Marion "Muffie" Meyer is an American director, whose productions include documentaries, theatrical features, television series and children’s films. Films that she directed are the recipients of two Emmy Awards,
CINE Golden Eagles, the Japan Prize,
Christopher Award
The Christopher Award (established 1949) is presented to the producers, directors, and writers of books, films and television specials that "affirm the highest values of the human spirit". It is given by The Christophers, a Christian organization ...
s, the Freddie Award, the Columbia-DuPont, and the
Peabody Awards. Her work has been selected for festivals in Japan, Greece, London, Edinburgh, Cannes, Toronto, Chicago and New York, and she has been twice nominated by the Directors Guild of America.
Biography
Meyer was born in New York City and raised in Chicago. She graduated from the
Chicago Lab School,
Grinnell College
Grinnell College is a private liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa, United States. It was founded in 1846 when a group of New England Congregationalists established the Trustees of Iowa College.
Grinnell has the fifth highest endowment-to-stu ...
, and received an MFA from
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 film school. Meyer got her start as an assistant editor on the Oscar-winning documentary ''
Woodstock
Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock. Billed as "an Aq ...
'' (1970).
[Full Cast & Crew of ''Woodstock''](_blank)
at the Internet Movie Database
IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...
. Her early editing credits include ''
The Lords of Flatbush
''The Lords of Flatbush'' (stylized on-screen as ''The Lord's of Flatbush'') is a 1974 American drama film directed by Martin Davidson and Stephen F. Verona. The film stars Perry King, Sylvester Stallone, Paul Mace and Henry Winkler. Stallone ...
'' (1974), starring
Sylvester Stallone and
Henry Winkler, and ''
The Groove Tube
''The Groove Tube'' is a 1974 American independent comedy film written and produced by Ken Shapiro and starring Shapiro, Richard Belzer and Chevy Chase. It features the song " Move On Up" by Curtis Mayfield in its opening scene.
The low-budget ...
'' (1974), starring
Chevy Chase
Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase (; born October 8, 1943) is an American comedian, actor and writer. He became a key cast member in the first season of ''Saturday Night Live'', where his recurring ''Weekend Update'' segment became a staple of the ...
, a film precursor to ''
Saturday Night Live
''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock (streaming service), Peacock. ...
''.
Along with Ellen Hovde and Lynzee Klingman, she edited ''
Gilda Live'' (1980), starring
Gilda Radner, directed by
Mike Nichols
Mike Nichols (born Michael Igor Peschkowsky; November 6, 1931 – November 19, 2014) was an American film and theater director, producer, actor, and comedian. He was noted for his ability to work across a range of genres and for his aptitude fo ...
.
Meyer worked with pioneering ''
cinema verité
Cinema may refer to:
Film
* Cinematography, the art of motion-picture photography
* Film or movie, a series of still images that create the illusion of a moving image
** Film industry, the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking
...
'' documentarians
Albert and David 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 ...
as one of the directors and editors of ''
Grey Gardens
''Grey Gardens'' is a 1975 American documentary film by Albert and David Maysles. The film depicts the everyday lives of two reclusive, upper-class women, a mother and daughter both named Edith Beale, who lived in poverty at Grey Gardens, a ...
'' (1975). The critically acclaimed documentary that was released theatrically in 1976 about the Bouvier family was eventually released on DVD by
The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home video, home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scho ...
. In 2010, it was selected by the Library of Congress to join the
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception ...
.
In 1978, Meyer and Ellen Hovde formed Middlemarch Films, Inc. As Middlemarch, they produced and directed a variety of series and specials for
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 ...
, most of which were written and co-produced by Ronald Blumer. One was the Emmy Award-winning film, ''An Empire of Reason''. Hosted by
Cokie Roberts
Mary Martha Corinne Morrison Claiborne "Cokie" Roberts (née Boggs; December 27, 1943 – September 17, 2019) was an American journalist and author. Her career included decades as a political reporter and analyst for National Public Radio, PBS ...
