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Louis Schwartzberg --Director Profile
Louis Schwartzberg is an award winning director and cinematographer whose distinguished career spans feature films, television shows, commercials and documentaries.
For more than 25 years, Schwartzberg has traveled the globe, producing and capturing pristine 35mm cinematography; spectacular scenes of nature and man around the globe. He has directed scores of television commercials for major clients, such as McDonald’s, Coors Light, Citicorp, Siemens, U.S. West and Fidelity. In addition, Schwartzberg’s work is used regularly in television and feature films. Recent motion pictures
that have licensed his imagery include X-Men II, Italian Job, Daredevil, Sweet Home Alabama, Cheaper By The Dozen plus many more.
Schwartzberg was also founder of The Energy Film Library, a global company that owned and licensed one of the world’s foremost collections of contemporary film imagery. In 1997, Schwartzberg sold Energy to Getty Images, Inc. (GYI:NASDAQ). After the sale of Energy, he founded BlackLight Films to produce television programming, large format, and major theatrical feature films. With his company, BlackLight Films, he directed
and executive produced the 26 half-hour series “America!” for the Hallmark Channel. He also directed sequences for Norman Lear’s Declaration of Independence project. Recent projects include a new major motion picture; America’s Heart & Soul, produced, filmed and directed by Louis. It will be the first theatrical documentary feature to be released under the Disney banner.
Schwartzberg serves on the board of directors of the Earth Communication Office (ECO), and the Environmental Media Association (EMA). Both are leading non-profit organizations dedicated to protecting the environment and creating environmental awareness through the powerful medium of films and television. He is a member of the Directors Guild of America and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science. Schwartzberg graduated
from UCLA with an MFA in Theater Arts.
Walt Disney Pictures’
“America’s Heart & Soul”
By Louis Schwartzberg
“America’s Heart & Soul” – my first film as a director – came about in a most unusual way. I’ve been a collector of sorts for years. It started when I was in film school; since I couldn’t afford a lot of film, I’d shoot time-lapse photography – shooting only one frame every five-to-twenty seconds. I found that I got the most gorgeous images – storm clouds, flowers
opening, and other scenes of nature. These pictures were my passion, and after I graduated, I was able to make a living by making more and more of them. I found that I particularly enjoyed capturing those “magic moments” of landscapes – urban and rural, day and night. It was very fulfilling, but I also felt I was not taking it as far as I could; as I evolved as a person, I wanted to grow as a filmmaker as well.
Everyone dreams of hitting the road, traveling around the country like Steinbeck, meeting new people and seeing parts of the country you never knew existed. I recently had the opportunity to do just that – with a 35mm film camera on my shoulder. What did I find? A nation of individuals, no two alike. I found the most interesting stories in the most unlikely places. I found that though it seems on the surface that we’re divided in so many different ways, it turns out that
we’re connected by a deeper bond than I’d ever imagined.
My trip was my way of taking that next step as a filmmaker. I’d started a different collection a few years ago. I collected stories. As I would read about interesting people in the newspaper or in local TV programs, I would file them away. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do with them; all I knew is that they were real, human dramas. One day, a revelation came to me – I would blend my passion for pictures with my passion for these human stories by adding people
to the “magic moments” I’d been capturing on film for so long.
It seemed like a simple idea, but for my first film, I wanted to honor ordinary Americans who were extraordinary in their everyday lives. The media pay tribute to celebrities and sports heroes for doing extraordinary things all the time. That’s fine – they’re very good at it. But America is more than the famous people you read about in the newspaper or see on television. My collection might not make headlines, but I feel that the people in them make up who we are as
Americans. I envisioned a film that would be a series of vignettes – without beginning, middle, or end – that provided a forum for these people to tell their stories.
What started out as a simple idea in my head turned out to be a simple film in many ways, but one that I think gets to the core of something more complex. I think it’s some of the most fascinating footage I’ve ever shot. I didn’t shape this material; it shaped me.
