Jeff Feuerzeig (born 1964) is an American film director and screenwriter best known for ''
The Devil and Daniel Johnston
''The Devil and Daniel Johnston'' is a 2005 documentary film about American musician Daniel Johnston. It chronicles Johnston's life from childhood up to the present, with an emphasis on his experiences with bipolar disorder, and how it manifested ...
'', his profile of cult musician and outsider artist
Daniel Johnston
Daniel Dale Johnston (January 22, 1961 – September 11, 2019) was an American singer, musician and artist regarded as a significant figure in outsider, lo-fi, and alternative music scenes. Most of his work consisted of cassettes recorded a ...
, for which he was awarded the Directing prize for Documentary at the 2005
Sundance Film Festival and which was released theatrically in March 2006 by
Sony Pictures Classics
Sony Pictures Classics Inc. is an American film production and distribution company that is a division of Sony Pictures. It was founded in 1992 by former Orion Classics heads Michael Barker, Tom Bernard and Marcie Bloom. It distributes, produce ...
.
History
Feuerzeig grew up in
Hazlet, New Jersey
Hazlet is a township in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. The township is located near the Raritan Bay within the Raritan Valley region. It is located in the New York Metropolitan Area and is a bedroom community of New York. As of th ...
and the
Morganville section of
Marlboro Township. He came of age just in time to receive the full impact of the punk rock wave and its attendant do-it-yourself aesthetic, an influence that dominates his approach and subject matter to the present. He graduated with honors from
Trenton State College
The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) is a public university in Ewing Township, New Jersey. It is part of New Jersey's public system of higher education. Established in 1855 as the New Jersey State Normal School, TCNJ was the first normal school, or ...
in 1986 and immediately enrolled in
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, th ...
's six-month Intensive Filmmaking Program, where he studied under Thierry Pathé. He has spent 25 years directing commercials for a wide assortment of corporate clients, including
IBM,
Delta Air Lines
Delta Air Lines, Inc., typically referred to as Delta, is one of the major airlines of the United States and a legacy carrier. One of the world's oldest airlines in operation, Delta is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The airline, along w ...
and
Budweiser
Budweiser () is an American-style pale lager, part of AB InBev. Introduced in 1876 by Carl Conrad & Co. of St. Louis, Missouri, Budweiser has become a large selling beer company in the United States.
''Budweiser'' may also refer to an unrela ...
.
In 1990, he directed ''Jon Hendricks: The Freddie Sessions'', a profile of
the famed jazz singer and member of
Lambert, Hendricks & Ross
Lambert, Hendricks & Ross were an American vocalese trio formed by jazz vocalists Dave Lambert, Jon Hendricks and Annie Ross. From 1962 to 1964, Ross was replaced by vocalist Yolande Bavan.
History
The group formed in 1957 and recorded their f ...
. The half-hour film featured appearances by
George Benson
George Washington Benson (born March 22, 1943) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He began his professional career at the age of 19 as a jazz guitarist.
A former child prodigy, Benson first came to prominence in the 1960s, play ...
,
Al Jarreau and
Bobby McFerrin
Robert Keith McFerrin Jr. (born March 11, 1950) is an American folk and jazz singer. He is known for his vocal techniques, such as singing fluidly but with quick and considerable jumps in pitch—for example, sustaining a melody while also rap ...
and was broadcast nationally on
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
.
''Half Japanese: The Band That Would Be King'' (1994)
In 1993, marshaling his continuing interest in the outer limits of alternative music, Feuerzeig directed a 16mm feature documentary on brothers
Jad and David Fair and their seminal proto-punk band
Half Japanese
Half Japanese is an American art punk band formed by brothers Jad and David Fair around 1975, sometime after the family's relocation to Uniontown, Maryland. Their original instrumentation included a small drum set, which they took turns playi ...
, a passion project that was booked for an independent two-week run at
Film Forum
Film Forum is a nonprofit movie theater at 209 West Houston Street in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. It began in 1970 as an alternative screening space for independent films, with 50 folding chairs, one projector and a $19,000 annual budget. Kare ...
in New York and subsequently distributed by Tara Releasing in art-houses nationwide – often in conjunction with the band playing full concerts after the screening.
