Brett Morgen

Not to be confused with Brett Morgan.

Brett Morgen
Morgen at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival
Born	(1968-10-11) October 11, 1968 (age 56) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Alma mater	Hampshire College (BA) New York University (MFA)
Occupation(s)	Film director, producer
Spouse	Debra Eisenstadt
Children	3

Brett D. Morgen (born October 11, 1968)^[1] is an American documentary filmmaker. His directorial credits include The Kid Stays in the Picture (2002), Crossfire Hurricane (2012), Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck (2015), Jane (2017), and Moonage Daydream (2022).

Early life

Morgen was born October 11, 1968, in Los Angeles, California.^[1] He was named after USC football lineman Britt Williams, who was team captain in 1961, but his parents misspelled the name.^[2] He was raised in the San Fernando Valley, primarily in Studio City, where his father worked as a high school physical education teacher.^[2] According to Morgen, he was an avid movie fan from a young age, and knew he wanted to be a filmmaker.^[2][3] He attended the Crossroads School in Santa Monica, California.^[2]

Morgen attended Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, where he earned a B.A. in history in 1987, before graduating with an MFA in filmmaking from New York University in 1991.^[4]

Career

Morgen made Ollie's Army while a student at New York University. The film focuses on the exploits of the James Madison University College Republicans during Oliver North's senatorial campaign of 1994.^[5][6][7]

On the Ropes was nominated for an Academy Award in 2000 for Best Documentary. The boxing documentary was directed by Morgen and Nanette Burstein, and examined the lives of three aspiring prizefighters and their coach. The film won Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary by the Directors Guild of America.^{[citation needed]}

The Kid Stays in the Picture is a documentary biopic about film producer Robert Evans, focusing on his major hits, like The Godfather, and his tumultuous personal life. Once again, Morgen teamed with Nanette Burstein.^{[citation needed]}

Chicago 10 is a film about the Chicago Eight. The film uses animation and celebrity voice-overs from Hank Azaria, Dylan Baker, Nick Nolte, Mark Ruffalo, Roy Scheider, Liev Schreiber, James Urbaniak, and Jeffrey Wright.^{[citation needed]}

June 17th, 1994 aired on ESPN as an episode of 30 for 30 and featured on-air commentary by Morgen. It was the only 30 for 30 episode to date that included no interviews or voice-overs, consisting solely of the actual TV footage on June 17, 1994. This was the date of the O. J. Simpson slow-moving police chase, and the other important sports stories of that day that were mostly ignored, due to the American public's fascination with Simpson.^{[citation needed]}

Next, Morgan directed Crossfire Hurricane (2012), a documentary on The Rolling Stones, followed by the Kurt Cobain documentary film Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck (2015).^[8] His next film was Jane (2017), which follows the life of primatologist Jane Goodall, produced by National Geographic.^[9]

Morgen began working on the David Bowie documentary Moonage Daydream in 2017.^[10] The film was released theatrically in 2022 after premiering at the Cannes Film Festival.^[10]

Personal life

Morgen is married to filmmaker Debra Eisenstadt, with whom he has three children: Sky, Max and Jasper.^[3]

On January 5, 2017, while working on the film Moonage Daydream, Morgen suffered a near-fatal heart attack and flatlined three times while receiving medical care.^[10] The heart attack resulted in Morgen being in a coma for a week, but he survived.^[11][12] In a 2022 interview, Morgen attributed his heart attack to years of smoking, stress, and lack of exercise.^[11]

Filmography

Feature-length films

• Ollie's Army (1996)
• On the Ropes (1999) (Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature nomination)
• The Kid Stays in the Picture (2002)
• The Sweet Science (2003)
• Chicago 10 (2007)
• Truth in Motion (2010)
• June 17th, 1994 (2010) (30 for 30)
• Crossfire Hurricane (2012)
• Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck (2015) (Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program nomination)
• Jane (2017) (Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program winner) ^[13]
• Moonage Daydream (2022)

Television series

• On Tour (1997)
• Say It Loud (2001)
• "Nimrod Nation" (2007) Won Peabody Award (2008)
• Marvel's Runaways (2017)