I put together a tiny film crew – 8 people. We piled into a van. I served as director, producer, director of photography, camera operator, and grip. It was like being in film school again; we were guerilla filmmakers. Our two best assets were being prepared and being ready, willing, and able to listen.
Of course, our starting point was the anecdotes I had collected over the years. A good example is Patty Wagstaff, the famous flyer. I’ve thought for a long time that I’d like to make a movie with Patty, and when this film came up, it seemed right. What inspires me about Patty is that she’s found her passion, and that’s quite literally taken her to extraordinary heights. Like Patty, some people in our film have achieved some fame, and of course, these folks were
easy to track down.
But that was only true for about half of our stories; the rest were a result of being ready for magic to happen. Part of the experience in making the film was taking the time to travel across the country, and part of the excitement of traveling is that things never go as you expect they will; there’s always a surprise, a place where you turn left instead of right, and find something you had no clue about before. In making this movie, we were light on our feet and ready to move
as soon as we heard about a great story.
Case in point: we were gassing up the van in the hills of Appalachia when a woman named Minnie Yancey came up to me and said, “You don’t look like you’re from these parts. You look a little lost.” We had a short conversation, in which I found out she makes rugs, and we made a plan to come back and film her on the way back; now, she’s one of my favorite stories in the film. So, did I find Minnie? Or did Minnie find me?
Which stories stood out to me – which “made the cut” into the film? I was definitely intrigued by people whose experience was tied in to their part of the country. I wanted to show how the region influenced the people and the people influenced the region. Everyone in the film is connected to the land – a rug weaver in Appalachia, a jazz musician in New Orleans, a dairy farmer from Vermont.
But I also thought it was important to show that these people aren’t stereotypes. Our dairy farmer, for example: you might think that this is a story of a guy trying to raise his kid by going back to the land, living in the country, with nature all around. But then you discover that he’s into theater. He plays music. He’s an independent filmmaker. He’s making his art; he’s living life his own way. He breaks the mold.
Another type of vignette that I found especially attractive was the story of a person who has overcome some kind of adversity. I’ve tried to make sure that “America’s Heart & Soul” is not a Pollyanna film; many stories that people have to tell are not entirely happy ones, but they are stories of people who are trying to make things better, not just for themselves, but for their communities. These people give me a sense of hope; my problems seem very small
when I think about what they’ve had to overcome in life.
But, ultimately, we didn’t worry too much about whether a story fit or didn’t. We looked for people we found interesting and we rolled film. We listened to Americans tell their stories. I present them to you as they are.
So, back to my original question: what did I find as I traveled across America?
Well, for starters, I found that, like me, people are looking for stories that give us inspiration. We don’t need pat answers, but we do need to find that spiritual core. I think people can find that idea very close to home: in ourselves, our cultural diversity.
Since completing the film, many people have told me that they thought it is a perfect film for our times. I think that the timing is perfect for a film that celebrates real people and real values. There’s a lot of uncertainty in our country, a lot of divisiveness. I think the answers are in our roots, in the values that our forefathers have passed down to us: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It’s my hope that this is a film for everybody, young and old, conservative
to liberal, because it isn’t political. It just captures people at face value. I think everyone will find something in this film that they can relate to, something that makes them say, “Yep, that’s me up there.”
LOUIS SCHWARTZBERG is an award winning director and cinematographer whose distinguished career spans feature films, television shows, commercials and documentaries.
For more than 25 years, Schwartzberg has traveled the globe, producing and capturing pristine 35mm cinematography; spectacular scenes of nature and man around the globe. He has directed scores of television commercials for major clients, such as McDonald’s, Coors Light, Citicorp, Siemens, U.S. West and Fidelity. In addition, Schwartzberg’s work is used regularly in television and feature films. Recent motion pictures that have licensed his imagery include “X2,”
“The Italian Job,” “Daredevil,” “Sweet Home Alabama,” “Cheaper By The Dozen,” plus many more.
