Biography

Born in Salinas, California, Michael began his studies at the Juilliard School, which led to a position in the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra under Riccardo Chailly and Vladimir Ashkenazy, and tours with the Berlin Philharmonic under Herbert von Karajan. He wrote and directed his first film, the weirdly dark Konzert für die rechte Hand (1987), while still a member of the orchestra. Awards and screenings at festivals in Europe and the US ultimately led to his acceptance at the American Film Institute, Los Angeles.

Michael returned to Berlin to direct two music documentaries for German TV, The Reluctant Angels (1992), a history of the castrato in early music - and Cheryl Studer - An American Soprano (1996), shot in Europe and the United States. In 1998, he began his first big feature, The Little Girl Who Fell from the Tree (1998), starring Dominque Horwitz (Stalingrad) and Floriane Daniel (Winter Sleepers) in Berlin's famous Babelsberg Studios. Awards and festivals in Los Angeles, Houston, and Seattle, brought Michael back to the States, where he now lives & works from Portland, Oregon.
- IMDb mini biography by: Michael Bartlett

"The Little Girl Who Fell From a Tree", a co-production for Tobis Filmkunst and Rialto Film Berlin was made in Berlin's famous Babelsberg Studios and earned Bartlett critical praise in Germany and stateside. It won the AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival Best Editing Award, the Worldfest Houston Gold Award, and was an official selection of the Santa Barbara and Seattle International film festivals.

Bartlett financed his first film, the darkly comic Konzert Fuer Die Rechte Hand (Concerto for the Right Hand) through performances with the Berlin Radio Symphony (DSO) and the Berlin Philharmonic. Winner of the Mannheim Special Jury and C.I.C.A.E. Awards, the film was selected for the Berlin International Film Festival as well as festivals in Barcelona, Madrid, and Portugal, and aired several times on German TV. He also wrote and directed several highly acclaimed opera-themed documentaries for German TV.

Bartlett studied at the Juilliard School in New York and the American Film Institute in Los Angeles, and is currently lining up financing for projects including "House of Last Things", a supernatural thriller-drama, and "Voodoo Lounge", a thriller-noir set in Portland, Oregon, as well as an indie comedy "Seeing Red".

A Salinas, California native, Bartlett left Europe for Portland on the off-handed praises of Gus Van Sant who he met in Berlin and Madrid.
- IMDb mini biography by: Moreen Littrell