"''Half Japanese'' has the feel of a complete put-on,” wrote Stephen Holden in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
''.
''The Devil and Daniel Johnston'' (2006)
Over a five-year period beginning in 2000, Feuerzeig created an innovative and sympathetic portrait of West Virginia-born cult singer-songwriter and outsider artist Daniel Johnston, whose early-20s onset of manic-depression and schizophrenia enabled him to create a nakedly confessional body of work unfiltered by the limitations of his contemporaries. Working from the conceit of clinical psychologist
Kay Redfield Jamison
Kay Redfield Jamison (born June 22, 1946) is an American clinical psychologist and writer. Her work has centered on bipolar disorder, which she has had since her early adulthood. She holds the post of the Dalio Professor in Mood Disorders and Psy ...
’s ''
Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament'' (1993), and utilizing techniques from the
New Journalism
New Journalism is a style of news writing and journalism, developed in the 1960s and 1970s, that uses literary techniques unconventional at the time. It is characterized by a subjective perspective, a literary style reminiscent of long-form non- ...
of the 1970s (the creation of first-person POV and internal monologue through audio cassette letters, journal entries, home movies, etc.), Feuerzeig documented the musician-artist’s struggles with his private demons – many of them quite literal in his own mind – elevating what might have been a footnote in rock history to world acclaim.
''
New York Press
''New York Press'' was a free alternative weekly in New York City, which was published from 1988 to 2011.
The ''Press'' strove to create a rivalry with the ''Village Voice''. ''Press'' editors claimed to have tried to hire away writer Nat Hent ...
'' film critic Matt Zoller Seitz said of ''Devil'': “A true nonfiction film, a movie that tries to do with sound and image what journalists like
Nick Tosches
Nicholas P. Tosches (; October 23, 1949 – October 20, 2019) was an American journalist, novelist, biographer, and poet. His 1982 biography of Jerry Lee Lewis, '' Hellfire'', was praised by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine as "the best rock and roll ...
(''Dino'') and
Norman Mailer (''
Armies of the Night'') tried to do with prose, bending prose into poetry to find a more subjective route to truth.”
The film appeared on many best of the decade lists. It was named by ''
Mojo
Mojo may refer to:
* Mojo (African-American culture), a magical charm bag used in voodoo
Arts, entertainment and media Film and television
* MOJO HD, an American television network
* ''Mojo'' (play), by Jez Butterworth, made into a 1997 film
* ' ...
'' Magazine one of the 10 best music documentaries of all time and by ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
'' magazine one of the Top 25 music DVDs of all time. On the strength of the film, Feuerzeig spent a year working with
Albert Maysles
Albert Maysles (November 26, 1926 – March 5, 2015) and his brother David Maysles (January 10, 1931 – January 3, 1987; ) were an American documentary filmmaking team known for their work in the Direct Cinema style. Their best-known films i ...
, where he created award-winning short-form documentaries for IBM. He is currently represented by
Ridley Scott Associates
Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is a British film director and producer. Directing, among others, science fiction films, his work is known for its atmospheric and highly concentrated visual style. Scott has received many accolades th ...
(RSA) for commercial and television work.
''The Real Rocky'' (2011)
On October 25, 2011, the
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...
network broadcast ''The Real Rocky'', an original one-hour documentary directed by Feuerzeig as part of its ongoing documentary showcase series, original titled ''
30 for 30'', and more recently re-branded as “ESPN Films.” The film chronicles the ongoing controversy surrounding the true identity of the eponymous title character from the
Sylvester Stallone ''
Rocky
''Rocky'' is a 1976 American sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It is the first installment in the ''Rocky'' franchise and stars Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, and Burge ...
'' franchise, which public opinion and folk wisdom has long held was based on New Jersey heavyweight boxer
Chuck Wepner
Charles Wepner (born February 26, 1939) is an American former professional boxer. He fell just nineteen seconds short of a full fifteen rounds against world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali in a 1975 championship fight. Wepner also scored notab ...
