|
Marilyn Ness is a two-time Emmy Award winning documentary film producer with over fifteen 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.
Marilyn has combined her commitment to bringing relevant social issues to the screen 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.
Most recently Necessary Films completed BAD BLOOD: A Cautionary Tale chronicling how an FDA-approved medication became an agent of death for 10,000 Americans. A one-hour version premiered nationally on PBS in June of 2011 and a theatrical length version began screening around the U.S. in 2010.
In 2011, Necessary Films also completed Closing the Gap, a series of twelve short films for the 50th anniversary of the World Federation of Hemophilia, a non-profit organization based in Montreal. The centerpiece film chronicling their programs in Senegal will premiere during their bi-annual meeting in Paris in July, 2012. All of the films will be available at www.wfh.org throughout 2012 and 2013.
Necessary Films continues to work on GENOME: The Future Is Now for broadcast release. While the film is in production, webisodes can be seen on YouTube.
Past Necessary Films productions include The Holleys: An American History offering 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. Setting the Stage, chronicles the Kaufman Center's approach to teach a love of music to people of all ages through their NYC-based music and theater arts programs. 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). Changing Lives, Necessary Films' debut production, explores the journey of two teens using writing to rise above the stigma of growing up in foster care. (Produced for Youth Communication.)
Marilyn Ness is a two-time Emmy Award-winning documentary producer. She founded Necessary Films in 2005, directing short films for non-profits and developing documentaries including BAD BLOOD and GENOME: The Future Is Now.
Before opening her own production company, Marilyn produced films for acclaimed director Ric Burns. They collaborated on biographies of 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 TLC 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 sons in the only city she calls home.
|