Schwartzberg was also founder of The Energy Film Library, a global company that owned and licensed one of the world’s foremost collections of contemporary film imagery. In 1997, Schwartzberg sold Energy to Getty Images, Inc. After the sale of Energy, he founded BlackLight Films to produce television programming, large format, and major theatrical feature films. With his company, BlackLight Films, he directed and executive produced the 26 half-hour series “America!”
for the Hallmark Channel. He also directed sequences for Norman Lear’s Declaration of Independence project.
Schwartzberg is the winner of two Clio Awards for his public service announcements highlighting environmental issues. In addition, he was nominated for an Emmy Award for best cinematography for the Discovery channel special, “Oceans of Air.”
Schwartzberg serves on the board of directors of the Earth Communication Office (ECO), and the Environmental Media Association (EMA). Both are leading non-profit organizations dedicated to protecting the environment and creating environmental awareness through the powerful medium of films and television. He is a member of the Directors Guild of America and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science. Schwartzberg graduated from UCLA with an MFA in Theater Arts.
ROUDY ROUDEBUSH – Horse Wrangler (Telluride, Colorado). “I’m kind of the last cowboy around Telluride. These mountains are an inspiration to me on a daily basis. You feel deep roots when you live on the Continental Divide for 30 years. It’s the backbone of America and maybe it makes me stronger just looking
at it. We’ve experienced being free and unfettered human beings here because there aren’t many people and there isn’t much government. And so it’s hard to have your freedoms even infringed a little bit. Cherish your freedom.” Roudy is still wrangling horses and harassing the youngsters who work at the ranch. He recently bought a restored 1947 Ford tractor for hay hauling to feed the 23 horses on the ranch.
MARC & ANN SAVOY – Cajun Musicians (Eunice, Louisiana). “This land that we’re on has been with my family for 250 years. My children are the 7th generation living on this property. In fact, I feel so connected to this land that at night I can almost see my ancestor’s ghosts. People should look back and say, ‘Where do I come from? What makes
me unique? What language did my ancestors speak?’” Marc Savoy is widely acknowledged as the reigning Godfather of traditional Cajun music and builds world-class accordions by hand. When we see them playing in their yard, this is the side of America we rarely see, the inside. Cooking gumbo is a metaphor for all the ingredients that combined makes this country rich and diverse. “It’s not just one kind of food or one kind of music, or one kind of landscape. It’s
the wonderful diversity of this country that makes this place so great.”
MOSIE BURKS – Gospel Singer (Jackson, Mississippi). “Music is my life, and it flows from my soul through my mouth to others.” Mosie is an extraordinary woman who found her voice through gospel music and is also a great mother. Her mom passed away at an early age, and she raised her six siblings as her own children.
“Gospel came from slaves while pulling their cotton sacks. They chanted, they moaned. Nobody could stop them.” When she performs as the lead singer with The Mississippi Mass Choir, the energy she radiates is phenomenal. “It’s like singing in front of a wave. All those forces coming, and it keeps building. And it lifts me up. And then to have the audience come in with the other wave, and we get caught up in the spirit. And it just takes me higher and higher. And
it’s like, wow!”
MINNIE YANCEY – Rug Weaver (Berea, Kentucky). Minnie is a crafts person who keeps the Appalachian spirit alive. “My grandmother brought with her to this land the knowledge of how to build looms and spinning wheels and cradles; how to give birth to her own children and how to live off the land. That’s what I
inherited.” Minnie is a true Appalachian who’s been broke many times, but has never been poor. Her home spun eloquence can be summed up in her love for the mountains. “How do you know I’m a mountain person? Well cut me open right here and pull that back and look right in there. You won’t see a heart. What you’ll see is a mountain range, mist hanging in the hills, that’s my heart.”
GEORGE WOODARD – Dairy Farmer (Waterbury Center, Vermont). George runs a dairy farm seven days a week, yet still finds time to write songs, perform with his band, and direct and act in plays at the local theater. “The thing about working seven days a week is you don’t have to worry about going back to work
on Monday when Sunday comes.” George is a single dad who loves his son. “One of the great things about having a small farm is you get to see your child grow up.” At one point, George left the farm and went out west to L.A. to pursue his dreams of being an actor. “I loved L.A. It was great. But this works on a small scale, and that seems to be enough, for me anyway.” George came back to work the family farm and raise his son.
