Mitchell Block, M.B.A., M.F.A.

Adjunct Faculty

213.740.3304
mwblock@directcinema.com
LUC 302
http://docunomics.blogspot.com/

Mitchell Block specializes in producing, marketing and distributing independent features, docs and shorts, teaching non-mainstream and non-theatrical producing. He is an executive producer of Carrier, a 10-hour series which he conceived and co-created for the Carrier Project. He is also a producer of the companion feature documentary Another Day in Paradise. Financed and distributed by Mel Gibson's Icon Productions, it is the largest budget verite documentary made to date. This series will air on PBS in March-April 2008.
 
Block received both his BFA and MFA in film and television production from New York University's, School of the Arts, Institute of Film and Television and his MBA from Columbia University's Graduate School of Business Administration.  Block was a producing fellow at the American Film Institute (AFI) and is a member of Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the Television Academy, a founding member of BAFTA-LA and a life member of the University Film and Video Association and the International Documentary Association. Block was also a member of SMPTE and the IES.
 
For seven years Block worked as an acquisitions consultant for HBO Original Pictures (documentaries). In 2002, Block was an executive producer of the Academy award-winning documentary "Big Mama" for HBO. He has written numerous articles on independent production and distribution and is a columnist for Release Print published by the Film Arts Foundation on producing and a regular contributor to International Documentary.
 
He is currently an executive producer on Stealing America, a feature documentary about the 2004 and 2006 election. His company, Direct Cinema Limited has handled the marketing and distribution of over 60 Oscar nominated and winning documentaries, short and animated films. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Short Films and Animation Branch Executive Committee, The Film Scholars Committee and the Academy Foundation Institutional Grants Committee.
 
He is a columnist for "Release Print" published by the Film Arts Foundation and a regular contributor to "International Documentary."  He occasionally writes about the film and television business, education and production on his blog site, "Docunomics."