Producers
Magic Circle Productions LLC
Daniel Loewenthal and Roberta Friedman, filmmaking partners in their company Magic Circle Productions LLC, have collaborated on multiple films about the African American experience. Most notably, Power to Heal: The Medicare and Civil Rights Revolution (2018), is an award-winning documentary about Medicare’s role in desegregating hospitals narrated by Danny Glover. The film was screened across the country on PBS as well as at festivals. Friedman and Loewenthal were two of the producers, and Loewenthal was a director of the film.
Their interest in Detroit dates back to 2013, when they visited the city to shoot a segment of their video installation, Cosmopolis: 49 Waltzes For The World. Captivated by Detroit, its culture, and the resilient spirit of its residents, the filmmakers were determined to return. Jazz fans of longstanding, The Best of the Best — Jazz from Detroit gives them the opportunity to dig deeper into the fertile cultural and historical soil of Detroit.
Daniel Loewenthal
Producer, Director, and Editor
Loewenthal is a director, editor, and producer who has made prize-winning documentaries and has edited over 45 feature films.
He has worked for major film studios (Paramount, Orion, Turner Productions) and independent producers Dino DiLaurentis and Cannon films. Dan has edited in nearly every genre and format: action, comedy, independent films, music videos, commercials, infomercials, corporate videos, pieces for museum art installations and content for the web. Many of the pictures he edited had major box office and film festival success (Sundance, Palm Springs, Cannes.) His credits include The Cutting Edge, Voices in Wartime, The Music in You, Missing in Action, Stephen King’s Silver Bullet, Friday the 13th Part IV., Cadillac Ranch, Red Scorpion, and many others.
Dan is a proud member of the DGA. His latest documentary was PBS' Power to Heal: The Medicare and Civil Rights Revolution that aired in 2018.
Roberta Friedman
Producer
Friedman has worked in myriad film mediums, from commercial work with George Lucas on Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back to experimental films such as her The Erl King, one of the first pieces of interactive video art and part of the permanent collection at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. She heads the BFA film program at Montclair State University.
As an independent filmmaker, she has produced and directed short films, receiving grant funding from various institutions including the Contemporary Arts Foundation, NYSCA, the NEA, and the NEH. Her series of video installations with Dan Loewenthal called COSMOPOLIS: 49 WALTZES FOR THE WORLD were installed in December 2013 at the Baryshnikov Art Center in NYC and at the Montclair Art Museum. Her experimental films have been selected to be preserved and housed by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences in Los Angeles, California.
https://robertafriedmanfilm.com/
Mark Stryker
Producer and Writer
Mark Stryker is an author and arts journalist based in Detroit. His 2019 book, Jazz from Detroit (University of Michigan Press), was named Jazz Book of Year by the Jazz Times Critics Poll and Jazz Journalists Association Awards. Stryker spent 21 years as an arts reporter and critic at the Detroit Free Press covering classical music, jazz, and the visual arts. He was inducted into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame in 2020. Stryker is also the author of Destiny: 100 Years of Music, Magic, and Community at Orchestra Hall in Detroit. https://jazzfromdetroit.com/about-the-author/
Producer Roberta Friedman (left) and Writer/Producer Mark Stryker