Michael Shamberg

Not to be confused with Michael H. Shamberg.
Michael Shamberg
Born 1945
Chicago, Illinois
Spouse(s) Megan Williams (1974–1991; divorced; 2 children)
Carla Santos Shamberg (1 child)

Michael Shamberg (born 1945)[1] is an American former Time–Life correspondent and current film producer.

Life and career

His credits include Erin Brockovich, A Fish Called Wanda, Garden State, Gattaca, Pulp Fiction and The Big Chill. His production companies include Jersey Films, with Stacey Sher and Danny DeVito, and his current production company Double Feature Films, with Stacey Sher.

In the 1960s and 1970s, counter-culture video collectives extended the role of the underground press to new communication technologies. In 1970, Shamberg co-founded a video collective called Raindance Corporation, which published a newspaper-magazine called Radical Software. Raindance Corporation later became TVTV, or Top Value Television. Shamberg and his first wife Megan Williams were founding members of TVTV.[2] The collective believed new technology could effect social change. One example of this was Shamberg's work on In Hiding: A Conversation with Abbie Hoffman, which was broadcast on public TV's WNET/13 in May 1975, despite its content and dealings with America's renowned radical fugitive.[2]

Shamberg preferred the term Guerrilla television (the title of his 1971 book), because despite its strategies and tactics similar to warfare, Guerrilla television is non-violent. He saw Guerrilla television as a means to break through the barriers imposed by Broadcast television, which he called beast television.

The group urged for the use of Sony's Portapak video camera, introduced in 1968, to be merged with the documentary film style and television, and later pioneering the use of 3/4" video in their works. Shamberg will co-produce with Stacey Sher the film adaption of the British novel Paul Is Undead.[3]

Not to be confused with the producer and director, Michael H. Shamberg, who has a long history of association with the Manchester band, New Order.

Shamberg is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, MO.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Michael Shamberg Biography (1945?-)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Teasdale, Parry D. (1999). Videofreex. Hensonville, NY: Black Dome Press Corp. p. 214. ISBN 1-883789-21-4.
  3. ↑ Beatles Zombie Mash-Up Paul is Undead Optioned for Feature Film
  4. ↑ DuPont-Columbia Award, Columbia University, The Journalism School, The Lord of the Universe
    The Lord of the Universe, Subject: RELIGION, News Organization: TVTV, Awarded: 1974, Summary, Silver baton. 16-year-old Guru Maharaj Ji and his American following at a three day spiritual festival. Producer: David Loxton., Jurors' Comments, TVTV and WNET/13's "The Lord of the Universe", a 60-minute report on Guru Maharaj Ji, was, according to the jurors, hectic, hilarious and not a little disquieting. With a heavier and less sure hand, the subject would have been squashed beneath the reporters’ irony or contempt. As it was, cult religion was handed to us, live and quivering, to make of it what we would., Original Air Date: 2/24/1974 Total Running Time: 01:00:00, Archive Number: 1973/74.9.TV
  5. ↑ Lord of the Universe, Video Data Bank, retrieved 1/18/07.
  6. ↑ Electronic Arts Intermix, "The Lord of the Universe", 1974, TVTV, retrieved 1/18/06.
    Awarded the Alfred I. du Pont/Columbia University Award in Broadcast Journalism, The Lord of the Universe is a forceful expose on the sixteen-year-old Guru Maharaj Ji and the national gathering of his followers at the Houston Astrodome -- Millennium 73, billed as the "most significant event in the history of humanity."

External links