Lenny Feinberg

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Lenny Feinberg is an American movie producer, real estate investor, and owner of MAJ Productions, a documentary film production company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Feinberg has been active as a documentarian since the mid-2000s, when he executive produced his first film, The Art of the Steal . [1]

Philadelphia Largest city in Pennsylvania, United States

Philadelphia, known colloquially as Philly, is the largest city in the U.S. state and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the sixth-most populous U.S. city, with a 2018 census-estimated population of 1,584,138. Since 1854, the city has been coterminous with Philadelphia County, the most populous county in Pennsylvania and the urban core of the eighth-largest U.S. metropolitan statistical area, with over 6 million residents as of 2017. Philadelphia is also the economic and cultural anchor of the greater Delaware Valley, located along the lower Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers, within the Northeast megalopolis. The Delaware Valley's population of 7.2 million ranks it as the eighth-largest combined statistical area in the United States.

Pennsylvania State of the United States of America

Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state located in the northeastern, Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The Appalachian Mountains run through its middle. The Commonwealth is bordered by Delaware to the southeast, Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, Lake Erie and the Canadian province of Ontario to the northwest, New York to the north, and New Jersey to the east.

<i>The Art of the Steal</i> (2009 film) 2009 film by Don Argott

The Art of the Steal is a 2009 documentary film directed by Don Argott, about the controversial move of the Barnes Foundation, generally considered to be the world's best collection of post-Impressionist art and valued in 2009 to be worth at least $25-billion, from Merion, Pennsylvania to Philadelphia. The move was disputed because Dr. Albert C. Barnes, who died in 1951, had specifically selected Lower Merion Township for its location. The collection was moved in 2012 to Philadelphia. The film presents an account of the claimed breaking of Barnes' will, which it presents as a decades-long process that was initiated by Philadelphians who were enemies of Barnes while he was alive, and that was continued by their heirs.

Contents

Feinberg also produced the film Black and White and Dead All Over in 2013. In 2015, he began production on his third film, Father's Kingdom, for which he is also acting as director. [2]

Films

The Art of the Steal

Released in 2009 by MAJ Productions, The Art of the Steal is a documentary film detailing the controversial move of the Barnes Foundation, a private art collection valued at $25 billion, from Merion, Pennsylvania to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The film was an official selection at the Toronto International Film Festival, New York Film Festival, and AFI Film Festival, and was also picked up by IFC Films for U.S. theatrical distribution, grossing $541,027. [3]

Barnes Foundation Art Museum, Horticulture in Pennsylvania, United States

TheBarnes Foundation is an art collection and educational institution promoting the appreciation of art and horticulture. Originally in Merion, the art collection moved in 2012 to a new building on Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The arboretum of the Barnes Foundation remains in Merion, where it has been proposed to be maintained under a long-term educational affiliation agreement with Saint Joseph's University.

Toronto International Film Festival annual film festival held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The Toronto International Film Festival is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permanent destination for film culture operating out of the TIFF Bell Lightbox, located in downtown Toronto. TIFF's mission is "to transform the way people see the world through film."

New York Film Festival annual film festival in New York, USA

The New York Film Festival (NYFF) is an annual film festival held every autumn in New York City, presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center (FSLC). Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, it is one of the longest-running and most prestigious film festivals in the United States. The non-competitive festival is centered around a “Main Slate” of typically 20-30 feature films, with sidebars for experimental cinema and retrospectives, and recently introduced documentary and trans-media sections. Programming is led by a rotating Selection Committee, chaired by the Director of the New York Film Festival, with many committee members remaining from year to year. Separate committees and individuals program the short film, experimental, and trans-media sections.

A student at the Barnes Foundation in his youth, Feinberg said in an interview with Bloomberg News that he believed the collection's move was part of a "nonprofit corporate takeover" by the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Annenberg Foundation, and the Lenfest Foundation. [4] The film portrayed the nonprofits as colluding with Philadelphia and Pennsylvania public officials to wrest control of the Barnes from Lincoln University and circumvent the wishes of Albert Barnes, founder of the Barnes Foundation, whose will stated that the collection’s art was not to be moved.

Bloomberg News, is an international news agency headquartered in New York and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg Television, Bloomberg Radio, Bloomberg Businessweek, Bloomberg Markets, Bloomberg.com and Bloomberg's mobile platforms. Since 2015, John Micklethwait has served as editor-in-chief.

The Annenberg Foundation is a family foundation that provides funding and support to non-profit organizations in the United States and around the world. Some of the Foundation's core initiatives are the Annenberg/Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) project, which funds many educational television shows broadcast on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) public television in the United States as well as The Annenberg Community Beach House, The Annenberg Space for Photography, Metabolic Studio, explore.org, Wallis Annenberg PetSpace and the Wallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts.

Lincoln University (Pennsylvania) university in Pennsylvania

Lincoln University (LU) is a state-related historically black university in Oxford, Pennsylvania. Founded as a private university in 1854, it has been a public institution since 1972 and was the United States' first degree-granting HBCU. Its main campus is located on 422 acres near the town of Oxford in southern Chester County, Pennsylvania. The university has a second location in University City, Philadelphia. Lincoln University provides undergraduate and graduate coursework to approximately 2,000 students. The University is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.

