JOHN FELDMAN Filmmaker
John Feldman is a highly original and critically acclaimed filmmaker. His career spans over 40 years and covers a wide range of genres, from independent dramatic feature films and documentaries, to experimental, educational, and business films. His films have won numerous international awards.
Feldman’s current film Regenerating Life looks at the climate crisis from an ecological perspective. Prior to this he made Symbiotic Earth (2018), a documentary about the maverick scientist Lynn Margulis, which combines his lifelong passions for filmmaking and the natural sciences.
When in 2005 he was invited to make a film about the World Summit on Evolution on the Galapagos Islands, he turned his attention toward the production of documentaries in the arts and sciences. This resulted in EVO: Ten Questions Everyone Should Ask about Evolution (2011), CINE Golden Eagle; Parents Choice Award); as well as Energy and You: Renewable Resources and Innovative Solutions (2009, commissioned by San Diego County Office of Education); The Little Plant that Could IS BACK (2013), a film about the rebirth of a community-based hydroelectric plant; and a series of films about artists including video portraits of Jessye Norman, Ming Cho Lee, Helen Frankenthaler, and Merce Cunningham (2007, commissioned for the Nelson A. Rockefeller Awards).
His earlier feature films include Alligator Eyes (1990), Dead Funny (1995), and Who the Hell is Bobby Roos? (2002). Considered a pioneering digital video production, Who the Hell is Bobby Roos? won the “New American Cinema Award” on the occasion of its world premiere at the 2002 Seattle International Film Festival. His first feature film, Alligator Eyes won a first prize at the San Sebastian International Film Festival, and Screen International called it “a truly clever, funny and entertaining film,” while the London Observer said “Feldman’s handsome, intelligent movie is eloquently scripted.” Variety praised it as “unusually well written, directed and acted.” Dead Funny, which stars Elizabeth Pena and Andrew McCarthy, received critical acclaim with Variety proclaiming it “top notch,” and WBAI (NY) calling it “a steamy potion of lethal and erotic dark comedy.”
Mr. Feldman has written scripts and directed films for numerous businesses and not-for-profit organizations. He has developed a reputation for his ability to explain complex material to a general audience in a visually exciting way.
Mr. Feldman is also a teacher and mentor to students interested in becoming filmmakers and is committed to teaching communications skills and visual literacy through the production process itself. Mr. Feldman has taught film and video production at several colleges and led digital video production workshops at high schools and local community organizations.
Born in Baltimore in 1954, John Feldman’s early short films, including Dry Yearnings (1979), The Elevator Room (1980), Circus of Hostages (1982), and Two Days in the Mountains (1986) earned him numerous international film festival awards. His first film, A Sense of Existense (super-8, 1968) about a wildlife summer camp is the forerunner of his films that explore the relationships between humans and the natural world.
John Feldman has a BA in biology from the University of Chicago, an MFA from Temple University, and is a passionate naturalist.
Based in the mountains of New York State, John Feldman is married to Sheila Silver, a composer of contemporary concert music and Professor Emeritus of Music at Stony Brook University. They have one son, Victor Silver Feldman.
See John Feldman’s Filmography (2018)