BEN COHEN – Co-founder Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream (Williston, Vermont). “I was a short order cook. I got fired from that. I was a baker’s helper and got fired from that. Jerry and I, we were failing at most everything else we were trying, so we decided to go into business and the only thing we liked
doing was eating.” They knew that, “To have a great business the goal is to meet a need, to create the product, not to make money. A business makes money as a byproduct of meeting a need and doing a great job of it.” Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream Parlor opened for business in May, 1978, in a renovated gas station on a busy street corner in Burlington, Vermont. The rest is history.
ED HOLT – Wine Grower (Santa Maria, California). “I remember when I was in the 3rd or 4th grade and I asked my mom for some money, but she had no money and that broke my heart. I never asked her for money again and that’s when I went to work. I love growing grapes. You can’t learn how to grow grapes in
25 or 30 years. It takes a lifetime.” Ed feels lucky to find his passion in life and getting the opportunity to do what he loves to do, grow grapes. He manages the Rancho Sisquoc vineyard on the California coast. “I want to die in a vineyard working the grapes. That’s my retirement plan.”
ACE BARNES & JAMES TUPPEN – Oil Well Fire Fighters (Livingston, Texas). Ace states, “When I first came to the oil field in 1949, I was working for a drilling contractor. We had a little explosion on the rig one time and I burned my head a little bit. A few years later, I decided the best thing to do would be
working for some company that puts fires out instead of being on the rig where they started.” At 70 years old, Ace is a feisty character. “My children do not follow me in my footsteps. First of all, they couldn’t keep up, and second of all, there’s a better way of making a living.” James Tuppen, the foreman explains the dangers of being an oil well fire fighter and how his partner was killed in an explosion, and how his little one worries about dad. “He’s
seen me go and he’s seen me come back, so he knows daddy will always come back.”
WEIRTON STEELWORKERS (Weirton, West Virginia). In the gallant struggle to maintain their way of life, the workers at Weirton Steel purchased the company and became employee owners. “There always was a sense of pride in serving our country for the ideals it was founded on. We’ve taken our fight to Washington, and
so far we’ve pretty much fallen on deaf ears. We simply cannot compete against twenty-five cents an hour labor that some of these foreign countries pay their workers. It’s not right, what they’re doing,” says Weirton’s Mark Roach. One of their biggest obstacles is the threat of losing their pensions and health care benefits. Founded in 1909, Weirton Steel Corporation is the nation's eighth largest integrated steel company and its second largest producer
of tin-plated steel. Roach says, “Our steel mills and workers in this country are the most efficient and environmentally friendly in the world. And yet it is our jobs being taken away, and that’s hard to swallow.”
FRANK PINO & DAVE PINO – Rock Band (Waltham, Massachusetts). Frank and Dave are brothers who share the dream of being a successful rock & roll band, but can’t give up their blue-collar day jobs. “We never did anything to the best of our ability in school. So our dream is to be successful enough where
we can bring a gold or platinum record home and give it to our mom and dad. We did it, and all this time didn’t go to waste. Just pretend we were in music college for 10 years,” says Frank Pino. Waltham recently released a new album, “Permission to Build,” that is doing well. They were recently featured in an MTV “You Hear It First” segment.
JOHN “YAC” YACOBELLIS – Bike Messenger (New York, New York). “I love going fast, swooping around corners, too. You feel like Batman or Spiderman a little bit. It takes a certain amount of toughness to be a bike messenger. If you ride like me, you’re going to get into some pretty scary situations.”
Over the years he’s developed reflexes where he can reach over his handlebars and close a car door if it’s opening up on him. Yac has been a New York City bike messenger for over 10 years. A fellow bike messenger describes Yac as “A good fella, in the basic Brooklyn, Queens meaning of the word. He’s always got your back in a fight, he’ll always help you if your bike is busted and fix it. He is the crowned King of New York City bike messengers.”
