Julien Nitzberg was born on 1965 and is an American screenwriter, stage writer, lyricist, theater director and film director, best known in the film world as the director of the documentary The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia.
28 Facts About Julien Nitzberg
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Julien Nitzberg's mother was an Austrian Holocaust survivor; his maternal grandfather was conductor and composer Hans Knauer, who had studied under Franz Lehar and who had conducted the premiere of Lehar's opera Eva before Austrian emperor Franz Josef.
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At age 16, Julien Nitzberg became a founding member and guitarist of the notorious Lower East Side hardcore punk band Artless.
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Julien Nitzberg was known for antagonizing and getting into fights with skinhead members of the audience.
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The band broke up when Julien Nitzberg left New York City to attend college.
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Julien Nitzberg took one year off from college during which he drove a New York City yellow cab.
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Julien Nitzberg had to persevere through these death threats and other psychotic episodes from Adkins, in order to finally capture the life story of a performer known just as much for his drunkenness, unpredictability and frequent arrests as for his unique music.
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Julien Nitzberg met Mamie White in 1989 while shooting an Adkins concert; during the concert, a three-woman fight broke out which Mamie White broke up while tripping on acid.
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Mamie insisted that Julien Nitzberg come meet her tap-dancing brother Jesco White at her birthday party where she promised Julien Nitzberg that she would have a birthday cake with an image of woman's breasts and genitals on it.
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Julien Nitzberg went to her rural trailer and was intrigued by the White family.
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Julien Nitzberg returned the following week to film the first footage of Jesco and Mamie White.
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Julien Nitzberg wrote and filmed his first feature film, Bury Me in Kern County, a "white trash black comedy" set in the mid-eighties, as part of his studies.
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The Beastly Bombing was inspired by such works of Gilbert and Sullivan as The Pirates of Penzance, Julien Nitzberg decided to craft a plot revolving around lovable terrorists, portraying them in the same spirit as Gilbert and Sullivan's lovable pirates.
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Julien Nitzberg next directed the documentary The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia for Dickhouse Productions.
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Julien Nitzberg spent eighteen months with the notorious family of Jesco White, documenting their history as dancers, criminals and the impact of the coal mining culture upon them.
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In 2020, Julien Nitzberg premiered the musical "For the Love of a Glove: An Unauthorized Musical Fable About the Life of Michael Jackson As Told By His Glove" in Los Angeles, California.
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Many years earlier Julien Nitzberg had been approached to write a television bio-pic of Michael Jackson for a cable network but had been stymied about how to find a creative way to address the bizarre and controversial parts of Michael Jackson's life, including the allegations of child abuse.
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Julien Nitzberg wrote the script and lyrics and directed the show.
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All I can say is that Julien Nitzberg has found a very clever way of raising the subject without in any way diminishing its importance.
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Julien Nitzberg takes the timeline of Jackson's life, based in well-documented music history, and expands the story into surreal absurdity even while consciously weaving in sociological, political and religious commentary.
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We need people like Julien Nitzberg to remind and instill in us that it is not only okay, but quite necessary to think, laugh and learn.
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In 2007, Julien Nitzberg wrote the script Sputnik Monroe for HBO Films.
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In 2011, Julien Nitzberg sold a pilot to the USA Network based on This American Life contributor David Ellis Dickerson's memoir about working at Hallmark Greeting Cards.
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Julien Nitzberg conducted the first ever interview with Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, which was published in the Feral House book Technological Slavery.
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Julien Nitzberg has directed music videos for a number of bands including King Missile, Beat Happening, and Monotonix.
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In 2017, Julien Nitzberg was hired as a writer and consulting producer on the Cinemax series Mike Judge Presents: Tales from the Tour Bus.
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Mike Judge had been a fan of Julien Nitzberg's since seeing his first documentary about rockabilly singer Hasil Adkins.
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Julien Nitzberg was a writer and consulting producer on the pilot about Johnny Paycheck as well as the episodes about George Jones and Tammy Wynette.