Marc Levin

A pioneer in the art of merging fiction and non-fiction filmmaking, Marc Levin brings narrative and verite techniques together in his independent films, episodic television and documentaries. His Brick City TV series won the 2010 Peabody award and was nominated for an Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Nonfiction Filmmaking. His dramatic feature film, SLAM, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and the Camera D'Or at Cannes in 1998, received international recognition for its seamless blending of the real world with a narrative flow. Hollywood Reporter wrote, “Brace yourself for a slam-dunk of a movie, in an in-your-face cinema verite-style that makes Godard's 'Breathless' seem like a cartoon." Levin’s Street Time, a television series produced by Columbia/Tristar for Showtime, received critical acclaim for its authenticity and verite style. Levin produced the series and directed 10 episodes. The show stars Rob Morrow, Scott Cohen, Erica Alexander and Terrence Howard. The Los Angeles Times called it "some of the most seductive television ever: vivid, distinctive, explosive storytelling . . .”

Levin’s documentary feature, Godfathers and Sons, was part of the highly regarded Martin Scorsese PBS series on the blues. Scorsese recruited an international team of directors with both feature and documentary experience - Charles Burnett, Clint Eastwood, Mike Figgis, Richard Pierce and Wim Wenders. Variety Magazine called Levin’s show "the crown jewel in the Scorsese series." In the late nineties Levin created a hip-hop trilogy beginning with SLAM, a searing prison drama, which starred Saul Williams, Sonja Sohn and Bonz Malone. Whiteboys, a black comedy about white kids who want to be black rappers, starred Danny Hoch, Dash Mihok, Mark Webber and Piper Perabo. Brooklyn Babylon, a fable inspired by the “Song of Songs,” starred Tariq Trotter, Bonz Malone, and featured music by the legendary Grammy winners The Roots. In Twilight Los Angeles, an adaptation of Anna Deavere Smith's one-woman show, Levin fused a Broadway play with the documentary world of the LA riots. Twilight premiered at the Sundance 2000 Film Festival and was selected as the opening film of the International Human Rights Film Festival at Lincoln Center. In 1992 Levin directed Oscar nominee Robert Downey, Jr. in The Last Party, a gonzo look at the Presidential campaign, weaving together the personal and the political fortunes of Downey and Bill Clinton. Levin and his documentary film partner, Daphne Pinkerson, have produced 10 films for HBO’s groundbreaking AMERICA UNDERCOVER, including Mob Stories, Prisoners of the War on Drugs, Execution Machine: Texas Death Row, Soldiers in the Army of God, and Gladiator Days. Thug Life in D.C. won the 1999 National Emmy for Outstanding Non-Fiction Special. Gang War: Bangin' in Little Rock won the CableACE Award for Best Documentary Special of 1994. The sequel, Back in the Hood, premiered on HBO ten years later. They also produced Heir to an Execution, a documentary feature following Ivy Meeropol’s journey on the 50th anniversary of the execution of her grandparents, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Heir was in competition at the Sundance film festival and aired on HBO.

In 1997, Levin was awarded the prestigious duPont Columbia award for CIA: America's Secret Warriors, a three-part series that aired on the Discovery Channel. In 1988 he won a national Emmy award as the producer/editor of The Secret Government - The Constitution in Crisis. From the mid-seventies through the eighties Levin teamed up with one of America's most respected journalists, Bill Moyers. He directed The Home Front with Bill Moyers, which was honored with the duPont Columbia Gold Baton Award. His Portrait of an American Zealot was made part of the Museum of Modern Art's permanent film collection. Levin made his on camera debut in Protocols of Zion, his street level look at the rise of anti-Semitism since 9/11 and the renewed popularity of the anti-Semitic text, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, was released theatrically in the fall of 2005 and on HBO the spring of 2006. Mr. Untouchable, the story of the original Black Godfather, Harlem heroin kingpin, Nicky Barnes, was released in theatres in 2007. It tells the true-life story of a real American Gangster from the point of view of law enforcement, associates, and Nicky Barnes, who appears for the first time in over a quarter century. "It makes American Gangster look like a fairy tale," declared Ben Lyons of E! Marc Levin has also assumed the role of Executive Producer on a number of projects.

In 2008 Levin was Executive Producer along side Beyoncé Knowles on Cadillac Records, the Chess Record story starring Jeffrey Wright, Adrian Brody, and Beyoncé. In the same year he Exec Produced the indie feature documentary Captured, the story of artist activist Clayton Patterson the man who video taped the 1988 Tompkins Square Park Riot and who has dedicated his life to documenting the final era of raw creativity and lawlessness in New York City's Lower East Side, a neighborhood famed for art, music and revolutionary minds. Levin enters the world of reality TV with Brick City, a new ground-breaking docu-series about the city of Newark, its Mayor, Cory Booker, and the people on the frontlines of a city struggling to change. Exec. Produced with Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker the 5 hour series aired its first Peabody Award winning season on the Sundance Channel in September 2009. The show also received a 2010 Golden Eagle Cine Award and was nominated for both an Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Nonfiction Filmmaking and a NAACP Image Award. The series is currently in production on its second season to premiere in early 2011.

Marc Levin's latest film is SCHMATTA: Rags to Riches to Rags - This feature documentary explores the rise and fall of New York's fabled Garment Center as a microcosm for the economic shocks that have changed our lives. It premiered on HBO in October 2009. Levin also periodically directed episodes of the classic TV series, Law and Order. For further information go to www.blowbackproductions.com