BTG Productions is an independent production company specializing in quality documentaries for theatrical and television markets. It was founded in 1993 by Bari Pearlman, who collaborates regularly with the finest creative talent available. Her work has been supported with grants from NYSCA, The Jerome Foundation, The Hartley Film Foundation, The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, and the Lucius and Eva Eastman Foundation. She was a participant in the Sundance Producer's Conference in 2006, and will be attending Yaddo in the summer of 2010.
Click here to view Bari's reel.
Bari's award-winning feature documentary Daughters of Wisdom (2007), about the exceptional women of Kala Rongo Monastery in rural Tibet, was released theatrically in 2008, and is currently screening at museums and universities around the world. In 2009, Bari directed the development trailer for The Strangest Town in Alaska for Cypress Films, about the people and peculiarities of Whittier, Alaska. She was also the Co-Producer/Co-Director (together with Phyllis Heller) of Mah-Jongg: The Tiles That Bind (2008), which was recently released in a 10th Anniversary Special Edition DVD.
Bari is now completing A Period Piece, about women's relationships to menstruation, as well as a series of shorts about life in rural Tibet, including the children's film Yakety Yak about a day-in-the-life of a yak farm. Her made-for-web series What in the World... is delighting You Tubers everywhere.She has several films in development, including Looking for Lepke about the notorious gangster Lepke Buckalter who was her grandfather's first cousin.
As a Producer, Bari is currently collaborating with Telling Image Films on Ezra Bookstein's second feature documentary SHOWTIME!. She also produced Lee Storey's award-winning feature documentary Smile 'Til It Hurts: The Up With People Story (2009) about that kitschy upbeat singing group, which is now preparing for its theatrical release. For television, she recently produced the "Hawkins" and "Darli" episodes of the docu-drama series The Fugitive Chronicles for A&E (2010), as well as (for @radical.media) Shots in the Dark (2001), a documentary about crime scene photography for Court TV/Channel 4, and VH1 Fan Club: ABBA (2002), Executive Produced by Joe Berlinger and directed by Bruce Sinofsky. She was also the Second Unit Director/Segment Producer of Jonathan Judge's Food for Thought: Good Taste In Art (2003). In the fiction world, Bari's credits includes Segment Producer of Daniel Maidman's Nine Planets (currently in production), and Assistant Director/Script Consultant on Cesq Gay's (Nico and Dani) first feature Hotel Room (competition,1998 San Sebastian Film Festival). Bari's corporate clients include IFC Films, She Writes, Parenting Magazine/Time Inc., Opsware Software and Focus on Justice.
As an Event Producer, she created high-profile special events for Delta Air Lines, The Merce Cunningham Dance Company, The NYU Downtown Hospital Debutante Cotillion and Christmas Ball, and the CUNY Graduate Center. She served as the Coordinator of the 1999 Classically Independent Film Festival Tour, Managing Director of the 1999 IFP American Independents in Berlin Program, Hospitality Director of the 1996 and 1997 Hamptons International Film Festival, Managing Director of the 1997 New York Women's Film Festival, and the Curator/Programmer of the 1997 Moonworks Short Film Program. She was a Juror for the 2002 Columbia University Student Film Awards, Juror for the 2000, 2001 and 2002 FilmFest New Haven and the 2000 Student Academy Awards.
Bari recently left her 12-year position as a Contributing Editor to Filmmaker Magazine, and has been an editorial consultant for Scenario, Silicon Alley Reporter and IFC/Rant magazines, and the Indiewire and IFP Websites. She has also translated the fiction of Swedish author Jonas Gardell. A 1987 graduate of SUNY Binghamton, Bari earned a Master's degree in Literature from Indiana University in 1994.
Read her Filmmaker Magazine Interviews With:
Liz Mermin, Beauty Academy of Kabul (April 2006)
Khyentse Norbu, Travellers and Magicians (January 2005)
Pearl Gluck, Divan (February 2004)
Sandi Dubowski, Trembling Before G-D (Fall 2001)
Flicker: The Analog Revolution
Cinema Paradise Film Festival 2004
Aspen Shorts Film Festival 2004
