George M. Herzfeld is a truly INTERNATIONAL AMERICAN. Born in Vienna, Austria he spent his youth in Sweden where he graduated from the Royal Institute of Technology in Electronic Engineering. After serving three years in the Swedish Army he left Service as an Officer and moved to the USA were he continued his studies at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) specializing in Computer Technology.
His professional career covers many parts of the world representing American Companies in various Management Positions in the USA, England, Holland, and in Switzerland. He started IDA International Data Automation, a worldwide Marketing and Production Company for Computer Equipment in 1978.
George's life took another dimension when he married Marina Goldovskaya in 1991.
In addition to continuing IDA he added another goal to his list: To help Marina produce and distribute her Documentaries in the "Western World". Thus GOLDFILMS was born as a Division of International Data Automation.
George happily admits that being a Producer for Marina is very special. Handle all financial and legal questions and provide the technical expertise to keep the cameras and postproduction equipment running. The rest is all Marina Goldovskaya.
George has two daughters, Jill and Elizabeth, from a prior marriage. He and Marina maintain their main home in Los Angeles, were they have the pleasure of often seeing their four grandchildren Phoebe, Noah, Milo and Lev.
Marina Goldovskaya is
one of Russia's best-known documentary filmmakers with a strong international
reputation. She has made 32 documentary films and more than 100 TV programs
for Russian, Austrian, French, German and American Television. During her
long career as Director, Producer, Cinematographer and Writer, she has won
virtually every prize there is to win in the area of documentary filmmaking.
In the USA, Marina first got recognition for her feature legth documentary"Solovky Power" which was the first film revealing the horrors of the Soviet concentration camps. The film premiered in the USA at the Sundance Film Festival in 1989 where it received high appreciation of the audience and a special certificate of acknowledgement from the Jury. "Solovky Power" has a world wide theatrical distribution and received several prestigious professional awards.
In 1990, she made "A Taste of Freedom" for Turner Television (TNT), giving the world the first glimpses of the effects of perestroika, started by Gorbachev, by relating the life of a Moscow journalist and his family. In “The House on Arbat Street”, which she made for Canal+ (France), through the destinies of the people who lived in one Moscow building, she told the story of Russia in the 20th century. This film had been aired on many European TV channels and in Canada, and received many international awards, such as the Best Film of the year Award at Prix Europe in 1994, The Ester Prize in Washington, DC, and the Grand Prix at the Film Festival in Monte Carlo.
Marina was the first Russian filmmaker to introduce a personal diary style in the documentary genre to describe the social changes in Russia and how they affected the lives of the people. She used this style in “The Shattered Mirror" and in "Lucky to Be Born In Russia" which chronicled the emotions of Russians living through the turmoil of perestroika culminating in the putsch of October 1993. "The Shattered Mirror" (ARTE, France) was honored with Prix Italia (1992), the Golden Gate Award in San Francisco (1992), the Golden Hugo in Chicago (1993).
Her other productions include "This Shaking World" (1995), a film which takes the viewer deep into the lives of individuals representing a cross section of Southern California's Melting Pot, "The Children of Ivan Kuzmich"(1997), a poetic journey into the lives of eight amazing people and their teacher of class 1941 in a Moscow School, "A Poet on the Lower East Side”(1998), a remarkable visit with Allen Ginsberg, and the "The Prince is Back" (1999), a very human view of today's happenings in Russia, which since it's first theatrical premier and broadcast in Europe has been honored in more then twenty Film Festivals throughout the world receiving among others awards the” Silver Rembrandt” in Amsterdam, 2001, the TELLY Award, Cincinnati, USA, the Moondance Spirit Award USA, and the Media Award, Germany.
The new updated version of “The Prince Is Back” (2003) premiered
on PBS/KCET in June 2004.
Her latest film “Art and Life: Finding the Thread. L.A.Diary with Peter Sellars” (2004) is an intimate portrait of the renowned American theater and opera director.
Parallel to her career as a filmmaker, Marina Goldovskaya pursued a teaching
and academic career. She received a Ph.D. in Fine Arts in the Moscow State
Film Institute (1987), taught documentary in Moscow State University (1966-1995),
and wrote numerous articles and six books on documentary filmmaking. Her
last work, “A Woman with a Movie Camera”, was published in Russia
by Materik in 2002 and is planned to be released in the USA in 2005.
In 1996 Marina, a tenured Professor at the University of California, Los
Angeles,
School of Theater, Film & Television, created a public forum for Documentaries
by organizing the very popular Documentary Salon Series which todate screens
high quality films on a monthly basis for the LA film community.
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