Producer from 1991 until 1996, when he left to start Kikim Media. He brought national attention to KQED when he initiated a landmark First Amendment lawsuit against the State of California over the right of broadcast journalists to bring television cameras into the witness gallery in order to document an execution. The suit prompted a worldwide debate, extensively covered by the press, about both capital punishment and television journalism itself.

While much of Schwarz’s career has focused on non-fiction programming, his interests in drama led him to option the U.S. rights to Channel Four’s production of Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City. Serving as KQED’s executive producer for the series, Schwarz persuaded American Playhouse to cover the U.S. licensing fee, enabling the series to be subsequently presented by Playhouse and KQED on PBS. Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City received widespread critical acclaim, scored some of the highest ratings this decade for a drama series on the network, and earned a George Foster Peabody Award, broadcasting's equivalent of a Pulitzer Prize.

In recent years, Kikim Media has applied its storytelling expertise to serve a growing roster of corporations and non-profit organizations. In each case, Kikim works closely with clients to develop videos or DVDs that help them tell their own stories as effectively and economically as possible; our experience working with tight public television budgets enables us to deliver Emmy-award winning quality for a fraction of the price charged by most corporate video production houses.