Stephen Robert Morse

Stephen Robert Morse is a New York-born, London-based filmmaker. He specializes in true crime and political genres. He is known for producing the Emmy Award-nominated Amanda Knox and directing/producing EuroTrump, focusing on Geert Wilders.[2] Morse is the Managing Director of Lone Wolf Studios. [3]

Stephen Robert Morse
Stephen Robert Morse (2020)
Born
Oceanside, New York, U.S.
EducationOceanside High School
Alma materUniversity of Pennsylvania, Green Templeton College, University of Oxford [1]
OccupationProducer, writer, director, actor
Websitelw-studios.com


Career

Education

Morse studied at the University of Pennsylvania and worked for Mother Jones after graduation.[2] He graduated with an MBA from the University of Oxford's Saïd Business School.[4]

Early work

At the University of Pennsylvania, he directed and produced the feature documentary Ain't Easy Being Green, about the 2006 United States Senate election in Pennsylvania and Duet, a short film about street musician and future star of The Voice (U.S. season 8) Anthony Riley.[5]

In 2008, he shot a video of the New Black Panthers blocking the entrance to a polling location with a strong Democrat majority in Philadelphia during the 2008 United States Elections. The video was posted on YouTube and went viral with over a million views, causing a Congressional investigation.[6][7] Morse subsequently regretted the video's success, as it was regularly repeated on Fox News early in Barack Obama's presidential career. This allowed 2016 presidential candidate Donald Trump to warn Pennsylvania voters to watch out for fraud from Democrat supporters, a charge that Morse refuted, citing that the incident he witnessed was isolated.[8] The Philadelphia incident became known as the New Black Panther Party voter intimidation case.

MyTwoCensus: 2010 Census Watchdog

In February 2009, Morse founded MyTwoCensus, a non-partisan, political watchdog group for the 2010 U.S. Census.[9][10]

Skillbridge

Morse also co-founded the graduate consultancy group Skillbridge, which was sold to Toptal in 2016.[11]

Amanda Knox

In 2016, Morse produced the Netflix documentary Amanda Knox. Morse started making the film while he was an Erasmus Mundus journalism student in 2011.[12]

The documentary covers Knox's life and wrongful prison sentence for murder and her subsequent acquittal.[13] Morse was nominated for an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special".[14][4]

EuroTrump

Along with co-director Nick Hampson and co-writer Maria Springer,[15] Morse produced EuroTrump, a film about the right-wing Dutch politician Geert Wilders, who has been compared to Trump.[16][17] Morse managed to gain Wilders' trust following his work on Amanda Knox; though he did not personally agree with Wilders on many issues, he felt it was important to respect them in order to find out more about Wilders' politics.[18] He was given permission to film Wilders during campaigning for the 2017 Dutch general election, and consequently gained more access to Wilders than other news organizations. The film was released shortly after the Dutch elections at the Sheffield Documentary Festival as “Wilders” in June 2018. But after this screening, Morse, believing in the Japanese concept of Kaizen, known in English as continuous improvement, added many additional edits to the film that was then rebranded as EuroTrump.[19][20] The film discusses the rise of Twitter in politics, as Morse shows how Wilders bypasses traditional forms of media to go straight to "the people." The film begins with Morse soliciting Wilders' involvement.[21] Morse has said that Wilders is "actually much smarter than Trump" and "knows what he's doing".[15] The film was screened at the International Film Festival in Ferrara, Italy.[22] EuroTrump was subsequently released on Amazon and Hulu in the United States on June 30, 2018.[23]

Koch Brothers Projects

In August, 2019, Variety reported that Morse purchased scripted and non-fiction rights to Daniel Schulman's book Sons of Wichita on the Koch Brothers.[24]

In the Cold Dark Night

On July 14, 2020, Entertainment Weekly reported that Morse directed, produced, and wrote In the Cold Dark Night, a documentary on the racist murder of Timothy Coggins and its 35-year aftermath.[25]

