Joel Eisenberg
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Joel Eisenberg is an entrepreneur, a writer and teacher. He has been writing professionally since 1986 in varied media, starting as a columnist for a series of national sports-entertainment periodicals and segueing to independent feature film assignments. Joel has written or co-written several full-length screenplays, many on assignment or optioned from spec, sold or produced, including the multi-award-winning drama "Out of the Black," starring Oscar nominee Sally Kirkland, Tyler Christopher, Sally Struthers and Dee Wallace Stone. He is the former director of the San Diego Film Festival Screenplay Competition, and he continues to mentor creative artists worldwide.
Joel has written or contributed to several books, including "How to Survive a Day Job," "Tales of the Dead" (a re-publication of the long-lost book of German ghost stories that inspired Mary Shelley to write "Frankenstein"), "Championship Networking" and numerous others. He has written more than 30 commercial media spots for such clients as McDonalds. Joel has also worked in production finance, raising several million dollars in national and local program funding for diverse PBS programming including "California's Gold" with Huell Howser, "American Playhouse," Masterpiece Theater" and "The Puzzle Place." Joel presently utilizes his extensive resources to fund an ongoing slate of feature films.
In 2004, Joel received substantial international publicity, appearing on television news programs and featured in newspapers around the world when he was hired by a private party to identify, organize and archive a substantial lot of original handwritten John Steinbeck materials, referred to by a noted historian as one of the most important literary finds of the century. The archive was auctioned in mid-2007.
Joel attributes his marketing acumen to on-the-job training and to being an independent filmmaker and publisher. He supports special education programs and worked as a teacher for at-risk youth, including gang members, drug abusers and victims of physical abuse in such avenues as creative writing. He is an in-demand speaker who has spoken for arts and educational organizations nationwide on topics as diverse as "Maverick Career Strategies for Creative Artists" and "Self-Perpetuating Marketing for the Busy Entrepreneur." He is proud to disclose that all of his speaking engagements are based on personal experiences.
On the film front, Joel is writing and producing the biopic "Ghoulishly Yours, William M. Gaines" with director John Landis ("National Lampoon's Animal House," "The Blues Brothers") for a 2009 shoot, and executive producing "April Showers," a docudrama based on the Columbine tragedy, with his EMO Films partners Tim Owens and Eugene Mandelcorn. Filming commences in May of '08. In 2008, EMO Films attained the rights to produce the feature version of "Cage of Stars," based on the best-selling novel by Oprah Book Club winner Jacquelyn Mitchard.
In 2007, Joel began moderating the ALL CITIES MEDIA GROUP, a professional film financing organization, with co-founder Eric Shaw. The ALL CITIES MEDIA GROUP (ACMG) is the ALL CITIES RESOURCE GROUP's (www.allcities.org) invitation-only entertainment network, comprised of bankers and lenders who finance motion picture and television projects, hedge fund managers, private equity investors, entertainment attorneys, accountants with a strong client base in the industry, motion picture production executives, motion picture distribution executives, filmmakers, producers and producers' representatives, and distributors. The goal of the ACMG is to maintain an organized collective with the intent of providing financial opportunities, in the form of referrals, jobs and partnerships among its members. This group is for accomplished entertainment professionals, and those looking to invest in entertainment-related ventures. Their website is www.allcitiesmedia.com.
