About Us

Welcome to American Montage’s web site. We’ve been creating a successful spectrum of eclectic media and stylized storytelling for over 30 years. We started out dedicated to the idea that editing was the cornerstone of filmmaking, that editing stood right next to writing, producing, shooting and directing as an essential role in motion picture storytelling. That idea shaped how we approached production as well; always thinking about how the images and sound captured the idea; how the pieces will fit together to achieve the desired effect, the provocative thought and the emotional response, on time, on budget and on point.

Styles change, technology evolves, the world spins and American Montage tells stories.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
― Margaret Mead

“Do I contradict myself? Very well, then, I contradict myself; I am large -- I contain multitudes.”
― Walt Whitman

“Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.”
― William Jennings Bryan

As for our current reel, Part 1 you may ask? Well there are so many parts to American Montage's storytelling history. This is a tiny slice meant to present a few selections to potential clients and collaborators.  It covers TV, Documentary, Commercial and Theater Promotion/Production all in about six minutes. In all of the presented work Eric Marciano played the role of either writer, director, producer, director of photography, editor or some or all of them, However, this is a collaborative medium and critical and exceptional work was done by Joseph Piazzo, Frank Linkoff, Eric Schefter, Fred Hatt, Laura Lebleu, Barbara Ligeti, Jason Goodman, James Callanan, Shawn Hughey, John Inwood, Frank Rossi, Steve Gillis, Andrew Shaifer, Jeff Lunger, Jill Feyer, Sam Richards, Victor Syrmis, Meredith Marciano (especially) and many more. Please explore www.americamontage.com to see a more comprehensive view of our work.

ERIC MARCIANO CAREER OVERVIEW

                                                                                        Eric Marciano

Media Creator and Storyteller

Eric Marciano is a filmmaker, media creator and storyteller. With his primary production company, American Montage, www.americanmontage.com he has successfully completed projects for such well-known media outlets, agencies and corporations as HBO, Discovery Channel, ESPN, A&E, TLC, The New York Times, Grey Advertising, Bristol Meyers Squib, Pfizer, Continuum  Health Partners. He often works with musicians, visual artists and theater companies and artists such as Galt MacDermot, James Moody, Fanny Sanin, LeRoy Neiman, LaMaMa ETC, New York Theater Workshop and Lee Breuer.

His body of work includes documentaries, multi-media works, narrative film, web sites, music videos, video walls, theatre documentation and promotion, video essays, museum installations and advertising promotional media. Currently, he is involved with three theater related documentaries, The Music of Galt MacDermot: The Groove Project, the composer of the musical “Hair”, The Amoralists: Beware of New York City, a once young and (now older) provocative downtown theater company and "Nobody Does it Lke This Anymore: The Theater of Lee Breuer", a provocative overview of the creative process of the master experiment theater creator.

He has created a number of companies and strategic partnerships to manage the diverse work that he produces. Timely TV, www.timelytv.com oversees the award winning educational programming for schools and institutions. Stage/Movie oversees the web site www.theaterfanatic.com, a web site devote to the presentation in digital form of non-Broadway theatre. 

Eric attended the School of Visual Arts in New York, where he earned a BFA in filmmaking in 1984. The School of Visual Arts emphasized experimentation, and it was there that Eric learned to love the creativity of editing. He invested his savings in editing equipment, set up his own studio and began his career as an editor and filmmaker in 1984. His first client, who responded to a $35 ad in Backstage Magazine, was Brent Owens. Mr. Owens was looking for someone to edit a documentary about New York City prostitution. Together with cameraman Bobby Shepherd they worked on what would become "Hookers at the Point", the highest rated documentary in HBO history.