In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle , Feinberg stated that he “stewed” over the relocation of the collection and enlisted Philadelphia documentarian Dan Argott and producer Sheena Joyce to create the film over two years. [5] Philadelphia magazine would later report that Feinberg and Argott had a falling out after the release of the film, stemming from a dispute over production credits. [6] IMDb credits Argott as director of the film, Joyce as producer, and Feinberg as executive producer. [7]

<i>San Francisco Chronicle</i> newspaper serving the San Francisco Bay area

The San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of northern California in the United States. It was founded in 1865 as The Daily Dramatic Chronicle by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The paper is owned by the Hearst Corporation, which bought it from the de Young family in 2000. It is the only major daily paper covering the city and county of San Francisco.

Philadelphia is a regional monthly magazine published in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania by the Lipson family of Philadelphia and its company, Metrocorp.

IMDb Online database for movies, television, and video games

IMDb is an online database of information related to films, television programs, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, plot summaries, trivia, fan and critical reviews, and ratings. An additional fan feature, message boards, was abandoned in February 2017. Originally a fan-operated website, the database is owned and operated by IMDb.com, Inc., a subsidiary of Amazon.

The film was criticized by officers of the Barnes Foundation as biased, with president Derek Gillman telling The New York Times , "It was made by people hostile to the move and ... that's why we didn't cooperate with the filmmakers." [8]

Derek Gillman Museum Director

Derek Anthony Gillman was Executive Director and President of the Barnes Foundation from August 2006 to January 2014. In 2014 Gillman took up a position at Drexel University as a Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Department of Art & Art History and the Museum Leadership graduate program, and is now Distinguished Teaching Professor and Senior Adviser to the President for University Collections.

<i>The New York Times</i> Daily broadsheet newspaper based in New York City

The New York Times is an American newspaper based in New York City with worldwide influence and readership. Founded in 1851, the paper has won 127 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper. The Times is ranked 18th in the world by circulation and 3rd in the U.S..

Black and White and Dead All Over

In 2013, Feinberg partnered with director Chris Foster to create the film Black and White and Dead All Over. The documentary investigates the demise of American print journalism through interviews with a collection of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists, and also follows bankruptcy proceedings of the Philadelphia Daily News newspaper.

The film garnered official selections at the San Antonio Film Festival and DC Labor Film Festival. It was also screened at Washington, D.C.'s Newseum and was aired on several PBS affiliates nationwide. [9] Black and White and Dead All Over was criticized in a Philadelphia magazine op-ed by Larry Platt, a former editor of The Daily News. Platt admonished Feinberg for the film's criticisms of his efforts as editor, stating, "Time and again throughout Black & White, Feinberg thinks he's revealing one thing, when he's actually modeling industry-wide denial and allergy to change." Platt was negatively portrayed in the film. He was released from both Philadelphia Magazine and The Philadelphia Daily News. [10]

Father's Kingdom

According to the official website of MAJ Productions, Feinberg is nearing completion on Father's Kingdom, a documentary about the Reverend M. J. Divine, a 20th-century American religious leader known as Father Divine. [11]

Father's Kingdom had its World Premiere on November 11, 2017 in the DOC NYC Film Festival at the IFC Theater. FATHER'S KINGDOM has appeared in the following Film Festivals: DOC NYC, Big Sky Documentary FF, Maryland FF, Cleveland International FF, Dances With Films, March On Washington FF, Charlotte Black FF, San Francisco Black FF, DOCUTAH FF, Salem FF, Sarasota FF, RiverRun FF, Sidewalk FF

Personal life

Feinberg was identified in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as living in Bryn Mawr, a census-designated place in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, the municipality where the Barnes Foundation was originally located. [12] Prior to his foray into film, Feinberg was a successful real estate investor, allowing him to bankroll the films.

Feinberg studied the Dramatic Arts at Franconia College and worked as an assistant to producer and director Otto Preminger before later being employed in the CBS Network's Research and Development Department. [13]

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References

  1. ↑ "Lenny Feinberg". IMDb. Retrieved July 26, 2015.
  2. ↑ "About MAJ Productions". MAJ Productions. Retrieved July 28, 2015.
  3. ↑ "The Art of the Steal (2009)". The New York Times. Retrieved July 27, 2015.
  4. ↑ Kazakina, Katya (February 26, 2010). "Barnes $25 Billion Art Trove, Boardroom Fight Drive Documentary". Bloomberg News. Retrieved July 28, 2015.
  5. ↑ Straus, Tamara (March 12, 2010). "Why Lenny Feinberg funded 'Art of the Steal'". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved July 28, 2015.
  6. ↑ Fiorillo, Victor (August 2, 2011). ""Art of the Steal" Filmmakers Split". Philadelphia . Retrieved July 28, 2015.
  7. ↑ "The Art of the Steal (2009): Full Cast and Crew". IMDb. Retrieved July 27, 2015.
  8. ↑ Rosenblum, Constance (February 19, 2010). "Requiem for a Jumble of Artworks". The New York Times. Retrieved July 26, 2015.
  9. ↑ "Black and White and Dead All Over". American Film Showcase. Retrieved July 28, 2015.
  10. ↑ Platt, Larry (February 24, 2014). "Black & White and Dead All Over? The "Darth Vader of Journalism" Strikes Back". Philadelphia . Retrieved July 28, 2015.
  11. ↑ "About Father's Kingdom". MAJProductions.com. Retrieved July 26, 2015.
  12. ↑ Thomas, Mary (April 2, 2010). "Movie Review: 'Art of the Steal' frames a tale of intrigue". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved July 28, 2015.
  13. ↑ "Lenny Feinberg and Chris Foster". AmericanFilmShowcase.com. Retrieved July 28, 2015.


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