Stefan Nadelman
Encyclopedia
Career
Nadelman's first short film, Latin Alive (2000), a colorful, Schoolhouse Rock-like sing-a-long created in MacromediaMacromedia
Macromedia was an American graphics and web development software company headquartered in San Francisco, California that produced such products as Flash and Dreamweaver. Its rival, Adobe Systems, acquired Macromedia on December 3, 2005 and controls the line of Macromedia...
Flash, was submitted to only one festival, Resfest
RESFest
RESFEST was by the 2000s the most prominent digital film festival in North America. It was a leading global showcase of new digital filmmakers alongside England's Onedotzero festival. The festival toured the world and in 2005 travelled to 35 cities in the USA, Canada, UK, Japan, Australia,...
2000, where it premiered and subsequently garnered a spot on the Best of Resfest Vol. 1 DVD.
In 2003, the short documentary Terminal Bar
Terminal Bar (film)
Terminal Bar is an award winning American documentary short film directed by Stefan Nadelman.-Plot:A fast paced, photo-driven documentary of one of the seediest bars in Times Square, the Terminal Bar, as seen through haunting black and white photographs taken by bartender Sheldon Nadelman from 1972...
showcased the down-and-out denizens of the notorious Times Square watering hole by using the black and white photographs taken by the bartender and director's father, Sheldon Nadelman. The 22 minute exposé earned him the Grand Jury Prize for Short Film at the Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
. The film went on to screen at over 60 other film festivals worldwide, gathering 11 more awards and earning a spot on Cinema16
Cinema16
Cinema16 is a small British DVD company who release "classic & award winning short films on DVD".The compilations they release feature short films from famous directors such as Ridley Scott, Tim Burton, Christopher Nolan, Guillermo del Toro, Jean-Luc Godard, Mike Leigh and George Lucas, as well as...
's American Short Films DVD alongside the short films of better known directors such as Tim Burton
Tim Burton
Timothy William "Tim" Burton is an American film director, film producer, writer and artist. He is famous for dark, quirky-themed movies such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet...
, Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
, Alexander Payne
Alexander Payne
Alexander Payne, born Alexander Constantine Papadopoulos is an American film director and screenwriter. His films are noted for their dark humor and satirical depictions of contemporary American society.- Early life :...
, Todd Solondz
Todd Solondz
Todd Solondz is an American independent film screenwriter and director known for his style of dark, thought-provoking, socially conscious satire. Solondz has been critically acclaimed for his examination of the "dark underbelly of middle class American suburbia", a reflection of his own background...
, George Lucas
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
, and Gus Van Sant
Gus Van Sant
Gus Green Van Sant, Jr. is an American director, screenwriter, painter, photographer, musician, and author. He is a two time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director for his 1997 film Good Will Hunting and his 2008 film Milk, both of which were also nominated for Best Picture, and won the...
.
In the following two years, Nadelman worked closely with the producers at VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
to develop the animated style of their hit show The Fabulous Life, collaborated with Brent Rollins of Ego Trip
Ego trip (magazine)
ego trip was the name of a hip hop magazine started in New York City in 1994. It lasted four years and 13 issues and distinguished itself based on its irreverence and defiant attitude, eventually adopting the tagline, "the arrogant voice of musical truth."-Description:The roots of the publication...
for the collective's series of shows on racism, and two image spots for HBO's Sunday night lineup .
In 2004, Nadelman joined the roster at Curious Pictures
Curious Pictures
Curious Pictures is an American animation studio and multi-media company set in New York City and Santa Monica that creates and produces television programs, commercials, animation and videogames for audiences worldwide....
where he directed commercials and animations for companies such as Mike and Ike
Mike and Ike
Mike and Ike is a brand of fruit-flavored candies. They were first introduced in 1940 by Just Born, Inc., of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, a family-owned company founded in 1923.-The candy:...
, Volkswagen
Volkswagen
Volkswagen is a German automobile manufacturer and is the original and biggest-selling marque of the Volkswagen Group, which now also owns the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, and Škoda marques and the truck manufacturer Scania.Volkswagen means "people's car" in German, where it is...
