From 2009-2011, he served as President of the IDA (International Documentary Association), and was its interim Executive Director for the latter half of 2008.
Life and career
Born in Staten Island, New York, Schmidt attended Vassar College, where he received a BA in Drama/Film in 1992. Later, in 2005, he was named a "Vassar Innovator" by the school, placing him in a distinguished group of alumni from the college's history including Nickelodeon founder Geraldine Laybourne.[1]
Documentary
Schmidt emerged as a producer of feature documentaries with Chain Camera (2001), a groundbreaking look at urban teenage life in which video cameras were given to students at John Marshall High School in Los Angeles and passed around like chain letters.[2] The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and went on to air on Sundance Channel, BBC, and Cinemax, and had a multi-city theatrical run. In 2005, it was released on DVD with deleted scenes and filmmaker commentary.[3]
Chain Camera began a long creative partnership between Schmidt and director Kirby Dick that included The End (2004), which follows several hospice patients and their families nearing the end of life, Twist of Faith (2005), the story of a man confronting the trauma of past sexual abuse by a Catholic priest, and This Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006), an irreverent investigation into the MPAA movie ratings system and American culture, and exposed the secretive industry organization for the first time.
Both Twist of Faith and This Film Is Not Yet Rated premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and were released theatrically. In addition to being one of the highest-rated films on film critic website Rotten Tomatoes, with a 100% positive rating, Twist of Faith was nominated for an Academy Award in 2005.[4] In addition to producing, Schmidt co-wrote This Film Is Not Yet Rated, and was its primary vérité cinematographer as well as a principal cinematographer for Twist of Faith.[5]
While much of Schmidt's documentary work focuses on sobering issues, other films (as Executive Producer) take a lighter or more irreverent approach, including Candyman (2010) about the rise, fall and rebirth of the creator of Jelly Belly jellybeans, and Beauty is Embarrassing, Neil Berkeley's colorful chronicle of visual artist Wayne White. Beauty premiered at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival and, following a theatrical release, made its broadcast premiere on PBS' Independent Lens, where it was nominated for an Emmy for graphic design.[6]
Schmidt returned to the Sundance Film Festival for the fourth time in 2011 as the producer of Troubadours, directed by music documentarian Morgan Neville. Troubadours, released theatrically before airing on PBS's "American Masters," tells the story of the "rise of the singer-songwriter" in the late 1960s / early 1970s Los Angeles, featuring Carole King, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, David Crosby and Bonnie Raitt.[7] The film was later nominated for an Emmy for Nonfiction Cinematography[8] and aired as part of PBS' Emmy-winning season of "American Masters."[9]
In 2012, Schmidt was asked to contribute a short film to Morgan Spurlock's "Focus Forward" series with GE & Cinelan. The film that Schmidt directed, Good Bread, profiled Homeboy Bakery and premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival[10] and also screened at the Tribeca Film Festival before making its way to Amazon and other outlets.
2013 brought Schmidt back to the Sundance Film Festival for a fifth time as the producer of Valentine Road, a critically acclaimed documentary that followed the tragic events and aftermath of a school shooting in Oxnard, CA. As the film was nearing completion, the Sandy Hook, CT school shooting tragedy occurred, which was an especially saddening parallel for Schmidt, who spent his teenage years growing up there.[11] Valentine Road was lauded for its complex portrayal of a community and later nominated for two News & Documentary Emmys.[12]
From 2014-2016, Schmidt again collaborated with director Neil Berkeley as Executive Producer of Berkeley's latest feature documentary, Gilbert, out in 2017.[13]
Television
Schmidt collaborated with longtime creative partner Morgan Neville for the critically acclaimed food and culture docuseries Ugly Delicious, which sees restaurateur (Momofuku, Ssäm Bar, Má Pêche, Milk Bar, etc.) and author David Chang explore the cultural, social and emotional resonance of food on a global level, with episodes "organized around dishes rather than destinations." In April 2018, the New York Times called Ugly Delicious one of "The Eight Recent Netflix Original Series That Are Worth Your Time," calling out the "Homecooking" episode, in which Chang and longtime creative collaborator Peter Meehan, a food writer, travel to Change's Virginia home for a Korean-American Thanksgiving celebration. Rotten Tomatoes called Ugly Delicious 100% Fresh!
