Stuart Samuels is an acclaimed academic and a film and television producer, writer, and award-winning documentary filmmaker. Some of his works include Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography, Midnight Movies: From The Margin to the Mainstream, The Beatles: Eight Days a Week: The Touring Years and The Lost Weekend: A Love Story. His works explore the relationship of popular culture to the broader historical context of their times.

Today we’ll dive into his early work - from the groundbreaking late-night music video series Night Flight in the early 80s, to the making of the first HD music videos with Academy Award-winning Polish film and music video director Zbigniew Rybczynski. We’ll also discuss Eight Days a Week: The Touring Years, the Beatles documentary he co-produced with Ron Howard, and the making of The Lost Weekend: A Love Story, which premiered earlier this month. 

You can find links to Stuart’s work below:

THE BEATLES: EIGHT DAYS A WEEK

https://www.amazon.com/Eight-Days-Week-Touring-Years/dp/B06XPQ6XW9

STEPS: ZBIG

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rA9fSjL9ERU&t=21s

IMAGINE: ZBIG

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnXoJ3suYNU

VISIONS OF LIGHT: THE ART OF CINEMATOGRAPHY

Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/511323524

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtUGLrP_4gw

HOLLYWOODISM: JEWS, MOVIES, AND THE AMERICAN DREAM

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Hollywoodism-Jews-Movies-American-Dream/dp/B01MRL4SWL

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJMCLLfG6Fg

MIDNIGHT MOVIES: FROM THE MARGIN TO THE MAINSTREAM

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/midnightmovies

THE ORCHESTRA: with Zbig- classical musical videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rA9fSjL9ERU

In this episode:

*8:10 the backstory of Night Flight

*18:03 Stuart and Zbigniew Rybczynski team up for the first HD music videos

*25:33 The making of The Lost Weekend: A Love Story

*34:00 The documentary “27” that was never released 

*35:28 Eight Days a Week: The Touring Years - Stuart’s initial vision vs. Ron Howard’s vision for the documentary

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