, Scion, and AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
. He then joined forces with Robert Smigel
Robert Smigel
Robert Smigel is an American actor, humorist, comedian and writer known for his Saturday Night Live "TV Funhouse" cartoon shorts and as the puppeteer and voice behind Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog.-Early life:...
to direct and animate the SNL TV Funhouse
TV Funhouse
Saturday TV Funhouse is the title of a recurring skit on NBC's Saturday Night Live featuring cartoons created by longtime SNL writer Robert Smigel as well as a short-lived spinoff series TV Funhouse that ran on Comedy Central...
episodes Celebrity Mugshot Poker (Dec. 10, 2005), Republican Attack Ads (Oct. 28, 2006), and Frontline: 2007 Year in Review (Jan. 20, 2007).
While creating the opening animations for Resfest
RESFest
RESFEST was by the 2000s the most prominent digital film festival in North America. It was a leading global showcase of new digital filmmakers alongside England's Onedotzero festival. The festival toured the world and in 2005 travelled to 35 cities in the USA, Canada, UK, Japan, Australia,...
2005, Nadelman produced special animations for The Tribe, a short film about being an American Jew by award winning director Tiffany Shlain
Tiffany Shlain
Tiffany Shlain is an American filmmaker and founder of the Webby Awards. Recognized by Newsweek as "one of the women shaping the 21st century."-Bio:...
, whom he met during their respective screenings at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. After working with the city of Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
by directing a video to unveil their new logo, Nadelman teamed up with director Brett Morgen to create digitally photoanimated sequences for his feature film Chicago 10 (film)
Chicago 10 (film)
Chicago 10: Speak Your Peace is a partially animated film written and directed by Brett Morgen that tells the story of the Chicago Eight...
(2007).
Food Fight (2006), an American-centric, abridged history of war told through the foods of the countries in conflict, was Nadelman's fifth short film, and was slated to tour with Resfest's 10th anniversary festival but the company dissolved before touring began. Rejected by a dozen renowned film festivals, Food Fight found its way to Atom Films
Atom Films
Atom.com is a broadband entertainment network offering original short subject films, animations, and series by independent creators...
, BoingBoing, and eventually YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
where the film went viral and has racked up millions of views.
In October 2006, the director moved to Portland, OR where he collaborated with Brent Knopf to direct and animate the music video Evil Bee (2007) for the indie rock band Menomena
Menomena
Menomena are an indie rock band from Portland, Oregon, United States; currently made up of Justin Harris, Danny Seim and more recently Joe Haege of 31Knots and Tu Fawning...
. Nadelman then acted as visual effects supervisor for Kris Belman's More Than a Game
More Than a Game
More Than a Game is a 2009 American documentary film that follows NBA superstar LeBron James and four of his teammates through the trials and tribulations of high school basketball in Akron, Ohio, and James's journey to fame. The film trailer was released in April featuring the single "Stronger" by...
(2008), a feature documentary film chronicling the high school basketball careers of LeBron James
LeBron James
LeBron Raymone James is an American professional basketball player for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association . Nicknamed "King James", he was a three-time "Mr. Basketball" of Ohio in high school, and was highly promoted in the national media as a future NBA superstar while a...
and his teammates aka the "Fab 5". Nadelman teamed up again with Brent Knopf to direct and animate the music video I Say Fever (2009) for Knopf's solo project Ramona Falls
Ramona Falls (band)
Ramona Falls is an indie rock project founded by Brent Knopf and based in Portland, Oregon. Brent Knopf was also one-third of the band Menomena.-History:The project took shape after Menomena's recording process for their third album was delayed...
, for the debut album, Intuit.
In 2011, Nadelman completed work as director of animation for Connected: A Declaration of Interdependence, a documentary feature film by Tiffany Shlain. which premiered in the documentary category at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.
Short Filmography
- (2000) Latin Alive
- (2002) Terminal BarTerminal Bar (film)Terminal Bar is an award winning American documentary short film directed by Stefan Nadelman.-Plot:A fast paced, photo-driven documentary of one of the seediest bars in Times Square, the Terminal Bar, as seen through haunting black and white photographs taken by bartender Sheldon Nadelman from 1972...
- (2002) Tourist Pictures
- (2004) One Step Ahead
- (2006) Food Fight
- (2007) Evil Bee
- (2009) I Say Fever
- (2010) Terminal Bar: Pimps and Prostitutes
- (2010) Terminal Bar: Porters, Bouncers, and Bartenders
External links
- Director's Notes 2008 podcast interview with Stefan Nadelman.
- Videology-tv.com Interview with Stefan Nadelman.