Hal Tulchin

Harold Monroe Tulchin (December 23, 1926 – August 29, 2017) was an American television and video director.

Life and career Hal Tulchin was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, the son of Jewish immigrants from Ukraine. He attended the University of Iowa, and then studied acting and directing at the Dramatic Workshop in Manhattan. He worked for Sterling Television, and for an advertising agency, Young & Rubicam, where he worked on Dwight D. Eisenhower's re-election campaign in 1956. He also directed live television commercials, and became an expert in the use of videotape. In 1959, he directed a television game show, Across the Board.

In 1969, Tony Lawrence, a nightclub singer who had been working under New York City Mayor John Lindsay to organize community initiatives and cultural events in Harlem, invited Tulchin to film the third Harlem Cultural Festival. For the festival, held at Mount Morris Park, Lawrence secured additional sponsorship from Maxwell House, and performers included Nina Simone, B. B. King, the Staple Singers, and Stevie Wonder. The event, taking place over several weekends, was filmed by Tulchin, and also involved the participation of community activists and civic leaders including Jesse Jackson. Tulchin used five portable video cameras to record over 40 hours of footage of the event, and reportedly also designed the stage set. The "Tony Lawrence Love Festival", held in Newark, New Jersey in October 1969, was also filmed by Tulchin and was broadcast by NBC the following month.

Tulchin died, aged 90, in New York City in 2017.

Tulchin's video recordings of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival were eventually used by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson as the basis for the successful 2021 documentary film Summer of Soul.