Schmidt combined his documentary and comedy backgrounds as director and executive producer (showrunner) of Chelsea Handler's Netflix docuseries, Chelsea Does (2016), his third collaboration with Morgan Neville and first with Netflix. In each hour-long episode, Chelsea examines a different topic - marriage, Silicon Valley, racism, and drugs - through conversations with friends, family, and experts ranging from Los Angeles matchmakers to American civil rights activist Al Sharpton. The documentary premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January 2016 and received favorable reviews from Entertainment Weekly,[14]LA Times,[15] Vulture,[16] and The Hollywood Reporter.[17]
For his next project, Schmidt again took the lead with CBS's The Case of: JonBenét Ramsey (2016), a two-part documentary miniseries about the unsolved murder of JonBenet Ramsey in Boulder, Colorado on December 26, 1996 for which he was executive producer (showrunner) and director. The series premiere, scheduled against the Emmy's, attracted 10.3 million viewers[18] and received praise from Colorado Governor Bill Owens for "stripping away the many myths surrounding this horrible case and presenting factually and unemotionally an unbiased account of this tragedy."[19]
Good One: A Show About Jokes, Peacock's adaptation of Jesse David Fox's Vulture podcast Good One, takes a close look at the craft of comedy. Featuring Mike Birbiglia and with executive producers including Seth Meyers, Eddie directed and executive produced (as showrunner).
Other media
In addition to producing and directing, Schmidt has appeared as a pop culture pundit and storyteller on other series and specials.
He guested several times on G4's Attack of the Show, as well as appeared on MSNBC, IFC, CNN and other outlets to discuss his work as a documentarian and give his expert opinion on everything from award nominations to film distribution.[20] In 2012, he was interviewed for an article in The Atlantic about access to global television and film content, in which he spoke about the future of online streaming.[21] He often moderates panels at film festivals or events, conducting talks with other well-known filmmakers and content creators.[22][23]
In 2011, Schmidt was one of six documentary experts brought in as a program consultant to hash out Current TV's final 50 Documentaries to See Before You Die, which were then counted down in a summer mini-series hosted by Morgan Spurlock. Schmidt also appears on-camera in the series discussing films like Truth or Dare, Dogtown, Z-Boys and Gasland.[24] Further, Schmidt is featured in two documentaries directed by Jeffrey Schwarz for Starz/Encore, In the Gutter (2008) and Sex and the Cinema (2009).[25]
Schmidt has appeared on various podcasts and radio shows including Pointless Podcast, The Reality of Reality, KCRW's To the Point, Good Food, and The Business. Most notably, he appears as himself, along with Ira Glass and his own parents, in a 2004 episode of National Public Radio's This American Life ("Family Legend").[26]
In addition to his film and television career, Schmidt served as the Board President of the IDA (International Documentary Association), a major, nonprofit community and resource for nonfiction filmmakers, since 2009. For the latter half of 2008, Schmidt served as the organization's day-to-day interim executive director, overseeing its 2008 DocuWeeks Theatrical Showcase and the 2008 IDA Documentary Awards, hosted by Morgan Spurlock, and honoring Werner Herzog.[28]
During his time with the organization, Schmidt helped lobby lawmakers for filmmakers' rights with regard to fair use and net neutrality, among others.[29] During filmmaker Joe Berlinger’s battle with oil giant Chevron over all 600 hours of his film Crude, Schmidt engineered an open letter signed by over 200 filmmakers, including 20 Oscar-winners, as well as supplying an amicus brief for Berlinger’s court case.[30]
Author and Satirist
Schmidt, along with MJ Loheed and Matt Patterson, authored the book, The Finger: A Comprehensive Guide To Flipping Off (1998). A definitive look at the middle finger gesture and its place in popular culture, featuring cameos from John Waters, Harry Shearer, Ice Cube, and Julie Delpy, the book quickly became a top-seller during the 1998/1999 holiday season, hitting #75 on amazon.com, receiving a nomination for an American Library Award, and named literary "Pick of the Week" by the LA Weekly.[31]
Schmidt, along with Patterson and Loheed, were pioneering internet satirists with the website ooze.com, one of the first digital humor publications to exist as early as 1993. Excerpts from ooze.com appeared in the McGraw-Hill book Internet Insider (1995), and the 'zine was hailed alongside the Onion in magazines such as Yahoo! Internet Life.[32]
In the late 1990s, ooze began to incorporate video into its satire, receiving worldwide attention for mocking Fundamentalist Christians with "The Force Is A Tool of Satan," a fake video and website purporting to represent zealous Fundamentalists offended by the Star Wars myth. The group performed live and produced numerous video pranks targeting celebrities, PETA, tourism, and mainstream pornography, with their stunts reaching over 500,000 views on YouTube.[33] When a planned TV project for Fox TV Studios starring the group failed to get picked up, ooze disbanded - but the next year Schmidt's documentary Chain Camera debuted at Sundance.[34]
American Masters is a PBS television series which produces biographies on enduring writers, musicians, visual and performing artists, dramatists, filmmakers, and those who have left an indelible impression on the cultural landscape of the United States. It is produced by WNET in New York City. The show debuted on PBS in 1986.
