Cultural Diversity Roster

Jeffrey Schwarz is an Emmy Award-winning producer and director known for an extensive body of non-fiction work. His latest feature documentary is The Fabulous Allan Carr, about the flamboyant producer of Grease and La Cage Aux Folles. It had its premiere at the 2017 Seattle International Film Festival, and is currently available on VOD. Tab Hunter Confidential, a biographical portrait of the 1950s screen heartthrob, debuted at the 2015 SXSW Film Festival and made its Netflix premiere the following year. I Am Divine, about the international drag superstar and John Waters’ leading lady, debuted at SXSW 2013 and premiered on Showtime. Schwarz’s 2011 feature, the Emmy-winning HBO Documentary Films’ Vito, is about beloved gay activist and author of The Celluloid Closet, Vito Russo. It premiered at the 2011 New York Film Festival, and debuted on HBO in July, 2012. Vito was nominated for two 2013 News and Documentary Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Historical Programming, as well as a 2013 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Documentary. Previous documentaries include Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon (2008), a portrait of adult film star Jack Wrangler, and Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story, about the legendary Hollywood showman. Spine Tingler! won the 2007 AFI Fest Documentary Audience Award, was released in 2009 by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, and aired on Turner Classic Movies.

Automat Pictures, Schwarz’s production company, was launched in 2000 and soon became one of the leading producers in the field of studio EPKs (electronic press kit), Blu-ray and DVD bonus features, creating content for over 100 major DVD and Blu-ray studio releases. Schwarz collaborated with a wide range of notable filmmakers including Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, Jonathan Demme, Ron Howard, Wes Craven, Michael Bay, Albert & Allen Hughes, Rob Reiner, Craig Zadan & Neil Meron, Joe Dante, Jon Favreau, Barry Sonnenfeld, Adam Shankman, Paul Verhoeven, John Carpenter, Chris Columbus, F. Gary Gray, Roger Corman, Roland Emmerich, Nora Ephron, Wim Wenders, Sidney Lumet, and the Coen Brothers.

Schwarz’s television productions include Starz’s Sex and the Cinema, a look at sexuality on film; In the Gutter, a history of the gross-out movie; Hitchcocked!, a tribute to the artistry of Alfred Hitchcock; and Shooting the Police: Cops on Film. For IFC he produced Reservoir Dogs Revisited, a celebration of Quentin Tarantino’s classic, and Still Swingin’, a tribute to the indie classic Swingers. Schwarz also produced several episodes of HBO First Look.

Schwarz appeared in The Advocate’s “Out 100” in 2013, and was the recipient of the 2015 Frameline Award, which honors those who have made a major contribution to LGBT representation in film, television, or the media arts. Vito Russo was the first recipient in 1986, and other honorees include Divine, Rob Epstein, Christine Vachon, Fenton Bailey & Randy Barbato, Gregg Araki, Francois Ozon, Margaret Cho, George Takei, and Alan Cumming.