, it featured performances by prominent journalists and politicians
Mario Cuomo
Mario Matthew Cuomo (, ; June 15, 1932 – January 1, 2015) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 52nd governor of New York for three terms, from 1983 to 1994. A member of the Democratic Party, Cuomo previously served as ...
,
Ed Koch
Edward Irving Koch ( ; December 12, 1924February 1, 2013) was an American politician, lawyer, political commentator, film critic, and television personality. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1969 to 1977 and was ma ...
,
Walter Cronkite
Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the ''CBS Evening News'' for 19 years (1962–1981). During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the mo ...
,
John Chancellor
John William Chancellor (July 14, 1927 – July 12, 1996) was an American journalist who spent most of his career with NBC News. He is considered a pioneer in TV news. He served as anchor of the ''NBC Nightly News'' from 1970 to 1982 and continu ...
,
William F. Buckley
William Frank Buckley Jr. (born William Francis Buckley; November 24, 1925 – February 27, 2008) was an American public intellectual, conservative author and political commentator. In 1955, he founded ''National Review'', the magazine that stim ...
,
Andrea Mitchell
Andrea Mitchell (born October 30, 1946) is an American television journalist, anchor and commentator for NBC News, based in Washington, D.C.
She is NBC News' chief foreign affairs & chief Washington correspondent, reporting on the 2008 presi ...
,
Phil Donahue
Phillip John Donahue (born December 21, 1935) is an American media personality, writer, film producer and the creator and host of ''The Phil Donahue Show''. The television program, later known simply as ''Donahue'', was the first talk show forma ...
,
Forrest Sawyer
Forrest Sawyer (born April 19, 1949) is an American broadcast journalist. Sawyer worked 11 years with ABC News, where he frequently anchored ''ABC World News Tonight'' and ''Nightline'' and reported for all ABC News broadcasts. He anchored the new ...
,
Robert MacNeil
Robert Breckenridge Ware MacNeil, Order of Canada, OC (born January 19, 1931) is a Canadian-American journalist and writer. He is a retired television news anchor who partnered with Jim Lehrer to create ''The MacNeil/Lehrer Report'' in 1975.
E ...
,
Al Roker
Albert Lincoln Roker Jr. (born August 20, 1954) is an American weather presenter, journalist, television personality, and author. He is the current weather anchor on NBC's '' Today'', and occasionally co-hosts '' 3rd Hour Today''. He has an in ...
, and many others. Meyer also co-directed (with Ellen Hovde) ''Enormous Changes at the Last Minute: Virginia's Story'', a feature film for ABC, based on stories by
Grace Paley
Grace Paley (December 11, 1922 – August 22, 2007) was an American short story author, poet, teacher, and political activist.
Paley wrote three critically acclaimed collections of short stories, which were compiled in the Pulitzer Prize and Na ...
. The film was written by Oscar nominee
John Sayles
John Thomas Sayles (born September 28, 1950) is an American independent film director, screenwriter, editor, actor, and novelist. He has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, for ''Passion Fish'' (1992) and '' ...
, and starred Emmy Award-winning actress
Ellen Barkin, Oscar nominee
David Strathairn
David Russell Strathairn (; born January 26, 1949) is an American actor. Known for his leading roles on stage and screen, he has often portrayed historical figures such as Edward R. Murrow, J. Robert Oppenheimer, William H. Seward, and John Do ...
,
Ron McLarty
Ronald William McLarty (April 26, 1947 – February 8, 2020) was an American actor, playwright, and novelist. He also worked as an audiobook narrator, in which role he recorded over 100 titles and received many Audie Awards.
McLarty appeare ...
, and
Kevin Bacon
Kevin Norwood Bacon (born July 8, 1958) is an American actor. His films include the musical-drama film '' Footloose'' (1984), the controversial historical conspiracy legal thriller '' JFK'' (1991), the legal drama '' A Few Good Men'' (1992), t ...