JAMES ANDREWS III & TROY “TROMBONE SHORTY” ANDREWS – Jazz Musicians (New Orleans, Louisiana). James Andrews, lead singer and trumpeter of The New Birth Brass Band, is one of the most talented and charismatic figures on today's jazz scene. James (locally known as “Satchmo of the Ghetto”) is a
member of a prominent New Orleans music family which also includes Prince LaLa and Jesse Hill. His forthcoming solo album, Satchmo of the Ghetto, which also features Dr. John and Allen Toussaint, is a mix of traditional New Orleans trumpet workouts, acid jazz-styled, instrumental funk and gruff, soulful Louis Armstrong influenced vocals. “My little brother is Trombone Shorty. We just love each other and he’s my best friend. It’s wonderful for me to be able to influence
my little brother and introduce him to life and see the world.” Trombone Shorty has already established a reputation in U.S. and international jazz circles at the young age of sixteen. Troy currently attends the prestigious New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts, a high-school level fine arts institution that has produced such alumni as Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Harry Connick Jr., and Nicholas Payton. Troy recently appeared on PBS’ Live from Lincoln Center with Wynton
Marsalis, as a featured artist in a centennial tribute to Louis Armstrong. Though both have faced hardships in their lives, James says, “The most important thing for me in my life is passing it on to the children. That’s how I overcome everything, by passing it on to another person.”
ART CAR FESTIVAL (Berkeley, California). Every year, artists drive their creations to Berkeley for the annual celebration. “People that take their cars on the road are taking another part of them on the road. It’s magic. People say, ‘I was in a bad mood, and I saw your car and I just started smiling and it
made me happy.’ I wish I got a dime for every smile, I’d be wealthy,” says Marilyn Dreampeace about attending the festival.
PAUL STONE – Explosive Artist (Creede, Colorado). “We create our own entertainment, our own fun because it gets kind of slow up here, to say the least. It gets a little boring, kind of like ‘The Shining.’” Paul fires canon balls into the side of junked cars, canned hams through knife blades, mustard
and ketchup, to make ham sandwiches, and rolls a flaming bowling ball down Main Street into a stack of TV’s setting them ablaze to the cheering community. The people of Creede need this kind of stuff to break the cabin fever of the winter at 8,500 feet. “This wacky stuff comes from a real hot shower in the morning beating against my bald spot.”
PATTY WAGSTAFF – Aerobatic Flyer (St. Augustine, Florida). “Everything you think you can do in an airplane, everything you could even dream up is what I like to do in my airplane. To be a good and safe aerobatic pilot, you have to have 100 percent concentrated focus. And that’s one of the reasons I really like
what I do.” Patty is a 3-time US National Aerobatic champion. She is the first woman to win nationals, and the only woman to have won it more than once. The airplane she did it in is in the National Air and Space Museum, and it’s sitting just behind one of her all-time heroes, Amelia Earhardt. “When I started flying, even though it’s the most freedom you can ever have, it’s also the most limiting in some ways because you have to take it so seriously. Anything
less than that can result in disaster or death. It really gives you a rush.”
AMELIA RUDOLPH – Founder, Bandaloop Cliff Dancers (Muir Beach, California). “I don’t like standing on a cliff if I’m not anchored in, as soon as I am anchored in and I understand the system; I’m free.” Amelia creates a blend of dance, sport, ritual, and environmental awareness. Inspired by
the possibilities of climbing and rappelling, the choreography draws on aerial, vertical and horizontal movement to craft dances. “So often a critic will say, ‘Is it dance?’ Or a climber will say, ‘Oh, poo-poo, there’re wearing their tutus climbing El Cap.’ It’s like a little bit of grit in the system. It makes you wonder. So things that are between things have a lot of power.”
