Filmmakers Making A Social Impact: Why & How Filmmaker Dan Loewenthal of Magic Circle Productions Is Helping To Change Our World
To make an impact you need to do research; learn as much as you can. You need to read, learn history, stay current with events happening in the world and support the arts. You need to create as many relationships with all kinds of people that you can. Never assume you know all you need to know about any subject or idea.
As a part of our series about “Filmmakers Making A Social Impact” I had the pleasure of interviewing Dan Loewenthal.
Daniel Loewenthal — director, editor, and producer of The Best of the Best: Jazz from Detroit — has edited over 45 feature films, including Hard Choices, The Cutting Edge, Voices in Wartime, The Music in You, Missing in Action, Stephen King’s Silver Bullet, Friday the 13th Part IV and Cadillac Ranch. He has worked for major film studios such as Paramount, Orion, and Turner Productions, as well as independent producers Dino De Laurentiis and Cannon Films. Loewenthal is also finishing Big House, a documentary he produced and directed about Clarence (Big House) Gaines, a legendary Black college basketball coach. Magic Circle Productions LLC Daniel Loewenthal and Roberta Friedman, filmmaking partners in their company, Magic Circle Productions LLC, have collaborated on multiple films about the African American experience. Power to Heal: Medicare and The Civil Rights Revolution (2018), an award-winning documentary about Medicare’s role in desegregating hospitals, was narrated by Danny Glover and aired nationally on PBS. Friedman and Loewenthal were two of the producers, and Loewenthal directed the film. Their interest in Detroit dates to 2013, when they visited the city to shoot a segment of their video installation, Cosmopolis: 49 Waltzes for the World, ultimately seen at the Baryshnikov Art Center in New York and the Montclair (N.J) Art Museum. Captivated by Detroit and the resilient spirit of its residents, the filmmakers were determined to return. The Best of the Best: Jazz from Detroit provided the opportunity to dig deeper into the city’s fertile cultural and historical soil.
Thank you so much for doing this interview with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to get to know you a bit. Can you share your “backstory” that brought you to this career?
I was an avid reader. I loved storytelling and stories. In college I began watching films seriously, especially documentaries, films of the French New Wave, American Film Noir and Italian Neo Realism. My love of these genres created a desire to make films. My first efforts were during that early period of my life and in response to those influences.
I moved to California after college and entered the film industry doing any jobs I could just to be on a film set. In a few years I became a working film editor and eventually spent over 20 years editing many narrative feature films. The craft of editing deepened my understanding of the story telling process and set the stage for my becoming a director/filmmaker.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I made many mistakes coming up in the industry. In retrospect most were not funny. They were usually the result of ignorance and arrogance. Some of my missteps could have put an early end to my career. In one film I was a grip and drove a large, slow truck for the first time in my life. I was late to the set the first to two days not anticipating how slow the heavy truck was. The Key Grip said to me “if you are late again, don’t bother coming.” I allowed more time on the next day and kept the job. Somehow luck always prevailed, and I was able to overcome my mistakes and have a long and exciting career. Mistakes can be costly and dangerous to the process, but can also be invaluable, necessary learning experiences.
Who are some of the most interesting people you have interacted with? What was that like? Do you have any stories?
I have met many talented and well-known people working in the industry. In my first year in the business at the age of 21, I was a production assistant on “Steelyard Blues” and got to know Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland. On the set one night, Donald came up to me after a take and asked me how he did. I was overwhelmed and honored. A few weeks later I worked on “Journey Thru the Past” and got to work at Neil Young’s ranch for several weeks while his band recorded the “Harvest” album in his barn. It was a vivid experience I will never forget. I hung some lights in the barn during the shoot and I could see them on the cover of the album and used to point them out proudly to friends.
A short while after the Neil Young experience, I worked for the great documentarians, Albert and David Maysles while they were planning “Grey Gardens.” I learned a great deal about documentary film production and editing there.
I have worked with many interesting actors, personalities, Chuck Norris, Charles Bronson, Dolph Lungren, Christina Applegate, Gary Busey, sports figures; Oscar De La Hoya, Roger Clemens,Wade Boggs and Earl Monroe.
Over the years I have worked with many talented cinematographers, composers, and technicians and great Producers, like Dino DeLaurentis and Frank Mancuso.