, “The Bayonne Bleeder,” whose chief claim was that he once went 15 rounds with
Muhammad Ali, even knocking him down in the ninth round (by, as it was later revealed, stepping on his foot).
Using collage graphics somewhere between
Roy Lichtenstein’s
Pop Art confections and the ransom note typography of
Jamie Reid
Jamie Reid (born 16 January 1947 in London, United Kingdom) is an English artist and anarchist.
Career
His work, featuring letters cut from newspaper headlines in the style of a ransom note, came close to defining the image of punk rock, p ...
's
Sex Pistols album cover, the film spells out Rocky’s influence on Wepner’s personal life – much of it catastrophic, such as his descent into cocaine and a brief stint in federal prison. To provide both insider insight and period detail, Feuerzeig assembles a round table of sportswriters and Jersey stalwarts reminiscent of the
Carnegie Deli
The Carnegie Deli is a small Jewish delicatessen, formerly a chain, based in New York City. Its main branch, opened in 1937 near Carnegie Hall, was located at 854 7th Avenue (between 54th and 55th Streets) in Midtown Manhattan. It closed on De ...
regulars in
Woody Allen
Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...
’s ''
Broadway Danny Rose
''Broadway Danny Rose'' is a 1984 American black-and-white comedy film written and directed by Woody Allen. It follows a hapless theatrical agent who, by helping a client, gets dragged into a love triangle involving the mob. The film stars Allen a ...
''.
According to ''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
''’s Brian Lowry, “
r anyone familiar with boxing or even just the “Rocky” franchise, “The Real Rocky” – shot partly in black and white to heighten its cinematic feel, and featuring boxing reporters as a sort of Greek chorus – is the genuine article.”
''Author: The JT LeRoy Story'' (2016)
A journalist friend alerted Feuerzeig to the story of writer
Laura Albert, who had used an avatar,
JT LeRoy, as the credited author of her fiction ''
Sarah'' and ''
The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things
''The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things'' is a 2004 drama film co-written and directed by Asia Argento and starring Argento, Jimmy Bennett, Dylan Sprouse and Cole Sprouse (with Bennett and the Sprouse brothers sharing the role as Jeremiah). T ...
''. “I devoured all the pieces about it and after reading them I just had this feeling there was much more to the story than we were being told. What was glaringly missing was the voice of the author of the fiction both on and off the page. I wanted to hear that voice.”
Feuerzeig contacted Albert, who for years had turned down the other documentary filmmakers that approached her. He persuaded her of his seriousness about telling her story, and after showing her his film ''The Devil and Daniel Johnston'', gained her cooperation. “Literally, I gave
euerzeigthe open book: everything,” she said. “I gave him every single diary, everything.” According to Feuerzeig, Albert “had even more self-documentation than Daniel Johnston; all of her childhood notebooks and all the writings through the years, videotapes, boxes and boxes of audio.” Working from Albert’s archives, Feuerzeig spent eight days filming an in-depth interview with her, which he used as the spine of his feature-length documentary. “She shared everything one hundred percent honestly,” Feuerzeig insisted.
''Author: The JT LeRoy Story'' premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2016, and then made the rounds of international film festivals; it was released nationwide to American theaters on September 9, 2016. Feuerzeig went on to receive a nomination for the
at the
69th Writers Guild of America Awards.
Other Projects
In 2009, Feuerzeig began production on a proposed feature documentary about artist
Shepard Fairey
Frank Shepard Fairey (born February 15, 1970) is an American contemporary artist, activist and founder of OBEY Clothing who emerged from the skateboarding scene. In 1989 he designed the "Andre the Giant Has a Posse" (...OBEY...) sticker campai ...
