Filmmakers
Joe Berlinger
Director & Producer
Two-time Emmy and Peabody winner Joe Berlinger has been a leading voice in nonfiction film and television for two decades. Berlinger’s films include the landmark documentaries BROTHER’S KEEPER, PARADISE LOST: THE CHILD MURDERS AT ROBIN HOOD HILLS, and METALLICA: SOME KIND OF MONSTER, a film that re-defined the rockumentary genre. CRUDE, about oil pollution in the Amazon Rainforest, debuted at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. The film, which won 22 human rights, environmental and film festival awards, recently triggered a high-profile First Amendment battle with oil-giant Chevron.
In addition to his feature documentary work, Berlinger has created many hours of television as both a producer and director, including the Emmy-winning History Channel series 10 DAYS THAT UNEXPECTEDLY CHANGED AMERICA and the Emmy-nominated GRAY MATTER. He has directed and produced five seasons of the critically acclaimed Sundance Channel series ICONOCLASTS and directed/executive-produced the first season of MASTERCLASS, a new series for the Oprah Winfrey Network. His numerous HBO productions include ADDICTION, JUDGEMENT DAY and VIRTUAL CORPSE, and he has created series for VH1 and Court TV. His series THE WRONG MAN helped lead to the exoneration of Marty Tankleff, falsely imprisoned for 17 years for the killing of his parents. Berlinger’s dramatic television directorial credits include NBC’s acclaimed hit drama HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET, as well as the short-lived UPN/Dick Wolf series D.C.
Berlinger’s Emmy-winning PARADISE LOST series for HBO helped spawn a worldwide movement to free “The West Memphis Three” from wrongful murder convictions. The director recently wrapped production in South Africa for a documentary about the 25th Anniversary of Paul Simon’s landmark Graceland album. Berlinger has also directed commercials and industrial films for such clients as Ford, Honda, Kodak and Tiffany & Co., and is represented for commercials by bicoastal/international @radical.media. That relationship was expanded in 2001 — Berlinger houses his production company, Third Eye Motion Picture Company, at @radical.media, running many of his television and feature projects through @radical’s content division.
Berlinger’s articles and photographs have appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times, ArtForum, Film Comment, and Aperture magazines. His book, METALLICA: THIS MONSTER LIVES, THE INSIDE STORY OF SOME KIND OF MONSTER, was published in 2004 by St. Martin’s Press. Joe Berlinger is a member of the DGA, the WGA, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the National Board of Review.
Bruce Sinofsky
Director
Award-winning filmmaker Bruce Sinofsky was born in Boston, MA in 1956 and moved to NYC in 1974 to study at NYU film school. Shortly after finishing school, he began his work with the legendary filmmakers, David and Albert Maysles. In 1991, Sinofsky and longtime documentary partner Joe Berlinger produced, directed and edited the non-fiction feature BROTHER’S KEEPER, named 1992’s “Best Documentary” by the DGA, the New York Film Critics Circle, the National Board of Review, and the Boston Society of Film Critics.
Together, Sinofsky and Berlinger went on to create many landmark films, including PARADISE LOST: THE CHILD MURDERS AT ROBIN HOOD HILLS, WHERE IT’S AT: THE ROLLING STONE STATE OF THE UNION, and METALLICA: SOME KIND OF MONSTER, an acclaimed rockumentary about the superstar group. In 2001, Sinofsky directed GOOD ROCKIN’ TONIGHT: THE LEGACY OF SUN RECORDS, which tells the definitive story of rock and roll’s most influential record label.
Sinfosky has also directed many hours of television, including 2002’s HOLLYWOOD HIGH, an AMC special examining the portrayal of drugs in contemporary cinema, an episode of the Emmy-winning 2006 series, 10 DAYS THAT UNEXPECTEDLY CHANGED AMERICA, numerous episodes of Sundance Channel’s acclaimed series ICONOCLASTS, and a segment of HBO’s ADDICTION. From 2007 to 2009, Sinofsky directed SAN QUENTIN FILM SCHOOL, a documentary series that follows a group of inmates as they learn the basics of filmmaking. Recently he directed four episodes of MASTERCLASS, a new one-hour series for Oprah’s new network, OWN, which premiered in January, 2011. Sinofsky is currently working on PURGATORY: PARADISE LOST 3 for HBO, and is developing a narrative feature about the night John Lennon was killed.
