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Ezra Edelman

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Ezra Edelman
Edelman at the 70th Annual Peabody Awards, 2011
Born
Ezra Benjamin Edelman

(1974-08-06) August 6, 1974 (age 50)
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Alma materYale University (BA)
Occupation(s)Television director, television producer
Parents
RelativesJonah Edelman (brother)

Ezra Benjamin Edelman (born August 6, 1974) is an American documentary producer and director. He won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming for directing O.J.: Made in America (2016). He has also directed a documentary on the musician Prince that remains unreleased.

Early life and education

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Edelman was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He is the son of Marian Wright Edelman, former civil rights leader and aide to Martin Luther King Jr. and founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund, and Peter Edelman, former aide to Senator Robert F. Kennedy, former Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Planning and Evaluation, and professor at Georgetown University Law Center.[1] His father is Jewish.[2] He has two brothers, Joshua, an educational administrator, and Jonah, co-founder and CEO of Stand for Children. His parents were the third interracial marriage in Virginia after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the state's anti-miscegenation law in Loving v. Virginia. His paternal great-grandfather was a Polish rabbi who was killed during the Holocaust and his maternal grandfather was a Baptist minister; he was raised in both faiths.[2][3]

Edelman graduated from Sidwell Friends School in Washington D.C. in July 1992,[4] before going on to earn his bachelor's degree from Yale University.[5]

Career

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Documentary projects

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Edelman is best known for producing and directing the Academy Award-winning 2016 documentary film O.J.: Made in America for ESPN's 30 for 30.[6][7][8][9][10][11][5] In his Oscar acceptance speech, Edelman dedicated the award to Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, whom O. J. Simpson had been tried and acquitted of murdering in 1995. Previously he directed three HBO Sports documentaries: Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals,[6][7][11] The Curious Case of Curt Flood (2011)[6] and the Emmy Award-winning Brooklyn Dodgers: Ghosts of Flatbush.[7][5][12] He also wrote and directed a special on the former Big East Conference called Requiem for the Big East, also a part of the 30 for 30 series.[13] Edelman produced Wyatt Cenac's Problem Areas, an HBO documentary series that ran for two seasons.

In 2024, Edelman produced Stax: Soulsville U.S.A. for HBO, revolving around Stax Records.[14] and Vow of Silence: The Assassination of Annie Mae for Onyx Collective and Hulu, revolving around Indigenous activist Anna Mae Aquash.[15]

In 2018, it was reported that Edelman would be developing a biopic with writer Rowan Ricardo Phillips for Legendary Entertainment, based on the life of baseball player Roberto Clemente.[16]

Unreleased documentary about Prince

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Edelman directed a nine-hour documentary about the musician Prince.[17] He was recruited to the project for Netflix in 2019 by Lisa Nishimura, then vice president of independent film and documentary features, with the promise of access to "the vault", Prince’s archive of unreleased material.[17] This was negotiated by the bank administering Prince's estate; Netflix reportedly paid tens of millions of dollars for the access, in a deal that gave Edelman and Netflix editorial control of the resulting film.[17] However, while the project was underway, Nishimura was laid off and the estate changed hands, with former Prince attorney L. Londell McMillan leading objections to the depiction of Prince in the documentary, and seeking to block the film's release.[17] In September 2024, The New York Times Magazine reported, "As of today, there is no indication that the film will ever come out."[17]

Personal life

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Edelman lives in Brooklyn, New York City.

References

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  1. ^ Green, Penelope (February 7, 2017). "After Two Tragedies, a Love to Bring Down Barriers". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 23, 2020.
  2. ^ a b Lawson, Carol (October 8, 1992). "AT HOME WITH: Marian Wright Edelman; A Sense of Place Called Family". The New York Times. Retrieved March 4, 2017.
  3. ^ Weiss Shulkin, Mark (2011). 100 Years In America: A History of a Jewish family a century after Immigration. iUniverse. p. 2. ISBN 9781462010431. Retrieved March 4, 2017.
  4. ^ Malloy, Courtland (July 26, 1992). "Two Worlds Under a Cap and Gown". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 28, 2016.
  5. ^ a b c Insheiwat, Shelly (June 1, 2016). "Filmmaker Ezra Edelman: ESPN Documentary 'O.J. Made in America'". Foxla.com. Los Angeles, CA. Retrieved June 16, 2016.
  6. ^ a b c Busch, Anita (May 9, 2016). "'O.J.: Made In America' Filmmaker Ezra Edelman Lands At CAA". Deadline Hollywood. Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved June 16, 2016.
  7. ^ a b c Khal (June 9, 2016). "Ezra Edelman Made 'O.J.: Made in America' So White People Realize: "Black People Have Gone Through a Lot of Sh*t"". Complex. New York, NY. Retrieved June 16, 2016.
  8. ^ A.O. Scott, "Review: 'O.J.: Made in America,' an Unflinching Take on His Rise and Fall," The New York Times, May 19, 2016.
  9. ^ National Public Radio (June 14, 2016). "New 5-Part Series Considers The 'Perfect Perversity' Of The O.J. Simpson Case". Fresh Air. National Public Radio. Retrieved June 16, 2016.
  10. ^ Miller, James Andrew (June 10, 2016). "Why ESPN Gave Director Ezra Edelman Nearly Eight Hours for 'O.J.: Made in America'". Vanity Fair. New York, NY: Condé Nast. Retrieved June 16, 2016.
  11. ^ a b Marcus, Stephanie; Strachan, Maxwell (April 27, 2016). "Everyone Is About To Know Ezra Edelman's Name". The Huffington Post. Retrieved April 28, 2016.
  12. ^ Gough, Paul J. (April 29, 2008). "HBO Tops Sports Emmys". Hollywood Reporter. Los Angeles, CA. Retrieved June 16, 2016.
  13. ^ Steinberg, Dan (March 12, 2014). "Ezra Edelman and ESPN's 'Requiem for the Big East'". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 28, 2016.
  14. ^ White, Peter (May 3, 2022). "Stax Records Docuseries Set At HBO From Jamila Wignot & Ezra Edelman". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
  15. ^ Hailu, Selome (August 4, 2022). "Three Unscripted Series, Including Car Show From Swizz Beatz, Ordered by Disney's Onyx Collective". Variety. Retrieved November 21, 2024.
  16. ^ McClintock, Pamela (February 5, 2018). "Ezra Edelman to Direct Roberto Clemente Baseball Biopic for Legendary". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 5, 2018.
  17. ^ a b c d e Weiss, Sasha (September 8, 2024). "The Prince We Never Knew". The New York Times.
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