Based in New York City, Adam Schlesinger is an Emmy-nominated independent film director and producer of award-winning films. Schlesinger directed and produced with Linda Saffire Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan. The film had its world premiere at the New York Film Festival. It went on to play in theaters around the country and was acquired by Netflix and Kino Lorber. Schlesinger co-directed and produced Sporting Dreams, a documentary film for Al Jazeera America examining youth sports in America.
Schlesinger produced Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, a documentary on the Chinese artist and social activist Ai Weiwei. The film had its premiere in the documentary competition at the Sundance Film Festival where it won a special Jury Prize. Released theatrically by IFC/ Sundance Selects it made the Academy Award short list for best documentary and was nominated for a Golden Eye Award and was the winner of the prestigious DuPont- Columbia Award. Schlesinger conceived and produced the documentary Smash His Camera, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. It was acquired by HBO and Magnolia Pictures.
For his work on Smash His Camera, Schlesinger was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Arts and Cultural Programming as well as by the Producers Guild of America for outstanding producer. Schlesinger was a producer of Page One- Inside The New York Times, which was nominated for a 2012 Emmy Award for Best Informational Programming, Long Form. He was an executive producer of God Grew Tired of Us, a documentary film that won both the Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. It was released theatrically in 2007 by Newmarket Films and National Geographic. His latest film as an Executive Producer is Afterward. The film had its world premiere at DOC NYC and was acquired by 1091 and will be released theatrically by Abramorama in the fall of 2019. Schlesinger has a law degree from St Johns University School of Law.
LINDA SAFFIRE, Director/Producer
Linda Saffire is an award-winning Director and Producer of documentary films. Her film Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan (NY Times Critics’ Pick) premiered at the New York Film Festival, won the Chita Rivera Award for outstanding direction in a documentary, and is currently listed in Netflix's "top movies to stream.”
Her credits include: A Conversation with Gregory Peck (Cannes Film Festival special selection), a collaboration with Barbara Kopple & Cecilia Peck; Wild Man Blues, a feature-length film on Woody Allen and his New Orleans Jazz Band, which was selected by the National Board of Review and the Broadcast Critics’ Association as Best Documentary of 1998; My Generation, a documentary feature examining the Woodstock legacy; Married In America, a film by Michael Apted (7 Up), a multi-year, multi-program documentary following the lives of nine couples across the country; Smash His Camera, a collaboration with Adam Schlesinger and Academy Award-winning director Leon Gast about famed paparazzo Ron Galella, which won Best Director at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for Best Documentary by the 2011 Producers Guild Awards and the 2011 News & Television Emmys; and Sporting Dreams, a feature film for Al Jazeera America examining youth sports in America.
Recently, she produced By Whatever Means Necessary: The Times of Godfather of Harlem for EPIX and Seduced: Inside the NXIVM Cult, both were released Fall 2020.