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David Hoffman is a Actor, Director and Director of Photography American born on 2 february 1904
David Hoffman is one of America’s veteran documentary filmmakers. During his 50-year career, Hoffman has made five feature-length documentaries including King, Murray, an experimental feature film about a Long Island salesman who goes to Las Vegas on a junket to gamble with other high rollers. King, Murray was the winner of the Critics Award at The Cannes Film Festival. Other feature films include: Earl Scruggs: His Family and Friends, starring Scruggs with Bob Dylan, Doc Watson, and The Byrds; Sing Sing Thanksgiving, a concert feature film at Sing Sing Prison in New York with B.B. King, Joan Baez and others; and It’s All Good, a film chronicling the lives of two aggressive inline skating teams in New York City and Los Angeles.
David Hoffman was born in New York, New York and raised in Levittown, Long Island by parents H. Lawrence and Eve Hoffman. Hoffman's father was an illustrator and teacher at Cooper Union and his mother was a public speaker. Although his initial career path was as a professional musician, when offered the chance to play for the Minneapolis Symphony (today known as the Minnesota Orchestra), Hoffman decided to venture into storytelling as a filmmaker. At the time, the handheld 16 mm camera had just come into prominence in documentary filmmaking, largely as a result of the Maysles Brothers. Hoffman picked up a used spring-wound Bolex 16mm movie camera and began to make movies in 1963. Because of his background, it was no coincidence that his first films were about musical themes, and at age 24 he was recognized by the United States Information Agency (USIA) as one of the ten best young filmmakers in America.
Career
Hoffman’s next venture as a filmmaker was into television. He opened his own production company, and produced programs for Public Television (including The American Dream Machine series) as well as low budget features. It was during this time his feature film, King, Murray, won the top Semaine de la Critique award at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival.
In the mid 1970s, Hoffman moved into corporate communications and learned the craft from Herb Schmertz, the well-known head of public relations and advertising at Mobil. From 1975 to 1981, Hoffman was part of a core team responsible for repositioning Mobil's public image. He produced many of the innovative projects that successfully attached Mobil’s corporate messages to public, social and artistic issues; these projects included Moon for the Misbegotten, The Magic Show and other television specials and series.
It was during this time that he learned the techniques developed by Schmertz including positioning and key messaging. This led to work involved with the use of the op-ed page in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, the staging of special events like MOMA’s Summer Garden, the production of corporate books and catalogues, the development of television series like Ten Who Dared and PBS’ Upstairs Downstairs, as well as some of the most unusual television commercials ever produced. Hoffman's 1977 series of television commercials was actually reviewed in the New York Times. Beyond Mobil, Hoffman was responsible for the development of similar communications programs for UTC, Aetna, Motorola, TRW, Merck and others.
Hoffman made more than 100 primetime documentary television specials and series mostly for PBS, Turner, A&E and Discovery. Among his most notable are Ten Who Dared with Anthony Quinn, the landmark PBS series Making Sense Of The Sixties, and Turner Broadcasting’s Moon Shot, winner of the Peabody Award for best TV series and nominated for two Emmys. Most of Hoffman's documentary films have been independently sponsored and not produced by a television network.
Hoffman is a traditional documentary filmmaker who often writes, shoots, directs, edits, and even narrates his films. To support his status and role in American cinematography, Hoffman has received numerous awards from national and international film festivals and competitions.
Hoffman spent much of his career producing films in Camden, Maine. Today he lives and works in Bonny Doon, California. He lost almost everything he owned, including his house and long prized possessions, in a fire in 2008.
Source : Wikidata
David Hoffman
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Biography
Early lifeDavid Hoffman was born in New York, New York and raised in Levittown, Long Island by parents H. Lawrence and Eve Hoffman. Hoffman's father was an illustrator and teacher at Cooper Union and his mother was a public speaker. Although his initial career path was as a professional musician, when offered the chance to play for the Minneapolis Symphony (today known as the Minnesota Orchestra), Hoffman decided to venture into storytelling as a filmmaker. At the time, the handheld 16 mm camera had just come into prominence in documentary filmmaking, largely as a result of the Maysles Brothers. Hoffman picked up a used spring-wound Bolex 16mm movie camera and began to make movies in 1963. Because of his background, it was no coincidence that his first films were about musical themes, and at age 24 he was recognized by the United States Information Agency (USIA) as one of the ten best young filmmakers in America.
Career
Hoffman’s next venture as a filmmaker was into television. He opened his own production company, and produced programs for Public Television (including The American Dream Machine series) as well as low budget features. It was during this time his feature film, King, Murray, won the top Semaine de la Critique award at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival.