Which people in history inspire you the most? Why?
I am inspired by Francois Truffaut. His “400 Blows” compelled me to be a filmmaker. Nelson Mandela; I was in South Africa on a film when he led his country out of the dark era of Apartheid, and it was uplifting. Anwar Sadat; an unlikely, courageous peace maker. Robert Kennedy, (not Jr.!) I felt he was the future of the country, someone who saw a different path and turned his life around. I think the country suffered from the leadership it lost when he was killed.
Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview, how are you using your success to bring goodness to the world? Can you share with us the meaningful or exciting social impact causes you are working on right now?
I have always believed that filmmaking can be a force for good. I have done my fair share of commercial films and action films that pander to certain audiences solely for entertainment purposes.
I do think that entertainment matters as a counterbalance to the difficulties of everyday life, but I am prouder of the socially conscious documentaries I have done. I directed a film, “Power to Heal; Medicare’s gift to the civil rights movement” for PBS. This was an important and little known story. I worked on a film about War poetry “Voices in Wartime” during the Iraq War, which had a powerful antiwar story. I feel my latest film, “The Best of The Best:Jazz From Detroit” tells an important story about the power of music as a source of inspiration.
Many of us have ideas, dreams, and passions, but never manifest them. But you did. Was there an “Aha Moment” that made you decide that you were actually going to step up and take action for this cause? What was that final trigger?
Making films was my livelihood. I did not always have the luxury of choosing an ideal project when I was supporting a family. In recent years, I have been moving more in the direction of projects that I believe in. I decided to take a risk when I came across a book about Jazz that I thought would make a great film. I put my money and time on the line as I started the process of making the film and raising money. The aha moment was the entire process of making “The Best of The Best-Jazz From Detroit”. It was long and difficult, but I never felt it was not going to be a good film and I knew it would be finished and never stopped believing it would be an important film. We found great people to be in it, we found backers to support the film and it steadily built a following. The aha moment for me was showing me that it could be possible to make such a film and find an audience for it.
Can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?
Like most people in creative endeavors, we like to think our work can inspire others. In addition to making films, I have been a teacher, teaching editing and film production as an adjunct professor in several schools. I have inspired a few of my students and assistants who have been successful. Several have cited me personally and in print as an inspiration. Two of my former assistants have won academy awards, one an Emmy. An assistant of mine told me after winning his third Oscar for sound design, that he owed it all to me. A former student who is now a video artist who I encouraged to enter his thesis film into festivals exhibiting his films in museums worldwide told me I was his inspiration. One of my ex-assistants who cites me as a mentor has become a superb narrative editor and I am very proud of her. Having this kind of impact on others means as much to me as my own success.
Are there three things that individuals, society or the government can do to support you in this effort?
I would love to see more funding available to the arts. I think there needs to be more venues for independent films and film makers. There are important stories that need to be told.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why? Please share a story or example for each.
1. I wish I had known how important it was to constantly update your skills to stay current in the business.
2. I wish I knew how long it takes to make a film.
3. I wish I had better Interpersonal and political skills
4. I wish I had known about the amount of personal sacrifice that goes into persevering in making films.
5. I wish I had more patience and I could have found a way to deal with other people’s egos better and mine as well.
If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?
To make an impact you need to do research; learn as much as you can. You need to read, learn history, stay current with events happening in the world and support the arts. You need to create as many relationships with all kinds of people that you can. Never assume you know all you need to know about any subject or idea. When making a film explore all aspects of the subject and find a direction to pursue.
We are very blessed that many other Social Impact Heroes read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, whom you would like to collaborate with, and why? He or she might see this. 🙂
I would like to collaborate with Barack Obama. I have seen a few of the film projects that he is working on, and I humbly think we could work well together. I admire him and think he was one of the best leaders of my lifetime. In addition, I have an unfinished film about a little-known basketball icon he might like to be involved with.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
One of the quotes I have always liked is cinematographer Greg Toland’s answer to first time director Orson Welles’ question about how long it would take to learn everything about film making. Toland answered. “It will take 5 hours to learn half of everything you need to know and the rest of your life to learn the other half.” I am still working on the second half.
How can our readers follow you online?
Thank you so much for your time!
Filmmakers Making A Social Impact: Why & How Filmmaker Dan Loewenthal of Magic Circle Productions… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.