Some 33 years after it's creation American Montage and Eric Marciano were honored to be include in the Museum of Modern Art's  Club 57 Film, Performance, and Art in the East Village, 1978–1983 whch opened on October 31st, 2017. As part of that exhibit MoMA acquired and presented five films created by American Montage and Eric Marciano for their permanent collection. Those films are "Narrowcast", "Spin Cycle", The Age of Insects", "Plain" and the "Jimmy Donahue Story". www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/3824

Working with Continuum, Inc. at the time the largest hospital owner in New York City, he also co-founded the www.grievingcenter.org in 2006, a video based website that focuses on end of life issues - specifcally grieving and hospice. The site is designed as a web based destination for those who are need of solace, education and information regarding grief and bereavement as well as hospice and palliative care. Along with video content, the Grieving Center includes articles, music, poetry and a robust forum where people can blog on a wide variety of grief-related subjects. Eric conceived all aspects of the website and has overseen all video productions from concept to completion, including: identifying subjects and themes; researching and scheduling participants; and shoots on the sensitive subject matter of death and grief. Segments are post-produced and uploaded to www.grievingcenter.org on a continuous basis.

Eric's other work has been as manager of Timely TV and www.timelytv.com, an educational themed production company in New York founded in 1990 and whose projects center on a variety of subjects including: health and wellness, the arts and  literature and war and politics. The content ranges from programs on self-injury and teen depression to William Blake and Latin American Women Artists to the conflict in Bosnia. From 2000 to 2005 he was head of in-house, production and post production for The Black Filmmaker Foundation and its website, - www.dvrepublic.com.  While there he produced the acclaimed “Pass the Torch” lecture series featuring such notables as Harry Belafonte, Michael Moore, Katherine Dunham and Sonia Braga.

Eric's awards include: the W3 Silver Award for Most Innovative Health Website for The Grieving Center; Outstanding Documentary POP Award for: Discovery Channel’s Dangerous Deception: Living on the Down Low;" Aegis Award Best Documentary for "William Blake: Inspiration & Vision;" as well as Telly, Freddy and Gold Aurora awards for his work.  

In 2008 two books that include his work were published.  "Gods In Spandex", a history of 80s low budget, independent genre films from all over the world created by London's Headpress includes a succinct exploration of Marciano's unique feature "The Age of  Insects" and Gilles Peress'" Reperages – Alain Resnais" in the splendid Magnum/Cinemateque Francais' "The Image to Come – How Cinema Inspires Photographers". In 2019 his collboraton with Lee Breuer, Sam Butler Jr, and Adam Larsen, "The Book of Clarence" was highlighted in the book on Lee Breuer's works, "Getting Off."

As film and television has increasingly become specialized and the Internet presents more and more enriched media the concept of working in a niche is becoming the standard. Marciano still prefers an eclectic variety combined with loyal consistency in his career. Whether it is working with Magnum photographers in 1990 on the acclaimed"Magnum Eye: series and then working 18 years later with Gilles Peress on the 2008 presidential campaign in Ohio for "Magnum in Motion" https://vimeo.com/265834012; or executing an innovative web site like the Theater Fanatic, www.theaterfanatic.com and then working with the acclaimed experimental theater director Lee Breuer or producing the documentary "Ear of the Heart: The Music of Galt MacDermot" and then directing the documentary Shapes of Rhythm: The music of "HAIR" and Galt MacDermot; Marciano remains committed to using his storytelling abilities to produce motion pictures and multimedia materials that is intended to create provocative, illuminating  and impactful response and thought in the audience and viewers.

To contact Eric Marciano

Email: eric@americanmontage.com

Studio: 212-334-8283

Cell:    917-302-4299

Demonstration Reel : http://vimeo.com/65195234#

In November 2004 American Montage celebrated its 20th Anniversary. Twenty years dedicated to the idea that editing was the cornerstone of filmmaking. That editing stood right next to writing, producing, shooting and directing a documentary, a commercial, or a feature film.

That idea shaped how we approached production as well. Always thinking about the tools and processes we would use as we were sculpting the project with our eye towards the finished product.

Twenty years of education, in a field where technology just keeps marching on. Either you learn and adapt or you don't survive. Twenty years ago we we're in the midst of Plumbicon tube cameras, ADO and U-matic video, Now we're in the midst of HD, DV and DVD. And we're very close to affordable and realistic 3D applications.

Twenty years in Manhattan, moving our studio based on the whims and changes of the New York City real estate market including the effects of the terrorist attack on 9-11. Searching for clients and landlords that would allow us to thrive in one of the most competitive environments in the world.