DAN KLENNERT – Junk Art (Elbe, Washington). Dan is a sculptor who scavenges metal junk and turns them into spectacular sculptures. He displays his art in his front yard which is open to the public. “This metal made America what it is today. One piece sparks my imagination, and then I go out and I fall in love with
several other pieces of metal to combine with that one to come up with a sculpture. To me it isn’t junk. It’s rusty gold.” In his hands, old horseshoes are fashioned into gigantic horses. Backhoe teeth become the jaws of a dinosaur and the drive lines of a Ford van become its legs. Articles of scrap metal that once toiled in fields or churned in engines are rescued from the trash and reborn as remarkable sculptures. “I really truly believe that art should be put
into schools and it should be a major subject. Even though I was a special ed kid, I found love and self-respect and everything else in art. Like I say, it saved me.” What society once used and then discarded as junk, Dan instills with dignity and new meaning.
CHARLES JIMMIE, SR. – Tlingit Indian Elder (Klukwan, Alaska). “My father is an eagle. My mother is a raven. My father is respected very, very much in the clan. And that is why an eagle is so dear to me.” Once a year the Tlingit Indian community has a special ceremony where they release an injured eagle back
into the wild. “When we rescue an injured eagle and nurture him back to health, seeing him fly once again, it’s like watching our great spirit of freedom take flight. When they leave us, they go with our spirit and take it with them, hopefully to our ancestors above.” Klukwan is the original village, which remains an active community today. It is considered to be the citadel of Tlingit art and culture. The Tlingit people traditionally embellished their lives with art.
Even ordinary objects were decorated in highly sophisticated and stylized art forms.
DAVID KRAKAUER – Klezmer Clarinetist (New York, New York). “Between 1880 and 1920, there was a huge migration of Eastern European Jews to America. It’s really a miracle that klezmer music actually survived the Holocaust, because of the recordings made in New York City.” David feels like he playing for
his ancestors when he plays his clarinet at the Eldridge Street Synagogue, which is the oldest synagogue in New York. “Tradition always has to be living. It always has to be on going. So the way I play klezmer music really blends a lot of the traditions that I’ve grown up with, listening to great players like Louis Armstrong, James Brown and Jimi Hendrix.” David is a natural storyteller who has long dazzled audiences throughout the world.
THE VAZQUEZ BROTHERS – Salsa Dancers (Los Angeles, California). “We came to the United States to have a better life, to work hard so we can have what we’ve always been dreaming of since we were little. To have our own house, to have our own family and be real brothers. To feel that you have a family. We have that.” Salsa is a tool the brothers use to
share with the world, peace, joy, love and celebration of humanity. With these thoughts in mind, the brothers can help pave the way for bigger and better possibilities for the present and future generations.
MICHAEL BENNETT – Olympic Boxer (Chicago, Illinois). His is a story of remarkable redemption, a story about second chances. Bennett began his athletic career like many other Olympic hopefuls. Growing up on Chicago's west side, Bennett stayed out of trouble and was a star athlete in football and wrestling. One night when
he was 20 years old, he made the fateful mistake of hanging out with the wrong crowd. They committed an armed robbery. Bennett spent the next 7 years in prison. While behind bars, he took up boxing. Only one year after his release, Bennett came out of nowhere to win the amateur World Championship and became captain of the US Olympic Boxing Team. “I set that goal for myself, and I grabbed it and put it in my pocket. And brought it home to my mother to show her like, look at the
good job I did.” Michael now mentors many children. He signs his autographs: “Stay in school. Keep God first. And the sky is the limit.”
ERIK WEIHENMAYER – Blind Climber (Ouray, Colorado). Despite losing his vision at the age of 13, Erik Weihenmayer has become one of the most celebrated and accomplished athletes in the world. He says, “For me, all the great things that have ever come to me have come through reaching out. I think life is just sort
of an ongoing process of reaching out into the darkness when you really don’t know what you’re going to find.” On May 25, 2001, Erik became the first blind climber in history to reach the summit of the world's highest mountain, Mt. Everest. At the age of 34, Erik became one of less then 100 individuals to climb all of the Seven Summits - the highest peaks on each of the seven continents. “When I went blind,” he says, “there was a time when I thought
that life was filled with a lot of loss and not a lot of gain. Sometimes things are taken away and sometimes things are given to you, and you have to appreciate the things that you have.”
