Tony Gerber is an Award-winning writer, producer & filmmaker.

Tony Gerber is an Emmy and PGA award-winning writer, producer and filmmaker. He has written and directed over a dozen documentaries for National Geographic, shot in some of the most remote and dangerous regions of the world.  Most recently he co-wrote and directed the WGA-nominated independent feature documentary War Game (Decal, Anonymous Content) with Jesse Moss. He directed and executive produced Kingdom of the White Wolf, a 3-part natural history series for National Geographic, filmed on location on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian High Arctic. He is a producer of the critically acclaimed, PGA award-winning film Jane about the life and work of Dr. Jane Goodall.  His documentary Explorer: Battle for Virunga (National Geographic Channel), about the fight to protect mountain gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo, was a 2017 recipient of a Genesis Award, the Humane Society’s top honor for bringing critical animal protection issues to the public.  For CNN Films he directed, and co-wrote with Meryl Streep, We Will Rise chronicling former First Lady Michelle Obama’s trip to Africa to raise awareness of the importance of girl’s education, featuring Meryl Streep, Isha Sesay and Freida Pinto.  The film was a  recipient of an American Television Academy Honor and a Cine Golden Eagle.  His independent films include Full Battle Rattle (Berlinale premiere and SXSW Special Jury Prize) and The Notorious Mr. Bout (Sundance, 2014). In 2005, Gerber co-founded NY-based production company, Market Road Films, with two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage.  Gerber produced Emma Francis Snyder’s Oscar short-listed documentary Takeover about the Young Lords 1970 take-over of the failing Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx, which made affordable healthcare a topic of national debate. The film is a recipient of support from Ford Just Films and Open Society Foundation. Gerber and Nottage Executive Produced “Deep South,” a 10-part podcast for Stitcher investigating an unsolved 1950s lynching and the conspiracy of silence in a small southern town. Gerber is on the board of UnionDocs and Yaddo. He is a member of AMPAS, the DGA, the PGA, WGA East, and the American Television Academy.

UPCOMING PROJECTS

Like actors in a thriller, but with profound real-world stakes, the players have only six hours to save American democracy. The simulation’s outcome hinges on several inflection points, from the government’s capacity to counter the disinformation that’s effectively spread by the insurgent side to the potential invocation of the Insurrection Act (i.e., the “nuclear option”). While the exercise served to stress test our institutions, the film is a critical wake-up call, underscoring the urgent need for bipartisanship in safeguarding American democracy.

War Game premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, and will play in select theaters nationwide starting August 2nd. Click here for news and upcoming screenings, as well as more information about the film.

Selected press coverage: 

VARIETY: Anonymous Content, Boat Rocker Team on Thriller Documentary by Jesse Moss, Tony Gerber

27East: ‘War Game’ Is a Political Thriller That Offers a Stark Look at the 2024 Election

Set in a world largely unseen in mainstream media, utilizing non-actors, combining fiction and documentary techniques, Atautchikun (which means “all together as one” in Inupiaq) tells a story of a deep connection between humans and whales. Transcending cultural differences and assumptions, the film will showcase how the practice of hunting can convey love, respect, and wisdom through the generations and across an entire community. The project will be a rare, human-scaled window onto a global crisis, finding grounding, meaning, and truth in a world riddled with uncertainty.

In Utqiaġvik, Alaska, the northernmost city in the United States — where the Arctic landscape is warming four times faster than the rest of the planet — the local community has long grappled with the effects of climate change. But while America at large has struggled to formulate any kind of coherent response to climate change, the native Iñupiaq culture in Utqiaġvik has, for centuries, demonstrated a singular ability to adapt to a changing environment and maintain a sustainable economic and social structure. In this small whaling community on the frontlines of the climate crisis, co-directors Rachel Naŋinaaq Edwardson, a native of Utqiaġvik, and Tony Gerber tell a profoundly human story from an Iñupiaq perspective, grounded in Iñupiaq spirituality.

“Takeover” marks the first Market Road Films project to come out of its first-look deal with Sister, which was co-founded by Elisabeth Murdoch, Stacey Snider and Jane Featherstone.

The short-subject documentary — directed by Emma Francis-Snyder and produced by Market Road Films’ Tony Gerber — chronicles the 12 historic hours in 1970 when 50 members of the Young Lords Party stormed the dilapidated Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx and made their cries for health justice known to the world. Read the full article in Variety here.

Tony is represented by Britton Rizzio of Curate Management: britton@thisiscurate.com