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Aaron Kaufman, the Emmy-nominated director behind Superpower, Sean Penn‘s Paramount+ documentary about the Ukraine-Russia war, has died at the age of 51.
Deadline confirmed the news with Chad Verdi of Verdi Productions, who financed and executive produced some of Kaufman’s previous and upcoming projects, including Superpower. He died in Las Vegas of an apparent heart attack on Thursday.
Kaufman is perhaps best known for co-helming Superpower alongside Penn, and the effort translated into a News & Documentary Emmy nod in the Outstanding Politics and Government Documentary category. What began as an aim to track Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s rise from popular comedian-actor to a prominent political leader transitioned to a war doc in the aftermath of Russia’s campaign launched in 2022, when Kaufman was on the ground as a filmmaker.
Speaking to the one-year anniversary of the conflict’s beginning at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival, Kaufman said, “It seems obvious that the stakes are not between Russia and Ukraine. The very nature of modern democracy is being challenged.”
Also part of Kaufman’s filmography is the Vice Studios documentary Crusaders, about sexual abuse within the Jehovah’s Witness community. (Kaufman was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness.) Other credits include 2016’s Pierce Brosnan thriller Urge, which he wrote, directed and produced. He was also a frequent collaborator of Robert Rodriguez’s, producing Machete Kills and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. In 2009, he also executive produced the romantic black comedy film Spread, starring Ashton Kutcher.
At the time of his death, Kaufman had several forthcoming projects, including a documentary on the life of Hawaiian singer Don Ho and partnership with Verdi to back The Jet, a doc about the life of former kickboxer Benny “The Jet” Urquidez also co-produced by Keanu Reeves and Fisher Stevens.
Kaufman is survived by his three children as well as his mother, brother and sister.
Variety first reported the news.