Andrew Jarecki (born March 24, 1963) is an American

filmmaker Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...

musician A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who wri ...

, and

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

. He is best known for the Emmy-winning 2015

documentary series Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film. *Television documentary series, sometimes called d ...

'' The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst''. He is also known for the

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

'' Capturing the Friedmans'', which won eighteen international prizes including the

Grand Jury Prize A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upo ...

at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

and the

New York Film Critics Circle The New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) is an American film critic organization founded in 1935 by Wanda Hale from the New York ''Daily News''. Its membership includes over 30 film critics from New York-based daily and weekly newspapers, magaz ...

award, and was nominated for an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

. He also co-founded

Moviefone Moviefone is an American-based moving pictures listing and information service. Moviegoers can obtain local showtimes, cinema information, film reviews, and advance tickets, as well as TV content and a comprehensive search tool that allows users ...

and created the KnowMe iOS platform.

Career

Jarecki graduated from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

in 1985. He is the co-founder and

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

, which provides film schedules over the Internet and telephone and was sold to

AOL AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo (2017� ...

in 1999. With producer

J. J. Abrams Jeffrey Jacob Abrams (born June 27, 1966) is an American filmmaker and composer. He is best known for his works in the genres of action, drama, and science fiction. Abrams wrote and produced such films as '' Regarding Henry'' (1991), '' F ...

, Jarecki co-wrote the

theme song Theme music is a musical composition that is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at so ...

to '' Felicity'', "New Version of You", in 2000. Jarecki's 2003 documentary about a family, '' Capturing the Friedmans'', his first feature, began as an offshoot from a short film he was making about birthday party clowns, which was titled ''Just a Clown'' and released in 2004. Jarecki went on to direct the narrative feature '' All Good Things'' starring

Ryan Gosling Ryan Thomas Gosling (born November 12, 1980) is a Canadian actor. Prominent in independent film, he has also worked in blockbuster films of varying genres, and has accrued a worldwide box office gross of over 1.9 billion USD. He has received ...

Kirsten Dunst Kirsten Caroline Dunst (; born April 30, 1982) is an American actress. She made her acting debut in the short ''Oedipus Wrecks'' directed by Woody Allen in the anthology film ''New York Stories'' (1989). She then gained recognition for her rol ...

, and

Frank Langella Frank A. Langella Jr. (; born January 1, 1938) is an American stage and film actor. He has won four Tony Awards: two for Best Leading Actor in a Play for his performance as Richard Nixon in Peter Morgan's '' Frost/Nixon'' and as André in Flori ...

. The film, inspired by the life of millionaire Robert Durst and the unsolved disappearance of his wife Kathie, was released in 2010. Along with filmmaking partner

Marc Smerling Marc Smerling is an American film producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, and director. He was nominated for an Oscar for '' Capturing the Friedmans'' in 2003, and co-wrote and produced '' The Jinx'', a six-part HBO documentary on suspected murd ...

, Jarecki also produced the 2010 documentary film ''

Catfish Catfish (or catfishes; order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the three largest species alive, ...

'', and co-produced and directed the documentary miniseries '' The Jinx'', which aired on

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

in 2015. Jarecki plays the drums and sings backing vocals on Bikini Robot Army's single "Joe Strummer's House".

Personal life

Jarecki is the son of financier-philanthropist

Henry Jarecki Henry George Jarecki (born April 15, 1933) is a German-born American academic, psychiatrist, entrepreneur, .html" ;"title="/sup>">/sup> producer and philanthropist. Early life and career Henry Jarecki was born into a German-Jewish family in S ...

, the brother of documentary filmmaker

Eugene Jarecki Eugene Jarecki (born October 5, 1969) is an American filmmaker and author. He is best known as a two-time winner of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize, as well as multiple Emmy and Peabody Awards, for his films ''Why We Fight'', ''Reagan'', and '' Th ...

, and the half-brother of filmmaker

Nicholas Jarecki Nicholas Jarecki (born June 25, 1979) is an American film director, producer, and writer best known for his 2012 feature film ''Arbitrage''. Early life Jarecki was born on June 25, 1979 in New York City, to Henry Jarecki and Marjorie Heidsieck. ...

Filmography

References

External links

*
An interview with JareckiBritish Film Institute interviewNPR interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jarecki, Andrew Living people American documentary filmmakers American people of German-Jewish descent Princeton University alumni Hackley School alumni 1963 births