Kirby Bryan Dick is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor best known for directing documentary films. He received Academy Award nominations for Best Documentary Feature for directing Twist of Faith (2005) and The Invisible War (2012). He has also received numerous awards from film festivals, including the Sundance Film Festival and Los Angeles Film Festival.
Marc Levin is an American independent film producer and director. He is best known for his Brick City TV series, which won the 2010 Peabody award and was nominated for an Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Nonfiction Filmmaking and his dramatic feature film, Slam, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and the Caméra d'Or at Cannes in 1998. He also has received three Emmy Awards and the 1997 DuPont-Columbia Award.
R. J. Cutler is an American filmmaker, documentarian, television producer and theater director.
Thomas Furneaux Lennon is a documentary filmmaker. He was born in Washington, D.C., graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1968 and Yale University in 1973.
Phil Lucas was an American filmmaker of mostly Native American themes. He was an actor, writer, producer, director and editor for more than 100 films/documentaries or television programs starting as early as 1979 when he wrote/co-produced and co-directed Images of Indians for PBS - a five-part series exploring the problem of Indian stereotypes as portrayed and perpetuated by Hollywood Westerns.
Steven Ascher is an American independent director, producer and writer. He was nominated for an Academy Award and has received the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival among many other awards. His book The Filmmaker’s Handbook is a bestselling text.
Chris Morgan is a British-born ecologist, conservationist, TV host, filmmaker, podcaster, and author. His ecology and conservation work focuses on bears and other large carnivores worldwide. Over the last 25 years Morgan has worked as a wildlife researcher, wilderness guide, and environmental educator on every continent where bears exist.
Lindsey Dryden is a British film director, producer and writer.
Morgan Neville is an American film producer, director, and writer. His acclaimed film 20 Feet from Stardom won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2014 as well as a Grammy Award for Best Music Film. His documentary Best of Enemies, on the debates between Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley, was shortlisted for the 2016 Academy Award and won an Emmy Award. His 2018 film Won't You Be My Neighbor?, a documentary about Fred Rogers, received critical acclaim and became the highest-grossing biographical documentary of all time.
Dawn Porter is an American documentary filmmaker and founder of production company Trilogy Films.
Amanda Micheli is an American director and the founder of Runaway Films. In June 2022, she signed with The United Talent Agency.
Kahane Cooperman is an American documentary filmmaker and television director and producer, whose 2016 documentary Joe's Violin was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject.
Johnny Symons is a documentary filmmaker focusing on LGBT cultural and political issues. He is a professor in the Cinema Department at San Francisco State University, where he runs the documentary program and is the director and co-founder of the Queer Cinema Project. He received his BA from Brown University and his MA in documentary production from Stanford University. He has served as a Fellow in the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program.
Marina Zenovich is an American filmmaker known for her biographical documentaries. Her films include LANCE, Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind, Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic and Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, which won two Emmy awards.
Aaron I. Butler is an American film and television editor and producer.
Julia Bell Reichert was an American Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker, activist, and feminist. She was a co-founder of New Day Films. Reichert's filmmaking career spanned over 50 years as a director and producer of documentaries.
Sabrina Schmidt Gordon is an American documentary filmmaker. She is known for producing and editing films on cultural and social issues. In 2018, she was invited to become a member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).
Bonni Cohen is an American documentary film producer and director. She is the co-founder of Actual Films and has produced and directed an array of award-winning films. Most recently, she produced the Oscar-nominated film Lead Me Home, which premiered at the 2021 Telluride Film Festival and is a Netflix Original. She also recently co-directed Athlete A, which won an Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Documentary and received four nominations from the Critics’ Choice Awards. She is the co-founder of Actual Films, the production company of the documentaries An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, Audrie & Daisy, 3.5 Minutes, The Island President, Lost Boys of Sudan and The Rape of Europa. Cohen is the co-founder of the Catapult Film Fund.
Alex Stapleton is an American director, showrunner, and executive producer of documentary feature films and unscripted television.
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