Style

Morse has said that working effectively with small budgets and limited time are important in making modern documentaries that deliver impact, as 24-hour news coverage and the rise of social media means that documentaries must cover ground quickly. This was why he initially released EuroTrump, originally called Wilders, only three months after the Dutch elections. He believes in a no frills approach to making documentaries while maintaining the highest quality in productions.[26] Commenting on EuroTrump, he said, "We only shoot the scenes we need, and never use more crew than we absolutely have to."[18]

References
  1. "Green Templeton gets arty". Green Templeton College Oxford. March 4, 2016. Archived from the original on April 11, 2016. Retrieved June 27, 2019.
  2. "Emmy-Nominated Saïd MBA Does 'Lean' Film". September 13, 2017.
  3. "'Amanda Knox' Producer Stephen Robert Morse, Max Peltz Launch Lone Wolf Studios (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved December 8, 2020.
  4. "Documentary produced by Oxford MBA alumnus receives Emmy nomination". Oxford University Saïd Business School. July 21, 2007. Archived from the original on August 28, 2017.
  5. "Stephen Robert Morse". IMDb. Retrieved January 9, 2017.
  6. DeMersseman, William (2010). Dissed Trust: America's Crisis of Truth, Faith, and Freedom. WestBow Press. p. 116. ISBN 978-1-449-70366-0.
  7. "GOP poll watcher behind 2008 New Black Panther video is anti-Trump". Philadelphia Inquirer. October 24, 2016. Retrieved October 5, 2018.
  8. Reilly, Ryan J. (October 19, 2016). "His Poll-Watching Video Became A GOP Obsession. Now He Wants Trump To Rein In 'Rigged' Election Talk". Huffington Post. Retrieved October 8, 2018.
  9. Membis, Liane. "Errors in census interviews misinterpret racial, ethnic identity". CNN. Retrieved January 10, 2017.
  10. "MyTwoCensus and the Future of Journalism". CBS News. Retrieved January 10, 2017.
  11. "Talent Contest – 'War' Brewing In The Gig Economy". Forbes. April 20, 2016. Retrieved October 5, 2018.
  12. "Alumnus produces Emmy nominated Netflix doco". Alumni Profiles. September 12, 2018. Retrieved September 12, 2017.
  13. Spangler, Todd (August 9, 2016). "Netflix to Bow Amanda Knox Doc, Films From Leonardo DiCaprio, Werner Herzog at Toronto Festival". Variety. Retrieved January 10, 2017.
  14. "Stephen Robert Morse". Emmys. Retrieved October 4, 2018.
  15. "Is Geert Wilders Really The Dutch Donald?". newsweek. June 15, 2018.
  16. "EuroTrump". Sheffield Documentary Festival. Retrieved October 4, 2018.
  17. "NTR zendt op 11 oktober de film WILDERS uit". de Volkskrant (in Dutch). September 22, 2017. Retrieved October 5, 2018.
  18. "EuroTrump documentary by MBA alumni airs on TV". Oxford University Saïd Business School. June 29, 2018. Retrieved October 4, 2018.
  19. "The Dutch Donald Trump could be the Netherlands' next Prime Minister". Salon. March 16, 2017. Retrieved October 4, 2018.
  20. Smith, Kelsey (October 24, 2017). "Meet the Man Who Trumps Donald at His Own Game". The Observer. Retrieved October 4, 2018.
  21. "'EuroTrump' review". Hollywood Reporter. June 29, 2018. Retrieved October 4, 2018.
  22. "Otto documentari per scoprire il mondo". Internazionale (in Italian). October 3, 2018. Retrieved October 4, 2018.
  23. "What's on TV Monday: 'The Rape of Recy Taylor' and 'Strangers'". New York Times. July 2, 2018. Retrieved October 4, 2018.
  24. "Koch Brothers Projects in Works From 'Amanda Knox' Producer (EXCLUSIVE)'". Variety. August 26, 2018. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
  25. Yang, Rachel (July 14, 2020). "Racist murder at center of 35-year-old cold case investigation on new 20/20 special". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved July 20, 2020.
  26. Neilan, Catherine (June 9, 2017). "Wilders director Stephen Robert Morse on politics, perfection and picking winners". Broadcast Now. Retrieved October 4, 2018.
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