James F. Deckard; Emmy-Wining Documentary Filmmaker

James Fredrick Deckard, 58, Emmy-winning cinematographer of documentaries for television. He won an Emmy and the Cine Golden Eagle Award for the 1980 National Geographic special “Polar Bear Alert,” which he created, produced and photographed. In 1991, Deckard produced and directed the award-winning environmental documentary “Hell on Earth: The Kuwaiti Oil Fires” for the Arts & Entertainment cable network. For the National Audubon Society, he filmed and directed the documentary “In the Land of the Grizzlies,” which aired last spring on TBS. Deckard had recently completed filming “Rhino Crisis” in Africa for EarthTrust International. Growing up in Shreveport, La., Deckard learned his craft in the field working for the local television station. He earned network attention in the early 1960s, covering the civil rights turmoil when James Meredith became the first black student to enroll in the University of Mississippi. Later, Deckard was wounded twice on filming assignments for United Press International and ABC during the Vietnam War. On Sunday in Garden Grove of brain cancer.