Awards and nominations

Year	Title	Award	Result
2023	Moonage Daydream
		Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program	Nominated
		Outstanding Writing for a Nonfiction Program	Nominated
		Outstanding Picture Editing for a Nonfiction Program	Nominated
		Outstanding Sound Editing for a Nonfiction or Reality Program (Single or Multi-Camera)	Won	Grammy Award for Best Music Film	Won
2018	Jane	Cinema for Peace International Green Film Award	Won
		BAFTA Film Award for Best Documentary	Nominated [14]
		Cinema Eye Audience Choice Award	Won [15]
		Copenhagen International Documentary Festival Politiken's Audience Award	Nominated
		Gold Derby Award for Best Documentary Feature	Nominated
		International Online Cinema Award for Best Documentary	Nominated
		OFTA Best Documentary Picture	Nominated
		Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming	Won [16]
		Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Nonfiction Program	Nominated
		Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Picture Editing for Nonfiction Programming	Nominated
		Primetime Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking	Nominated
		Producers Guild of America Award for Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures	Nominated
		Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival WWF Award	Nominated
		Writers Guild of America Award for Best Documentary Screenplay	Won[17]
2017		Amsterdam International Film Festival Audience Favorite Award	Nominated
		Awards Circuit Community Award for Best Documentary Feature	Nominated
		BFI London Film Festival Grierson Award for Best Documentary	Won
		Zelda Penzel Giving Voice to the Voiceless Award	Nominated
		Philadelphia Film Festival Student Choice Award	Won
2016	Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck	American Cinema Editors Eddie Award for Best Edited Documentary Feature	Nominated
		Cinema Eye Audience Choice Award	Nominated
		Cinema Eye Honors Award for Outstanding Achievement in Editing	Nominated
		Seattle Film Critics Award	Nominated
		Writers Guild of America Award for Best Documentary Screenplay	Nominated
2015		Ashland Independent Film Award for Best Editing: Feature Length Documentary	Won
		International Documentary Association Creative Recognition Award for Best Editing	Won
		Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Picture Editing for Nonfiction Programming	Nominated
		Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming	Nominated
		Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special	Nominated
		Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Programming	Nominated
2013	Crossfire Hurricane	FOCAL Award for Best Use of Footage in a Production Featuring Music	Won
2009	Chicago 10	Writers Guild of America Award for Best Documentary Screenplay	Nominated
2008		Cinema Eye Honors Award for Outstanding Achievement in Production	Nominated
		SLFCA Award Best Animated Film	Nominated
2007		Silver Hugo Award for Best Documentary Feature	Won
2003	The Kid Stays in the Picture	International Online Cinema Award for Best Documentary	Nominated
		OFTA Film Award	Nominated
2000	On the Ropes	Academy Awards Best Documentary Feature	Nominated [18]
		Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary	Won
		Film Independent Spirit Truer Than Fiction Award	Nominated
1999		International Documentary Association Award for Best Documentary Feature	Won
		Silver Spire Award for Film & Video - Society and Culture	Won
		Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize for Documentary	Won
		Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize for Documentary	Nominated[19]
		Taos Talking Picture Festival Land Grant Award	Nominated
		Urbanworld Film Festival Jury Prize for Best Documentary	Won
1996	Ollie's Army	UFVA Film Festival First Prize	Won

^{[citation needed]}

References

1. "Brett D Morgen, Born 10/11/1968 in Los Angeles County, California". The California Birth Index. Retrieved April 5, 2016.
2. Rushfield, Richard (May 1, 2015). "Brett Morgen: The Making of 'Montage of Heck's Mad Scientist". Uproxx. Archived from the original on September 30, 2018.
3. Levine, Edward (November 13, 2009). "Director's Suite". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 26, 2018.
4. "Filmmaker: Morgen, Brett". DCEFF. Archived from the original on March 16, 2022.
5. "Movie Reviews". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. 2015. Archived from the original on 18 May 2015. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
6. Cinema Texas Austin Chronicle September 27, 1996
7. Ollie's Army (1996) - Overview - TCM.com
8. Welch, Andy (January 4, 2013). "'Crossfire Hurricane' director reveals first details of Kurt Cobain film". NME. Archived from the original on December 29, 2016.
9. O'Falt, Chris (August 22, 2018). "'Jane': Why 50-Year Old 16mm Archival Footage of Goodall and the Chimps Looks So Good". IndieWire. Archived from the original on November 3, 2021.
10. Blyth, Antonia (May 23, 2022). "Brett Morgen Reveals He Flatlined After Heart Attack While Making 'Moonage Daydream', Felt Bowie "Was Guiding Me Through Recovery" — Cannes Studio". Deadline. Archived from the original on June 28, 2022.
11. Parker, Lyndsey (September 8, 2022). "'Moonage Daydream' director Brett Morgen nearly died making Bowie doc: 'I can't talk about the messaging of the film without talking about the heart attack'". Yahoo!. Archived from the original on September 9, 2022.
12. Dwyer, Michael (August 25, 2022). "'I want to live': The hidden tears that unlocked an epic David Bowie movie". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on August 27, 2022.
13. 2018 Creative Arts Emmys: Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program-Television Academy
14. 2018 Film Documentary-BAFTA Awards
15. "The Results Are In!". 12 January 2018.
16. "2018 Creative Arts Emmy Awards: The Complete List of Winners". Archived from the original on 2022-03-18. Retrieved 2018-09-26.
17. Brett Morgen wins the 2018 Writers Guild Documentary Screenplay Award for Jane-WGA West
18. Documentary Winners: 2000 Oscars
19. CNN - Winners at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival - February 1, 1999

External links

• Brett Morgen at IMDb