.
While a number of the films Middlemarch produced focus on the founding of America (including the Peabody Award-winning mini-series, ''
Liberty! The American Revolution'', and Emmy award winning ''Benjamin Franklin''), their documentary subjects have also included science, medicine, and the arts. Notable among them are: ''The Crash of 1929'', a one-hour program for ''
American Experience
''American Experience'' is a television program airing on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. The program airs documentaries, many of which have won awards, about important or interesting events and people in American his ...
,'' which traces the "New Era" of prosperity that ends with the great stock market crash of 1929; ''
Behind the Scenes
In cinema, behind-the-scenes (BTS), also known as the making-of, the set, or on the set, is a type of documentary film that features the production of a film or television program. This is often referred to as the EPK (electronic press kit) vi ...
'', a 10-part series for children on the arts, hosted by
Penn and Teller Penn may refer to:
Places
England
* Penn, Buckinghamshire
* Penn, West Midlands
United States
* Penn, North Dakota
* Penn, Oregon
* Pennsylvania
** Penn, Pennsylvania
* Penn Lake Park, Pennsylvania
* Penn Township (disambiguation), several muni ...
, and featuring celebrated British artist
David Hockney
David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English painter, draftsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists o ...
, Tony Award-winning director
Julie Taymor
Julie Taymor (born December 15, 1952) is an American director and writer of theater, opera and film. Her stage adaptation of ''The Lion King'' debuted in 1997, and received eleven Tony Award nominations, with Taymor receiving Tony Awards for Best ...
(''
The Lion King
''The Lion King'' is a 1994 American animated musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 32nd Disney animated feature film and the fifth produced during the Disney Renaissance ...
''), jazz legend
Max Roach
Maxwell Lemuel Roach (January 10, 1924 – August 16, 2007) was an American jazz drummer and composer. A pioneer of bebop, he worked in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in history. He work ...
, choreographer David Parsons, and ''
The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer Simpson, Homer, Marge ...
'' creator
Matt Groening
Matthew Abram Groening ( ; born February 15, 1954) is an American cartoonist, writer, producer, and animator. He is the creator of the comic strip ''Life in Hell'' (1977–2012) and the television series ''The Simpsons'' (1989–present), ''Fut ...
; ''American Photography – a Century of Images'', a three-hour series about the impact of photography on America in the 20th century; ''Dancing'', two programs in the international series on dance; ''The New Medicine'', a two-hour special about the humanistic practice of medicine; ''Saving the National Treasures'', a NOVA special about the National Archives’ restoration of the Declaration of Independence; ''Alexander Hamilton'', a two-hour documentary for ''American Experience'', starring Tony Award-winner
Brían F. O'Byrne; ''Dolley Madison'', a feature-length documentary for ''American Experience'', starring Tony Award-nominee
Eve Best
Emily "Eve" Best (born 31 July 1971) is an English actress and director. She is known for her television roles as Dr. Eleanor O'Hara in the Showtime series ''Nurse Jackie'' (2009–13), First Lady Dolley Madison in the ''American Experience'' ...
and Tony Award-winner
Jefferson Mays
Lewis Jefferson Mays (born June 8, 1965) is an American actor. He is the recipient of numerous accolades, including a Tony Award, a Helen Hayes Award, a Lucille Lortel Award, two Drama Desk Awards, two Outer Critics Circle Awards and three Ob ...
.
Meyer is a member of the
Directors Guild of America
The Directors Guild of America (DGA) is an entertainment guild that represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry and abroad. Founded as the Screen Directors Guild in 1936, the group merge ...
. She has been a guest lecturer at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, New York University, the New York Bar Association,
The New School
The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...
and other colleges and universities. She has also produced videos for corporate clients such as Kodak, Morgan Stanley, Sullivan & Cromwell, Harvard University, Johnson and Johnson, Corning Glassworks, Scholastic, McMillan McGraw-Hill, and American Financial Services Association.
Meyer is married to Ronald Blumer. They have a daughter, Emma, and live in New York City.
Awards and honors
2011, The Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking Legacy Award presented to the filmmakers of ''Grey Gardens'' at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, New York. The event was broadcast on the Documentary Channel.
2012, Best Documentary, Nickel Independent Film Festival for ''The Lost Bird Project''
2010, Library of Congress Selects Grey Gardens for National Film Registry
2006, The FREDDIE Awards: International Health and Medical Media Award for ''The New Medicine''.
2003, Primetime Emmy Award, Outstanding Non-fiction Special for ''Benjamin Franklin''
1997, George Foster Peabody Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism for ''Liberty! The American Revolution''
1997, The Christopher Award for ''Liberty! The American Revolution''.
1997, Nomination, Directors Guild of America Award for ''Liberty! The American Revolution''.
1995, The Christopher Award for ''Discovering Women: Earth Explorer''.
1993, The Japan Prize, International Education Program Contest for "Behind the Scenes" 10-part TV series.
1989, Cine Golden Eagle Film & Video Competition for ''An Empire of Reason''.
1989, Best of Festival, Athens Film Festival & Gold Camera, US Film Festival.
1988, Emmy Award, Outstanding Arts/Cultural/Historical Programming for ''An Empire of Reason''.
1988, Nomination, Directors Guild of America Award, Documentary/ Actuality category for ''An Empire of Reason''.
1981, Cine Golden Eagle Film & Video Competition for ''Mr. Preble Gets Rid of His Wife'' (based on the James Thurber short story, the film aired on HBO, PBS and the BBC).
1978, Columbia-DuPont Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism for Six American Families: The Burks of Georgia
Filmography
* ''
Grey Gardens
''Grey Gardens'' is a 1975 American documentary film by Albert and David Maysles. The film depicts the everyday lives of two reclusive, upper-class women, a mother and daughter both named Edith Beale, who lived in poverty at Grey Gardens, a ...
'' (1976)
* ''Six American Families: The Burks of Georgia'' (1978)
* ''Mr. Preble Gets Rid of His Wife'' (1981)
* ''Nichols and Dimes'' (1981)
* ''Writers Writing: Pieces of a Puzzle''
* ''Enormous Changes at the Last Minute: Virginia's Story'' (1982)
* ''
3-2-1 Contact'' shorts
* ''
Sesame Street
''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) ...
'' shorts
* ''An Empire of Reason'' (1988)
* ''American Experience: The Crash of 1929'' (1990)
* ''
Behind the Scenes
In cinema, behind-the-scenes (BTS), also known as the making-of, the set, or on the set, is a type of documentary film that features the production of a film or television program. This is often referred to as the EPK (electronic press kit) vi ...
'' (1992, 10-part series)
* ''Dancing: Sex and Social Dance'' (1993)
* ''Dancing: The Individual and Tradition'' (1993)
* ''Going Broke in America'' (1995)
* ''Discovering Women: Earth Explorer'' (1995)
* ''Liberty! The American Revolution'' (1997, six-part series)
* ''AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Movies: Family Portraits'' (1998)
* ''American Photography: A Century of Images'' (1999)
* ''Nature: Dogs, The Early Years'' (2001)
* ''Benjamin Franklin'' (2002, three-part series)
* ''Twyla on Twyla'' (2004)
* ''NOVA: Saving the National Treasures'' (2005)
* ''The New Medicine'' (2006)
* ''American Experience: Alexander Hamilton'' (2007, two-part series)
* ''American Experience: Dolley Madison'' (2010, 90 minutes)
* ''The Lost Bird Project'' (2012, 90 minutes)
References
External links
Middlemarch Films website*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meyer, Muffie
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
American documentary filmmakers
Artists from Chicago
University of Chicago Laboratory Schools alumni
Grinnell College alumni
People from New York City
Tisch School of the Arts alumni