Murray Lerner (Director)
Murray Lerner is an Oscar-winning musical documentarian and director, a pioneer in multi-faceted and unified approaches to
filmmaking, and the trailblazing innovator behind the now standard use of computer animation in stereo for 3-D film. Lerner's
Magic Journeys, created for the Kodak Pavilion at EPCOT, remains the greatest 3-D film ever made. The legendary subjects of his
award-winning musical documentaries include Isaac Stern, Miles Davis, the Newport Folk Festival, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, and
The Who. The Academy Award he received for From Mao To Mozart: Isaac Stern In China stands as a testament to Lerner's unerring
ability to immediately grasp the majesty of diverse types of music and transfer its magic to film.
A graduate of Harvard University, Lerner helped found the first film production society in the school's storied history. Convinced that film should be a unified art, he trained himself to become proficient in all aspects of filmmaking. A Class "A" Director of Photography and a member of both the Directors' and Writers' Guild of America, he has written, directed, photographed, and edited many of his own films.
In 1967 Lerner produced and directed Festival, a documentary shot between 1963 and 1966 at the Newport Folk Festival that included performances by Bob Dylan, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Donovan, Pete Seeger, Judy Collins, Peter, Paul & Mary, Johnny Cash, and Joan Baez. The Oscar-nominated film was the first of the theatrical documentaries on music festivals, preceding even Woodstock. It received honors at every major international film festival, including Manheim, San Francisco, Mar del Plata, and Venice.
In 1980 Lerner produced and directed the Academy-Award winning From Mao To Mozart: Isaac Stern In China, which chronicles violin virtuoso Isaac Stern's 1979 goodwill tour of Red China. The film triumphantly unites the musical cultures of East and West, emphasizing the beauty in both traditions equally.
In 1995 Lerner released his long-awaited Message to Love: The Isle of Wight Festival, the fascinating document of the troubled 1970 Isle of Wight Festival attended by some 600,000 people, the vast majority of whom refused to pay for their admission. A sophisticated analysis of the darker side of the period's much hyped festival events, the film juxtaposes the struggles of the promoters with staggering performances by The Who, Jimi Hendrix, the Doors, Jethro Tull, and many others. Equally memorable are Lerner's updated documents of the complete performances, Listening To You: The Who At The Isle Of Wight Festival (1996), Blue Wild Angel: Jimi Hendrix at the Isle of Wight (2002), and "Nothing is Easy" Jethro Tull at the Isle of Wight (2005).
In 2004 Lerner delivered the highly acclaimed film about Miles Davis entitled Miles Electric: A Different Kind of Blue, dramatizing the great man's transition to his electric period, incorporating animation and sound with recent interviews and musical tributes from many of his sidemen and other musicians.
Ever the innovator, Lerner's 3-D film, Magic Journeys, has been seen by over 60 million people worldwide. He also produced and directed a 3-D film for the Universal Studios Tour in Orlando, Florida, based on Alfred Hitchcock's film, The Birds. His Sea Dream is the first 3-D film ever to be officially included in the Cannes Film Festival.