Postmortem

Director Marilyn Ness is a two-time Emmy, Peabody, and DuPont Award-winning documentary director and producer. She directed Charm City, an observational documentary exploring the divide between police and citizens, that premiered at Tribeca 2018, was shortlisted for the 2019 Academy Award®, was broadcast on PBS’ Independent Lens, and nominated for an Emmy. Her directorial debut, Bad Blood, broadcast nationally on PBS in 2011 and helped spur changes to the national blood donation policy. As a former partner in woman-owned-and-led Big Mouth Productions, she produced Kirsten Johnson’s groundbreaking films Dick Johnson Is Dead and Cameraperson; Netflix’s Becoming about former First Lady Michelle Obama; Independent Lens’ Trapped about abortion access in the South, and others. Altogether her films won four Sundance Jury Prizes, were nominated for ten Primetime/Documentary Emmys, and were shortlisted for the Academy Awards four times. Marilyn is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

The Martha Mitchell Effect, premiered at Sundance, launched on Netflix, and was nominated for an Academy Award® (Best Documentary Short). Her previous film, Storm Lake (Independent Lens, 2022), which she directed alongside Jerry Risius and produced, was Emmy Award and Peabody- nominated and shortlisted by the IDA as one of the best films of 2021. Other producing credits include A Photographic Memory (True/False 2024), Women in Blue (Independent Lens, 2021) and 32 Pills (HBO, 2017). Executive producer credits  include Grand Theft Hamlet (MUBI, 2025), My Sweet Land (Sheffield, 2024) and With Peter Bradley (PBS, 2024). Consulting producer credits include the David Strathairn-starring Remember This (PBS, 2023) and Charm Circle (Criterion Channel, 2023). Levison is the founder of Hazel Pictures, co-founder of the Documentary Producers Alliance, faculty with Sarah Lawrence College, and a member of the Academy.