, the lawsuit brought against him by the
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...
and his
Fair Use
Fair use is a doctrine in United States law that permits limited use of copyrighted material without having to first acquire permission from the copyright holder. Fair use is one of the limitations to copyright intended to balance the interests ...
defense in creating the iconic
Barack Obama "Hope" poster
The Barack Obama "Hope" poster is an image of US president Barack Obama designed by American artist Shepard Fairey. The image was widely described as iconic and came to represent Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. It is a stylized stencil ...
during the 2008 presidential election. To be called ''The Boy Who Cried Hope'', the film was postponed indefinitely following revelations that Fairey had lied about the photographic source material for the poster.
In April 2011, Feuerzeig directed ''The Dude,'' an 18-minute documentary profile of
Jeff “The Dude” Dowd, a long-time
producer's rep for independent films and putative inspiration for the
Coen Brothers
Joel Daniel Coen (born November 29, 1954) and Ethan Jesse Coen (born September 21, 1957),State of Minnesota. ''Minnesota Birth Index, 1935–2002''. Minnesota Department of Health. collectively known as the Coen brothers (), are American film ...
’ ''
The Big Lebowski
''The Big Lebowski'' () is a 1998 crime comedy film written, produced, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. It stars Jeff Bridges as Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski, a Los Angeles slacker and avid bowler. He is assaulted as a result of mistaken ...
''. The short was broadcast on the
USA Network
USA Network (simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. It was originally launched in 1977 as Madison ...
as part of its “Character” series.
On 9 April 2013, called into
The Best Show to discuss his "Piano Van" film project on the musician
Chris Stroffolino.
Upcoming Projects
Feuerzeig has completed the screenplay for ''God Bless Tiny Tim'' with filmmaker/playwright
Julien Nitzberg
Julien Nitzberg (born 1965) is an American screenwriter, stage writer, lyricist, theater director and film director, best known in the film world as the director of the documentary ''The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia''. In the theat ...
. This portrait of
the latterday crooner and accidental cultural icon is currently in development. He is also slated to direct ''
The Bleeder'', a biopic of boxer
Chuck Wepner
Charles Wepner (born February 26, 1939) is an American former professional boxer. He fell just nineteen seconds short of a full fifteen rounds against world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali in a 1975 championship fight. Wepner also scored notab ...
, whose life story inspired (and was in turn affected by) the
Sylvester Stallone film ''
Rocky
''Rocky'' is a 1976 American sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It is the first installment in the ''Rocky'' franchise and stars Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, and Burge ...
''. Feuerzeig co-wrote the script with
Jerry Stahl
Jerry Stahl (born September 28, 1953) is an American novelist and screenwriter. His works include the 1995 memoir of addiction ''Permanent Midnight''. A 1998 film adaptation followed with Ben Stiller in the lead role.
Stahl has worked extensivel ...
, and the film is set to star
Liev Schreiber
Isaac Liev Schreiber (; born October 4, 1967) is an American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and narrator. He became known during the late 1990s and early 2000s after appearing in several independent films, and later mainstream Hollywo ...
as Wepner.
Filmography
* ''Jon Hendricks: The Freddie Sessions'' (1990)
* ''Half Japanese: The Band That Would Be King'' (1994)
* ''
The Devil and Daniel Johnston
''The Devil and Daniel Johnston'' is a 2005 documentary film about American musician Daniel Johnston. It chronicles Johnston's life from childhood up to the present, with an emphasis on his experiences with bipolar disorder, and how it manifested ...
'' (2006)
* ''The Dude'' (2011)
* ''The Real Rocky'' (2011)
* ''Author: The JT LeRoy Story'' (2016)
* ''
Chuck
Chuck is a masculine given name or a nickname for Charles or Charlie. It may refer to:
People
Arts and entertainment
* Chuck Alaimo, American saxophonist, leader of the Chuck Alaimo Quartet
* Chuck Barris (1929–2017), American TV producer
* C ...
'' (2016) - Writer
References
External links
*
Official film site*
IMDB film
{{DEFAULTSORT:Feuerzeig, Jeff
American male screenwriters
People from Hazlet, New Jersey
People from Marlboro Township, New Jersey
Living people
1964 births
The College of New Jersey alumni
Tisch School of the Arts alumni
Film directors from New Jersey