Marilyn Ness is a two-time Emmy Award winning documentary film producer with over thirteen years of experience. After years of producing films for high-profile, big-budget companies and less well-known, smaller budget productions, Marilyn decided to open her own production company, Necessary Films, in 2005.

Committed to bringing relevant social issues to the screen -- whether historical or current -- Marilyn has combined her desire to organize the world into compelling, well-told stories with her unrelenting insistence on the highest production values. Necessary Films accepts commissions from non-profits, foundations, and educational institutions and develops original programming for television. We also provide consultation services to emerging filmmakers in the areas of budgets, schedules, pre, post, and production planning.

Necessary Films' debut production, Changing Lives, explores the journey of two teens using writing to rise above the stigma and pain of growing up in foster care. (Produced for Youth Communication.) Finding the delicate balance between protecting our national security and protecting our civil liberties in the midst of the war on terror is at the heart of Stop the Abuse of Power (produced for the ACLU). The film was requested and distributed in record numbers at house parties and other outreach events. In October, 2006 we completed Setting the Stage, a fundraising film for the Kaufman Center, a non-profit music and theater arts community organization in New York City. The Holleys: An American History offers a rare look at five generations of Americans – from the earliest days of the American Revolution through the Steel Age in America – and the impact one family can have on the growth of a nation.

Before opening her own production company, Marilyn produced films for acclaimed director Ric Burns. Their most recent collaborations included a biography on playwright Eugene O'Neill as well as a biography on artist Andy Warhol both of which were completed and released on PBS in 2006. Marilyn first teamed up with Ric Burns to produce a biography on artist Ansel Adams which won an Emmy for Outstanding Artistic & Cultural Programming, the prestigious Columbia DuPont Award, and was nominated for two additional Emmy's including Best Documentary. Marilyn knew she had the best job in the world the day she watched the sun rise over El Capitan in Yosemite Valley and got PAID for it! Their second collaboration entitled The Center of the World on the rise and fall of the World Trade Center won an Emmy for Outstanding Historical Program and a nomination for Best Documentary. That film simply felt like a gift.

Before joining Burns, Marilyn co-produced two programs for The Learning Channel including The Human Canvas and Famous Diamonds. The Human Canvas, an hour long program on body art was the highest rated show for TLC that season. She associate produced Meltdown at Three Mile Island and Surviving the Dust Bowl for the Emmy Award winning historical documentary series American Experience on PBS. Other credits include National Geographic, Court TV, and Aviva Kempner's The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg. Marilyn has also taught the Documentary Workshop at New York Film Academy.

Born and raised in New York City, she and her husband are raising their two young boys in the only city she calls home.

Bad Blood: A Cautionary Tale (in production)
Director / Producer

Genome: The Future Is Now (in production)
Director / Producer

The Holleys: An American History (2007)
Director / Producer

Setting the Stage (2006)
Director / Producer

Stop the Abuse of Power (2006)
Director / Producer

Changing Lives, One Story at a Time (2006)
Director / Producer

Lonely Man of Faith (2006)
Executive Producer

Andy Warhol (2006) (PBS)
Co-Producer

Eugene O’Neill (2006) (PBS)
Co-Producer

New-York Historical Society: A Celebration (2005)
Producer

The Center of the World: New York, Episode 8(2003) (PBS)*
Producer

Ansel Adams (2002) (PBS)**
Producer

Bang the Machine (2000)
Line Producer

Famous Diamonds (2000) (TLC)
Co-Producer

The Human Canvas (2000) (TLC)
Co-Producer

Meltdown at Three Mile Island
(1999) (PBS)
Associate Producer

Crime Stories: Lenny Bruce
(1999) (Court TV)
Associate Producer

America and the Refugees (1997)
Associate Producer

Surviving the Dust Bowl
(1997) (PBS)
Researcher

The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg Theatrical (2000)
Researcher

* Emmy Winner, Outstanding Historical Program, 2003; Emmy Nominee, Best Documentary of 2003.

** Emmy Winner, Outstanding Artistic or Cultural Program, 2002; Emmy Nominee, Best Documentary of 2002; Winner, Silver Baton, Columbia University DuPont Award, 2002. 

Click here for a full CV.