Alyse Spiegel
Editor
Alyse Ardell Spiegel is a film, television, and commercial and web content editor whose previous feature documentary credits include Joe Berlinger’s award-winning CRUDE and UNRAVELED, directed by Marc Simon. She recently edited the documentary short TOP TEN MONKS for HBO, as well as multiple episodes of OPRAH’S MASTER CLASS for OWN.
Other credits include VH-1’s multi-part series THE DRUG YEARS and AND YOU DON’T STOP: 30 YEARS OF HIP HOP with renowned documentarians Hart & Dana Perry. She worked as assistant editor on numerous projects including The History Channel’s Emmy Award-winning 10 DAYS THAT UNEXPECTEDLY CHANGED AMERICA and THE EXONERATED, director Bob Balaban’s television adaptation of the critically acclaimed stage play which followed the lives of recently released prisoners after serving sentences for crimes they didn’t commit.
Spiegel’s commercial editing work includes the Emmy-nominated PSA’s for Bono’s ONE campaign to end poverty, and the Clio Award-winning web series BOLD MOVES for the Ford Motor Company.
Spiegel speaks fluent Spanish, and has worked in Cuba, South Africa, and multiple other locations. She lives in New York City.
Bob Richman
Director of Photography
Bob Richman was born in Brooklyn New York and began his career in film working with the verite pioneers Albert and David Maysles. He worked his way up from production assistant to assistant cameraman to cameraman. In 1991 he shared the director of photography credit with Albert Maysels onChristo’s Umbrellas. The film documented Christoís installation of three thousand umbrellas north of Los Angels and north of Tokyo. Maysels covered the Japan story and Richman covered the California story.
In 1993 Richman teamed up with Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky to shoot the HBO film PARADISE LOST: THE ROBIN HOOD HILLS CHILD MURDERS. Richman was nominated for a prime time Emmy and the film won an Emmy for best editing and also the prestigious Peabody award for journalism. Richman continued his collaboration as director of photography with Berlinger and Sinofsky on PARADISE LOST 2 and 3, METALLICA: SOME KIND OF MONSTER, and the Sundance series ICONOCLASTS.
Richman was also approached by Nathaniel Kahn to shoot MY ARCHITECT, a film about his father, the famous architect Louis Kahn, which was brilliantly directed by Kahn, edited by Sabine Krayenbuhl, and was nominated for an academy award in 2004. In the spring of 2005 he flew down to Nashville Tennessee to film former Vice President Al Gore on his family farm with director Davis Guggenheim. That footage became an integral part of the film AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, one of the highest grossing documentaries of all time. In 2007 director RJ Coutler contacted Richman to work on film about the notorious chief editor of Vogue Magazine, Anna Wintour. For almost eight months Richman followed Wintour and her staff at their offices in New York and at fashion shows and shoots in London, Paris and Rome. THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE premiered at Sundance and Richman won the grand jury prize for best cinematography for documentary. AHEAD OF TIME, was Richman’s first film as a director. Richman teamed up with first time producer and noted food photographer Zeva Oelbaum and reunited with editor Sabine Kraenbuhl, to craft an intimate portrait of the 97 year old journalist and photo-journalist Ruth Gruber.
www.bobrichman.com
Jonathan Silberberg
Producer & 2nd Unit Director
Jonathan Silberberg is a film and television producer and director whose primary interest is telling engaging, emotional stories about real people. He has worked with HBO, Sundance Channel, A&E, and Discovery as well as many brands and agencies.