REVEREND CECIL WILLIAMS – Glide Church (San Francisco, California). In his 40 years as Pastor of Glide Memorial United Methodist Church, Reverend Cecil Williams has created a church that practices diversity, spirituality, and compassion. Cecil’s spirituality demands action through good works, as staff and thousands
of volunteers feed over 1 million meals a year to the hungry, and offer the hope of recovery and healing in the lives of the city's most marginalized. Cecil says, “We should stop trying to get folks to go to heaven or hell, and get folks to live with each other here on the earth right now.”
RICK & DICK HOYT – Boston Marathon (Boston, Massachusetts). “When I was born, the doctors told my parents to put me in an institution. I am lucky that my parents did not do that, or I might not have been able to be here today.” Rick was born in 1962 as a spastic quadriplegic, cerebral palsy, non-speaking
person. Rick is a graduate of Boston University. Dick, his father, has recently retired as a lieutenant colonel in the air national guard. He has served his country for over thirty-five years. “The special bond developed between Rick and I when he was first born, and we started doing everything together. I wouldn’t be running today if Rick didn’t ask me to. Rick is the athlete and I’m just out there loaning him my arms and my legs, so that he can compete like
everybody else. Rick is the heart and mobility is freedom.”
JAKE EBERTS (executive producer) is a graduate of McGill University (Bachelor of Chemical Engineering, 1962) and Harvard Business School (MBA, 1966). Eberts began his business career as an engineer for l’Air Liquide in Spain, then later migrated to Wall Street. In 1971 he moved to London, England to join Oppenheimer & Co. and, six years later, left to found Goldcrest Films
in London. From 1977 through 1984, Goldcrest became one of the most successful independent producers of motion pictures, financing the development and/or production of “Watership Down,” “The Howling,” “Chariots of Fire,” “Local Hero,” “Gandhi,” “The Killing Fields,” and “The Dresser.” Together, these films received thirty Oscar? nominations, winning fifteen, including two for Best Picture (“Chariots
of Fire” and “Gandhi”).
In 1985 Eberts founded Allied Filmmakers, an independent feature film development and production company based in London and Paris. Since then he has served as executive producer or producer on “The Name of the Rose,” “Hope and Glory,” “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen,” “Driving Miss Daisy,” “Dances with Wolves,” “Black Robe,” “A River Runs Through It,” “James and the Giant Peach,” “The
Wind in the Willows,” “The Education of Little Tree,” “Grey Owl,” “Chicken Run,” and “The Legend of Bagger Vance.” Six of these films received a combined total of 37 Oscar? nominations, winning seventeen including two for Best Picture (“Driving Miss Daisy” and “Dances with Wolves”).
Eberts most recently produced “Open Range,” Kevin Costner’s return to the director’s chair, also starring Robert Duvall and Annette Bening; executive produced “Prisoner of Paradise,” a feature-length documentary which was nominated for an Academy Award? in 2003; Touchstone Pictures’ “Sacred Planet,” a 45-minute journey around the world for Large Format cinemas; and “Renaissance,” an animated feature directed by Christian
Volkman. In addition, he is currently producing Jean-Jacques Annaud’s “Two Brothers” (which will be released by Universal in June, 2004) and Greg Hoblit’s “Emperor Zehnder,” starring Richard Gere.
In 1991 Eberts published My Indecision Is Final, his autobiographical study of the film industry. In 1992 he became an Officer of the Order of Canada. Eberts was awarded honorary doctorates by McGill University in 1998 and by Bishop’s University in 1999. He currently serves on the Board of the Sundance Institute and the Sundance Channel. He is also Co-Founder and CEO of MPI International, which provides high-speed, two-way, real-time, video transmission capabilities to telcos,
cable companies, hotels, hospitals, and schools.
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