In the mid 1970s, Hoffman moved into corporate communications and learned the craft from Herb Schmertz, the well-known head of public relations and advertising at Mobil. From 1975 to 1981, Hoffman was part of a core team responsible for repositioning Mobil's public image. He produced many of the innovative projects that successfully attached Mobil’s corporate messages to public, social and artistic issues; these projects included Moon for the Misbegotten, The Magic Show and other television specials and series.
It was during this time that he learned the techniques developed by Schmertz including positioning and key messaging. This led to work involved with the use of the op-ed page in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, the staging of special events like MOMA’s Summer Garden, the production of corporate books and catalogues, the development of television series like Ten Who Dared and PBS’ Upstairs Downstairs, as well as some of the most unusual television commercials ever produced. Hoffman's 1977 series of television commercials was actually reviewed in the New York Times. Beyond Mobil, Hoffman was responsible for the development of similar communications programs for UTC, Aetna, Motorola, TRW, Merck and others.
Hoffman made more than 100 primetime documentary television specials and series mostly for PBS, Turner, A&E and Discovery. Among his most notable are Ten Who Dared with Anthony Quinn, the landmark PBS series Making Sense Of The Sixties, and Turner Broadcasting’s Moon Shot, winner of the Peabody Award for best TV series and nominated for two Emmys. Most of Hoffman's documentary films have been independently sponsored and not produced by a television network.
Hoffman is a traditional documentary filmmaker who often writes, shoots, directs, edits, and even narrates his films. To support his status and role in American cinematography, Hoffman has received numerous awards from national and international film festivals and competitions.
Hoffman spent much of his career producing films in Camden, Maine. Today he lives and works in Bonny Doon, California. He lost almost everything he owned, including his house and long prized possessions, in a fire in 2008.
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Filmography of David Hoffman (4 films)
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The Beast with Five Fingers (1947)
, 1h28Directed by Robert Florey
Origin USA
Genres Thriller, Horror
Themes Medical-themed films, Films about music and musicians, Ghost films, Piano, Films about disabilities
Actors Robert Alda, Andrea King, Peter Lorre, Victor Francen, J. Carrol Naish, Charles Dingle
Roles Duprex
Rating64%
Francis Ingram (Victor Francen) is a noted pianist who lives in a large manor house near a small, isolated Italian village. Ingram suffered a stroke which left his right side immobile, and he has to use a wheelchair to get around. He has retreated to the manor house for the past few years—seen by only a few close friends. These include his nurse, Julie Holden (Andrea King); a musicologist (and amateur astrologist), Hillary Cummins (Peter Lorre); a friend, Bruce Conrad (Robert Alda); and his sister's son, Donald Arlington (John Alvin). Ingram has fallen in love with Julie Holden, and has changed his will so that she receives the vast bulk of his enormous estate when he dies. But Julie is secretly in love with Conrad. The change in the will disinherits Arlington and Cummins, and Cummins tries to expose Holden's affair. Ingram, outraged at the slander on his beloved's good name, tries to choke Cummins to death. Only Julie's arrival (after meeting Conrad in the garden) saves him.
Directed by Ray Taylor, Lewis D. Collins
Origin USA
Genres Action, Adventure
Themes Transport films, Aviation films, Political films
Actors Tom Brown, Rose Hobart, Edgar Barrier, Marjorie Lord, Keye Luke, Sidney Toler
Roles John (Johann) O. Blenker, a Nazi spy
Rating63%
In 1941, an American aviator, 'Smilin' Jack' Martin wishes to resign as an advisor to the Nationalist Chinese Army in order to return to the United States to enlist as an aviator in America's military buildup prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. He is delayed when the Chinese discover that the neutral Tibetan like Mandon "Province" contains a secret road from India to China crucial for the Allied war effort. Determined to obtain the secret for themselves, or equally determined to have the secret destroyed is the Japanese espionage organisation "The Black Samurai" and the German intelligence agent Fräulein von Teufel who masquerades as an American newspaper reporter.
Director
How Hitler Lost the War (1989)
, 1h7Directed by David Hoffman
Origin USA
Genres Documentary
Themes Documentary films about war, Documentary films about historical events, Political films, Documentary films about World War II
Rating74%
Cameraman
Dynamite Chicken (1971)
, 1h16Directed by Ernest Pintoff
Origin USA
Genres Comedy
Actors Richard Pryor, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Patti Deutsch, Bill Saluga, George Memmoli
Roles Director of Photography
Rating49%