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Stuart Samuels is an acclaimed academic (Univ. of Penn: 1968-1981), and a film and television producer, writer, and award-winning documentary filmmaker. Visions of Light (1992); Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream (2005). His works explore the relationship of popular culture to the broader historical context of their times.
Stuart began his career first in academia. He has a Ph.D from Stanford University (1967), did post-graduate work at Oxford University (St. Antony's College) and was a professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), from 1968 to 1981, where he pioneered the teaching of cultural history using feature films from around the world. His course "Film as Social and Intellectual History" was the first course in a history department in the US to use feature films as the primary content for understanding the relationship of pop culture to intellectual history.
From 1976 to 1981, Stuart created and taught the first educational course at the Cannes Film Festival. The course used the Festival as a classroom with seminars, film showings and related activities specially designed with the Cannes Festival for Penn summer school students.
Leaving academia in 1981, Stuart turned from theory to practice joining ATI Video, to both write and produce the groundbreaking late-night music video series Night Flight, (1981-86), for the USA Network, described by TV Guide as "the most entertaining late night show on cable TV..."
In 1986, Stuart teamed up with the Academy Award-winning Polish film and music video director Zbigniew Rybczynski (Zbig Vision), to produce the first works in the US to use High Definition (HD), music videos for Herb Alpert, Mick Jagger, John Lennon, and Supertramp. The Orchestra made for PBS, won an Emmy for Best Visual Effects (1989), the L'Prix Italia (1990) and the Grand Prize at Tokyo's International Electronic Film Festival (1990).
Stuart's first feature documentary, Visions of Light The Art of Cinematography, (1993), which he produced and co-directed, was selected as "Best Documentary" of 1993 by the New York, Boston and National Film Critics. A survey of 40 major film critics named it "the most critically acclaimed film of 1993." It was selected for the Cannes, Edinburgh, London, Telluride, Toronto, New York, Tokyo and Sundance film festivals.
After the success of Visions of Light, Stuart co-directed and co-wrote the award-winning documentary, Hollywoodism: Jews, Movies and the American Dream (1998), based on the book by Neal Gabler. Stuart was named Best Feature Documentary director at Hot Docs (1998) and Hollywoodism was named Best Documentary at the 1998 Jerusalem Film Festival.
His feature documentary, Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream (2005), was based on Stuart's 1993 book Midnight Movies. A look at the phenomena of cult films in the 1970's the film had its world premiere as an Official Selection (Out of Competition), at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival, It was also selected as the opening night film at Silverdoc's 2005.
In 2011, Stuart produced, directed and wrote RasTa: A Soul's Journey (2013), a feature documentary film on the relationship of Bob Marley and Rastafarian beliefs- seen through the eyes and experiences of Donisha, Rita Marley and Bob Marley's 24 year old granddaughter.
Stuart is a Co-Producer on a feature documentary about The Beatles live tours and performances. An Apple Corps. production, with Ron Howard directing.
