GEORGE T. NIERENBERG
Producer/ Director

“Nierenberg is perhaps our most accomplished and sensitive chronicler of popular performing art. If there’s any justice, he should be showered with foundation grants in order to document the work of artists who, very soon, will be leaving us without visual memoirs of their talents and achievements.”
–Joel E. Siegel, City Paper

“George T. Nierenberg... builds his movies around multifaceted characters who serve both to involve the audience and really ’open up’ the material.”
–Michael Sragow, Rolling Stone

“Nierenberg plunges into his projects with all the resources at his disposal, as willing to stage a scene – in a natural setting – as to catch one on the run.”
–David Sterritt, Christian Science Monitor

“Nierenberg’s achievement here is a masterpiece of research, diligence and direction. But his work would be meaningless if the movie didn’t convey the spirit of the people in it, and Say Amen, Somebody does that with great and mighty joy. This is a great experience.”
–Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times

GEORGE NIERENBERG is an acclaimed filmmaker whose career has spanned the worlds of independent features, network, cable and international television, and corporate productions. His fascination with the roots of American music has led to a series of remarkable non-fiction films. His award winning film, Say Amen, Somebody (MGM) explores the lives and works of the pioneers of Gospel music. Before its theatrical release, Say Amen... was celebrated at major film festivals including Cannes, Telluride, New York, Toronto and London. It was named “One of the Ten Best Films Of The Year” by People Magazine, Siskel and Ebert and Rolling Stone, among others.

The accolades for Nierenberg continued with No Maps On My Taps, his Emmy winning film on jazz tap dancing which received a theatrical release, before airing on PBS, cable and international television. The production spawned a live presentation of tap dance performances, which toured to over 60 cities around the world.

He also received an Emmy nomination for directing That Rhythm...Those Blues, a film exploring the early days of Rhythm and Blues for the prestigious PBS series The American Experience.

Nierenberg is presently working on a TV series about a seaside amusement park and a long form a documentary on classical music’s answer to error in the heath care industry and is in development on an IMAX movie Flickrworld with Flickr.

His television experience is extensive. He has produced, directed and developed projects for MGM, PBS, CBS, NBC, ABC, AMC, Bravo, Nickelodeon, Cinemax, Sony BMG and Reader’s Digest, including: Neon Lights, for National Geographic's Explorer and a film on Voodoo in Haiti for ABC’s Day One. Nierenberg was enlisted as a producer to launch Saturday Night with Connie Chung on CBS. He also served as a consultant, overseeing the non-fiction programming at Lifetime Television and presently serves as a consultant to the Associated Press, helping to oversee the video production done by their still photographers.

For VH1’s Hard Rock Live, he directed portraits of popular musical artists such as Chicago, Robert Palmer, Cyndi Lauper, Blues Traveler, Sinead O’Connor, and Boz Scaggs. For American Movie Classics he created Gotta Dance!, a two-part pilot series on ballroom dancing.

He created a series pilot for TNN, Adventure Chef, an hour TV special for Walt Disney and Bravo, Head of the Class: The Lion King, and the one-hour season opener for the series Paramedics on TLC and At The Chef’s Table for PBS.

Recently Nierenberg’s music interests have led him to work with Sony BMG, completing two DualDisc projects for them: Bill Withers’ Just As I Am and Neil Diamond’s The Jazz Singer.

Mr. Nierenberg’s corporate clients include Pfizer, Cisco, Zeiss, The Milken Foundation, McDonald's, IBM, Jack Morton, PineRock Drury Design and MJM. Of note is his film about Pfizer’s philanthropic “Sharing the Care” program, the three films he made on antibiotics for the Pfizer’s V-Fend launch, as well as the two films he made for Cisco that were shown at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions.