Bruce Sinofsky

Sinofsky was born to a Jewish family{{Cite web|last=Bloom|first=Nate|title=Jewish Stars: Oscar time

|publisher=Cleveland Jewish News|date=February 15, 2012|url=https://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/archives/jewish-stars-oscar-time/article_6b7fda9a-581e-11e1-aeb2-001871e3ce6c.html|access-date=8 May 2018}} in Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated from the Tisch School of the Arts of New York University in 1978.{{cite news|title=NYU Alumnus Mark Bridges Wins Oscar for Best Costume Design for "The Artist" |url=http://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2012/02/27/nyu-alumnus-mark-bridges-wins-oscar-for-best-costume-design-for-the-artist.html |work=New York University|date=2012-02-27 |access-date=2012-02-27}}

Sinofsky began his career at Maysles Films. As Senior Editor at the company, he worked on commercials and feature films until 1991, when he and Joe Berlinger formed their own production company, Creative Thinking International. They jointly produced, edited and directed documentary films which have appeared on over 50 critics choice lists,{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/25/movies/bruce-sinofsky-documentary-filmmaker-dies-at-58.html|title = Bruce Sinofsky, Lauded Documentary Filmmaker, Dies at 58|newspaper = The New York Times|date = 25 February 2015|last1 = Weber|first1 = Bruce}} including Brother's Keeper (1992), the Paradise Lost trilogy (1996, 2004, 2011), Hollywood High (2003) and Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (2004).

The first movie Sinofsky directed, in 1992, was the documentary Brother's Keeper,{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103888/|title=Brother's Keeper|date=9 September 1992|access-date=8 May 2018|website=IMDb.com}} which tells the story of Delbart Ward, an elderly man in Munnsville, New York, who was charged with second-degree murder following the death of his brother William. Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert, in his review of the movie, called it "an extraordinary documentary about what happened next, as a town banded together to stop what folks saw as a miscarriage of justice."{{Cite web|url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/brothers-keeper-1993|title=Brother's Keeper Movie Review (1993) {{!}} Roger Ebert|last=Ebert|first=Roger|website=www.rogerebert.com|language=en|access-date=2018-06-20}}

The Paradise Lost trilogy chronicles the inhabitants of a small southern town a year after a series of brutal murders, in a style similar to that of award-winning documentary filmmaker Errol Morris.

Sinofsky and Berlinger's work used various styles, including a paean to cinéma vérité. Metallica: Some Kind of Monster covers the heavy metal band Metallica as they participate in group therapy before recording their first album in five years. The pair also made a documentary on the southern record label for blues and country western artists, Sun Records called Good Rockin' Tonight.

Sinofsky died on February 21, 2015, at the age of 58, from diabetes-related complications.{{cite web|url=http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/21/entertainment/feat-bruce-sinofsky-dies/|title=Director of 'Paradise Lost' trilogy dies |author=Emanuella Grinberg|website=Cnn.com|date=22 February 2015 |access-date=8 May 2018}}[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/bruce-sinofsky-dead-metallica-and-paradise-lost-documentary-director-dies-aged-58-10062523.html The Independent: Bruce Sinofsky dead: Metallica and Paradise Lost documentary director dies aged 58] (accessed 23 February 2015) The band Metallica paid tribute to him as a "courageous man with deep empathy and wisdom who wasn't afraid to dig deep to tell the story." Berlinger wrote that Sinofsky's "humanity is on every frame of the films that he leaves behind."

The 2016 film Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5151716/|title=Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru|date=15 July 2016|access-date=8 May 2018|website=IMDb.com}} is dedicated to his memory.

The 2018 documentary May It Last: A Portrait of the Avett Brothers{{cite web|url=https://m.imdb.com/title/tt6487050/|title=May It Last: A Portrait of the Avett Brothers (2017)|website=IMDb.com|access-date=8 May 2018}} is also dedicated to his memory.

Sinofsky won a Directors Guild of America Award and two Emmys,{{Cite web|url=https://variety.com/2015/film/obituaries-people-news/bruce-sinofsky-paradise-lost-trilogy-director-dies-at-58-1201438514/|title = Bruce Sinofsky, Oscar-Nominated Documentary Filmmaker, Dies at 58|date = 21 February 2015}} one for the first film in the Paradise Lost trilogy, The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills.[http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-bruce-sinofsky-20150223-story.html LA Times: Bruce Sinofsky dies at 58; Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker] Latimes.com (accessed 23 February 2015) He was nominated for an Academy Award for the third film in the trilogy, Purgatory, in 2011.

• Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky

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• [http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19930326/REVIEWS/303260302/1023/ Chicago Tribune review of My Brother's Keeper] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130320143951/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F19930326%2FREVIEWS%2F303260302%2F1023%2F |date=2013-03-20 }}
• [http://grantland.com/features/child-murders-robin-hood-hills-directors-joe-berlinger-bruce-sinofsky/ Bruce Sinofsky interview], Davy Rothbart for Grantland

{{Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky}}

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Category:1956 births

Category:2015 deaths

Category:20th-century American Jews

Category:American documentary film directors

Category:News & Documentary Emmy Award winners

Category:Primetime Emmy Award winners

Category:Directors Guild of America Award winners

Category:Tisch School of the Arts alumni

Category:Artists from Boston

Category:Diabetes-related deaths

Category:Film directors from Massachusetts

Category:21st-century American Jews