Lynn Novick is an American director and producer of
documentary film
A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...
s, widely known for her work with
Ken Burns
Kenneth Lauren Burns (born July 29, 1953) is an American filmmaker known for his documentary films and television series, many of which chronicle American history and culture. His work is often produced in association with WETA-TV or the Nati ...
.
Early life
Novick was born in 1962, raised in
New York City
New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, and graduated from
Horace Mann School
Horace Mann School (also known as Horace Mann or HM) is an American private, independent college-preparatory school in the Bronx, founded in 1887. Horace Mann is a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League, educating students from the New Yo ...
in 1979. She graduated magna cum laude from
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
with honors in American Studies.
Career
Novick was a research assistant at the
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...
's
National Museum of American History
The National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center is a historical museum in Washington, D.C. It collects, preserves, and displays the heritage of the United States in the areas of social, political, cultural, scientific, and m ...
before beginning her film career as a production assistant at
WNET
WNET (channel 13), branded on-air as Thirteen (stylized as THIRTEEN), is a primary PBS member television station licensed to Newark, New Jersey, United States, serving the New York City area. Owned by The WNET Group (formerly known as the Educ ...
, a public television station in Manhattan. She then worked on
Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers (born Billy Don Moyers; June 5, 1934) is an American journalist and political commentator. Under the Johnson administration he served from 1965 to 1967 as the eleventh White House Press Secretary. He was a director of the Council ...
' projects ''
Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth'' and ''
A World of Ideas with Bill Moyers'' before moving to Florentine Films in 1989 to work on Burns's 1990 series, ''
The Civil War'', as associate producer for post production.
In 1994, she produced Burns's nine-part series, ''
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
'', (1994) for which she received an
Emmy Award
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...
. In 1998, she was director and producer (with Burns) of two-part biographical documentary, ''
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed List of Frank Lloyd Wright works, more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key ...
'', for which she received a Peabody Award. In 2001, Novick produced Burns’ 10-part series, ''Jazz''.
Among her more recent collaborations with Burns have been ''
The War'' (2007), ''
Baseball: The Tenth Inning'' (2010), and ''
Prohibition
Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...
'' (2011). Her next collaboration was an 18-hour documentary film series, ''
The Vietnam War'', with Burns and
Geoffrey Ward, which aired in September 2017. In 2019, her four-part series ''
College Behind Bars'', was broadcast on
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
.
On April 5, 2021, a three-episode, six-hour documentary, a recapitulation of
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway ( ; July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized fo ...
's life, labors, and loves, debuted on the
Public Broadcasting System
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prom ...
, co-produced and directed by Burns and Novick.
What to Watch on Monday: The start of Ken Burns’ ‘Hemingway’ documentary
''News & Observer
''The News & Observer'' is an American regional daily newspaper that serves the greater Triangle area based in Raleigh, North Carolina. The paper is the largest in circulation in the state (second is the '' Charlotte Observer''). The paper has be ...
'', Brooke Cain, April 5, 2021. Retrieved April 8, 2021.
In April, 2021, it was announced that Novick would be joinin
Meadowlark Media
as a creative advisor.
References
1962 births
Place of birth missing (living people)
Living people
American documentary filmmakers
American television directors
American television producers
American women television producers
Primetime Emmy Award winners
American women television directors
American women documentary filmmakers
21st-century American women
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