Mark Christopher

{{short description|American film director}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Mark Christopher

| image = Mark Christopher 3.jpg

| caption = Christopher in 2015

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1963|07|08}}

| birth_place = Fort Dodge, Iowa, United States

| occupation = Film director, screenwriter

}}

Mark Christopher (born July 8, 1963, in Fort Dodge, Iowa) is a screenwriter and director best known for directing and writing 54 (1998).{{cite web |url=https://pgfusa.org/award-winners/mark-christopher/ |title=Mark Christopher |website=Princess Grace Foundation-USA |accessdate=May 5, 2020}}

Within the film community, he is even better known for the success of the director's cut of the film that premiered at the 2015 Berlin International Film Festival.{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/2015/film/festivals/critics-look-back-on-berlin-where-kink-and-quality-collide-1201434896/|title=Critics Look Back on Berlin, Where Kink and Quality Collide|first=Peter Debruge,Scott|last=Foundas|date=16 February 2015|publisher=|accessdate=12 April 2018}} With over 40 minutes of original footage restored to the film that had been cut out of the 1998 version by Miramax's notorious Harvey Weinstein, the director's cut was universally lauded by critics and hailed as a "jubilant resurrection" and "a lost gay classic."{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/feb/12/54-the-directors-cut-review-disco-thrusting-delirium-mike-myers-berlin|title=Berlin 2015 review: 54: The Director's Cut – a disco-era Cabaret thrusting its way to delirium|first=Ryan|last=Gilbey|date=12 February 2015|website=the Guardian|accessdate=12 April 2018}}{{cite web|url=http://www.vulture.com/2015/02/54-directors-cut.html|title=54 Bombed in 1998. Now It's Been Resurrected as a Cult Gay Classic.|date=16 February 2015|publisher=|accessdate=12 April 2018}} The story of the films destruction and resurrection was featured on New York magazine's Vulture.com website.{{cite web|author=Jordan, Louis|url=http://www.vulture.com/2015/02/54-directors-cut.html |website=Vulture|date=February 16, 2015|title=54 Bombed in 1998. Now It's Been Resurrected as a Cult Gay Classic}} and The Guardian{{cite news|author=Gilbey, Ray|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/feb/12/54-the-directors-cut-review-disco-thrusting-delirium-mike-myers-berlin|newspaper= The Guardian|date=February 12, 2015|title=Berlin 2015 review: 54: The Director's Cut – a disco-era Cabaret thrusting its way to delirium }} and Elvis Mitchell's interview with Mark Christopher on KCRW's The Treatment.{{cite web|url=http://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/the-treatment/mark-christopher-54-the-directors-cut|title=Mark Christopher: 54: The Director's Cut|date=14 July 2015|publisher=|accessdate=12 April 2018}}

Christopher has also written and directed television, theatre, the IFC indie comedy hit "Pizza," and several short films, three of which have been theatrically distributed: The Dead Boys Club (1992), an influential short of the New Queer Cinema wave as cited by B. Ruby Rich in her Sight & Sound article that defined the genre; Alkali, Iowa (1995), winner of the Teddy at the Berlin International Film Festival (1996); and Heartland, Strand Releasing (2007). He is also known for his television writing and creation of musical programming, including Real Life: The Musical that premiered on OWN.{{cite web|url=https://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwtv/article/OWN-to-Premiere-REAL-LIFE-THE-MUSICAL-83-20120731|title=OWN to Premiere REAL LIFE: THE MUSICAL, 8/3|first=TV News|last=Desk|publisher=|accessdate=12 April 2018}}

{{cite web|work=The New York Times|title=FILM REVIEW; Sex, Drugs and Disco As a Hustler Gains A Suspect Celebrity|author=Holden, Stephen|authorlink=Stephen Holden|date=August 28, 1998|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9402EFDE103CF93BA1575BC0A96E958260}}