Abbey Jack Neidik

Abbey Jack Neidik

Director, Producer, Camera

Abbey Neidik has directed, produced and edited over seventy films, including two Academy Award nominees.

In 1980, Neidik and his partner Irene Angelico formed DLI Productions. Together they produced and directed Dark Lullabies, which has been shown around the world and has garnered critical acclaim and numerous prestigious awards. The film was included in The Fifty Greatest Documentaries of all Times at the international Salute to the Documentary and was selected to represent the best of the NFB at retrospectives in London and France. Thirty years later, Dark Lullabies continues to be shown in screenings worldwide Including the inaugural film at the Stratford Festival Forum, the Berlin Arsenal 70th anniversary of the Holocaust, the Inconvenient Films: International Human Rights Festival, and Liberation 75 in Toronto

Next Neidik produced and directed The Love Prophet and the Children of God, an inside look at one of today’s most controversial religious cults which was awarded a Gold Plaque in Chicago; Between The Solitudes / Entre Solitudes, which was nominated for two Gemeaux for Best Documentary and Best Editing; and produced The Cola Conquest, a three-part documentary special that garnered Best Documentary Series by an Independent at the Hot Docs Festival in Toronto, a Silver Hugo in Chicago, a Gold Apple in San Francisco, a Gemini nomination for Best Documentary Series and a Gemini Award for Best Writing in a Documentary or Series.

Neidik produced and directed The Journey Home: A Romanian Adoption, a tender and emotional film about Romanian orphans a decade after the fall of Ceausescu; She Got Game: Coming of Age on the WTA Tour, a unique, behind-the-scenes look at women’s tennis that received four international awards; produced Vendetta Song, which examines the tradition of honour killings within rural Kurdish tribes in Turkey; produced and directed Unbreakable Minds, a poignant film that aims to de-stigmatize and humanize mental illness; produced and directed (with Angelico) Inside the Great Magazines, a three-part special about the inner workings of the magazine industry and the people who create them; and directed Canadaville, USA, about billionaire Frank Stronach’s bold social experiment in rural Louisiana. Shot over two years, the film enters the lives of a group of Hurricane Katrina evacuees as they struggle to rebuild and break out of the cycle of poverty.

More recently, Neidik produced and directed Beyond Earth: the Beginning of NewSpace, named by Realscreen as a MipCom Pic for 2017 and Big Wind, about the effects of industrial wind turbines; Shekinah Rising, a follow-up to Shekinah: the Intimate Lives of Hasidic Women, which was #1 in the box office for six weeks. Both films give an unprecedented look into the rarefied world of Hasidic women.

Neidik is currently working on Search for God, an experimental documentary and A Real Woman, a feature drama to be directed by Eylem Kaftan based on the DLI documentary Vendetta Song, and has just completed (with Angelico) First to Stand, a documentary featuring the work of Irwin Cotler and the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights.

HONOURS

President, DLI Productions (since 1981)
A Salute to the Documentary (1989)
Hot Docs Alumnae

AWARDS

2019
  • Beyond Earth Film Festival, Jury’s Special mention – Beyond Earth: the Beginning of NewSpace
2017
  • Hollywood Independent Documentary Awards, award winner – Beyond Earth: the Beginning of NewSpace
2013
  • Best Documentary, Crown Heights Film Festival – Shekinah: The Intimate Life of Hasidic Women
2008
  • Hugo Television Awards – Merit Prize for Chicago Film Festival Prize for Social Political Documentary – Canadaville, USA
2006
  • 3rd prize, International Women’s Festival Cinema Delle Donne, Torina – Vendetta Song
  • Bronze Plaque, Columbus International Film and Video Festival – Vendetta Song
  • Best Canadian Documentary, Calgary Film Festival – Vendetta Song
2005
  • Top 10 Favourite, Hot Docs – Vendetta Song
  • Choix du public, Rendez-vous du Cinéma Québécois – Vendetta Song
  • Best Canadian Documentary on International Development, Hot Docs – Vendetta Song
  • Best Documentary Film, Female Eye Film Festival – Vendetta Song
  • Peabody Awards consideration – Unbreakable Minds
  • Willpower Board of Directors Grateful Appreciation Award – Unbreakable Minds
  • Quebec Film Critics Association Best Medium Length Documentary, Rendez-vous du Cinéma Québécois – Vendetta Song
2004
  • Gold Aurora, Aurora Awards – She Got Game
2003
  • Guirlande d’Honneur, Sports Movies & TV Int. Festival, Milan – She Got Game
  • Chris Statuette, Columbus International Film & Video Festival – She Got Game
  • Best Documentary Silver, Temecula Valley Int. Film and Video Music Festival – She Got Game
1999
  • Best Documentary Series by an Independent, Hot Docs – The Cola Conquest
  • Best Writing in a Documentary or Series, Gemini Award – The Cola Conquest
  • Best Documentary Series Nomination, Gemini Awards – The Cola Conquest
  • Gold Apple, National Education Media Network – The Cola Conquest
  • Golden Sheaf Award, Yorktown Short Film and Video Festival – The Love Prophet and the Children of God
  • Best Biography Nominee, Hot Docs – The Love Prophet and the Children of God
1998
  • Silver Hugo, Best Series, Chicago International Television Competition – The Cola Conquest
  • Encounter Internacionais de Cinema Documentale, Vila Franca de Xira
  • Gold Plaque, Best Biography, Chicago International Television Competition – The Love Prophet and the Children of God
  • Peabody Awards consideration – The Cola Conquest Part I: The Big Sell
  • Peabody Awards consideration – The Cola Conquest Part II: Cola War and Peace
  • Peabody Awards consideration – The Cola Conquest Part III: Coca-Colonization
  • Les Grands Reportages Faits de Societé, Diplôme de participation, FIPA à
    Cannes
1993
  • Best Documentary Nominee, Les Prix Gémeaux – Between the Solitudes
  • Best Editing Nominee, Les Prix Gémeaux – Between the Solitudes
  • Certificate of Appreciation, Earth Peace International Festival – Between the Solitudes
  • Best Sound Editing Nominee, Genie Awards – Falling Over Backwards
1992
  • Best Short Documentary, Genie Awards – A Song for Tibet
  • Best Documentary of the Year, Hawaii Film Festival – A Song for Tibet
  • Best Documentary of the Year, Yorktown Film Festival – A Song for Tibet
  • Blue Ribbon, American Film Festival – A Song for Tibet
1989
  • Prix du Public, International Salute to the Documentary – Dark Lullabies
1986
  • Best Feature Film Nominee, Torino International Festival of Young Cinema – Dark Lullabies
  • Most Memorable Film, World Television Festival, Tokyo – Dark Lullabies
  • Red Ribbon, American Film Festival – Dark Lullabies
1985
  • First Prize, International Film Festival of Mannheim – Dark Lullabies
  • Special Prize for Most Social Political Engagement, International Film Festival of Mannheim – Dark Lullabies
  • First Prize, Ecumenical Jury, International film Festival of Mannheim – Dark Lullabies
  • Educational Jury Award, International Film Festival of Mannheim – Dark Lullabies
  • Audience Award, International Film Festival of Mannheim – Dark Lullabies
1977
  • Best Sound Editing in a Documentary Nominee, Academy Awards – Volcano: An Inquiry into the Life and Times of Malcolm Lowry
1976
  • Best Sound Editing, Canadian Film Awards – Volcano: An Inquiry into the Life and Times of Malcolm Lowry