Jonathan began his career at the storied documentary company Maysles Films, where he was on staff for three years. Jonathan has gone on to work on feature documentaries, television, and branded content for companies including @radical.media, where he has partnered extensively with acclaimed filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky. He has told the stories of Dallas homicide detectives (THE FIRST 48), squatters in the California desert (TRIBES OF AMERICA: SLAB CITY), confrontational street preachers (TRIBES OF AMERICA: STREET PREACHERS), famed primatologists, movie stars, skaters, filmmakers, and moguls (ICONOCLASTS: GOODALL + THERON, HAWK + FAVREAU, MAHER + DAVIS). Jonathan recently worked with Anish Savjani’s Filmscience to produce YOU HURT MY FEELINGS, a fiction feature film directed by Steve Collins, which premiered in competition at the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival and was #2 on Indiewire’s list of best films not seen in theaters for 2011. He has also worked on long-form branded projects including Speed Channel and Toyota’s story of a grueling 1000-mile off-road race through the Baja peninsula (TWO ROADS TO BAJA).
Jonathan is a member of the Director’s Guild of America. He splits his time between Brooklyn and Los Angeles.
www.jonathansilberberg.com or @j_silberberg.
Michael Bonfiglio
Co-Producer
Michael Bonfiglio is a director, producer, writer, and camera operator who has worked in documentary film for over a decade. He has shot in courtrooms, jails, deserts, oceans, jungles, mountains, and major cities, at rock concerts, fashion shows, Mardi Gras, off-road races, mental hospitals, refugee camps and Death Row, working in eleven different countries on four continents with people ranging from celebrities and world leaders to rarely-photographed indigenous tribes.
As the director and showrunner of VISIONARIES: INSIDE THE CREATIVE MIND, a new series that debuted on OWN in the fall of 2011, Bonfiglio created hourlong intimate documentary portraits of James Cameron, Tom Ford, Annie Leibovitz, Tyler Perry, and will.i.am. He is currently directing the second season of OPRAH’S MASTER CLASS , also for OWN.
Bonfiglio began his career in film and television working on the theatrical distribution of Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s landmark 1996 documentary PARADISE LOST. For five years, he helped run Berlinger and Sinofsky’s production company, Creative Thinking International, working on numerous projects and serving as the associate producer of the Emmy-nominated sequel to PARADISE LOST, REVELATIONS: PARADISE LOST 2.
He has worked with Berlinger and Sinofsky on numerous projects over the years. He was the associate producer of the pair’s Independent Spirit winning METALLICA: SOME KIND OF MONSTER, was a writer and producer of Berlinger’s Emmy-nominated GRAY MATTER and Emmy-winning 10 DAYS THAT UNEXPECTEDLY CHANGED AMERICA: MURDER AT THE FAIR, THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT MCKINLEY, and producer of Sinofsky’s Hollywood High.
Most recently, Bonfiglio served as producer, 2nd Unit Director, and a cinematographer on Berlinger’s acclaimed film CRUDE, which premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and became one of that year’s best-reviewed films.
In 2010, he directed SUMMIT ON THE SUMMIT, a 90-minute MTV special chronicling the January 2010 expedition to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro by a group of activists including actors Jessica Biel and Emile Hirsch, musicians Lupe Fiasco, Santigold, Kenna, and explorer Alexandra Cousteau.
In 2006, Bonfiglio was nominated for a “Best Documentary” Emmy for his work as executive producer of HBO’s LEFT OF THE DIAL, about the launch of the progressive Air America Radio network.
He has produced commercial and industrial projects for corporate clients including Tiffany & Co., Heineken Toyota, and the Ford Motor Company.
Michael Bonfiglio is a member of the Directors Guild of America. He speaks Spanish and Portuguese, and lives in New York City.
Wendy Blackstone
Composer
Wendy Blackstone has created over one hundred thirty film scores ranging stylistically from offbeat to orchestral to rock, latin and jazz. For years she has experimented weaving originally designed sounds with acoustic ensembles to create fresh, innovative music. When Ms. Blackstone finished scoring DEAR DIARY, Executive Producers Steven Spielberg said “Wendy’s music took the show from a 3 to a 9.” The show directed by David Frankel, won an Academy Award. Seven films Wendy has scored have either been nominated or won Academy Awards.
Feature film accomplishments include: LOVE WALKED IN starring Terence Stamp and Denis Leary; Nick Gomez’s “New Jersey Drive” Executive Produced by Spike Lee, Glenn Close’s “Journey”; Latin music for Betty Thomas’ comedy “Only You”; “The Dutch Master”, Susan Seidelman’s comedy starring Mira Sorvino.
Scoring documentaries is an imperative to who Wendy is as an artist. Some recent titles include: Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s PARADISE LOST 3 for HBO, THE ALZHEIMER PROJECT for HBO, Joe Berlinger’s CRUDE, James Gandolfini’s HBO: ALIVE DAY: MEMORIES FROM IRAQ, Alex Gibney’s HUMAN BEHAVIOR EXPERIMENTS, SNOOP DOGG’S CALIFORNIA YOUTH AUTHORITY and Simon & Goodman’s 2011 Oscar Winning STRANGERS NO MORE. Also, in 2011 Ms Blackstone was nominated for an Emmy for her score for THE LORD IS NOT ON TRIAL.
David Mehlman
Additional Editor
David Mehlman is an award-winning filmmaker and editor whose documentaries have shown on HBO/Cinemax, PBS, ABC, A&E, MTV, TCM, Discovery, The History Channel, at Sundance and film festivals both internationally and throughout the United States. He edited two Oscar-winning films: THE MOON AND THE SON (Best Animated Short, 2005), which he also sound designed; and he was supervising editor of FREEHELD (Best Documentary Short, 2007).
Recent film and television credits include editing ICONOCLASTS with Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky for the Sundance Channel; 12 episodes of the critically acclaimed, IFC MEDIA PROJECT documentary series with executive producers Meghan O’Hara (Sicko, Fahrenheit 9/11) and Nick McKinney (The Daily Show) on the Independent Film Channel; CHUCK JONES: MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD, a portrait of the creator of Bugs Bunny for TCM; THE UNITED STATS OF AMERICA, a new series for The History Channel; MTV TRUE LIFE: I’M A GUN OWNER, and I’M A COLLEGE BALLER, which he directed, produced and edited; and Lisa Gossels’ award-winning documentary feature, MY SO CALLED ENEMY. David has a master’s degree in Documentary Film and Video Production from Stanford University.
HBO Documentary Films develops, produces, co-finances, and acquires a full spectrum of engaging and thought-provoking documentaries for HBO and HBO2.
Home Box Office, Inc. is the premium television programming subsidiary of Time Warner Inc., providing the two pay television services – HBO® and Cinemax® – to approximately 85 million subscribers worldwide. The services offer the most popular subscription video on-demand products, HBO On Demand® and Cinemax On Demand® as well as HBO GO® and MAX GO®, HD feeds and multiplex channels. Internationally, HBO branded television networks, along with the subscription video-on-demand products HBO On Demand and HBO GO, bring HBO services to over 60 countries. HBO programming is sold into over 150 countries worldwide.
@radical.media is a global transmedia company that creates some of the world’s most innovative content across all forms of media. The company develops, produces and distributes television, feature films, commercials, music programming, live events, smartphone & tablet applications, digital content and design. The company has produced a number of award-winning feature projects, including the Academy Award®-winning documentary THE FOG OF WAR; the Grammy Award-winning CONCERT FOR GEORGE; the Independent Spirit Award-winning METALLICA: SOME KIND OF MONSTER; the pilot episode of the Emmy® and Golden Globe winning series MAD MEN; the Emmy-winning 10 DAYS THAT UNEXPECTEDLY CHANGED AMERICA for the History Channel; five seasons of the critically acclaimed series Iconoclasts for the Sundance Channel; the premiere seasons of OPRAH PRESENTS MASTER CLASS and VISIONARIES for OWN; and recently, the MTV documentary LADY GAGA: INSIDE THE OUTSIDE. Additionally, the company has garnered numerous accolades for digital initiatives such as THE JOHNNY CASH PROJECT, Arcade Fire’s THE WILDERNESS DOWNTOWN, the STING 25 YEARS App and the Gagosian Gallery’s iPad App. In addition to its Oscar®, Golden Globe® and Grammy® wins, @radical.media has earned two Palme d’Or Awards at the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival. The company has won numerous Emmys®, Webbys®, D&AD Pencils, One Show Pencils, MTV VMA Awards, Clios, Art Directors Club medals, the prestigious Smithsonian National Design Award for Communications Media and just about every accolade and trophy associated with the advertising and marketing industries, in both traditional and new media.
