Rob Gordon Bralver
- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Rob Gordon Bralver is an American filmmaker most widely known for directing and co-writing "Moby Doc", along with editing "Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia". His films have played major festivals including SXSW, Tribeca, IDFA, DOC NYC, CPH DOX, Stockholm IFF, and Traverse City.
His debut as writer/director at age 22 was "Cure For Pain: The Mark Sandman Story" about the lead singer of cult band Morphine, The film was made in collaboration with the surviving Sandman family and Mark's former bandmates Dana Colley and Billy Conway, chronicling Sandman's tragic family background and the rise to cult stardom Sandman had as a unique and innovative instrumentalist. "Cure For Pain" won widespread acclaim and multiple best film awards on the festival circuit including Doc NYC, Full Frame Documentary, and Santa Barbara. The cast included Josh Homme, Ben Harper, Les Claypool, John Medeski, and Dicky Barrett. Success at festivals led to the film being acquired for sales by The Gersh Agency and a distribution deal with Cinetic Media, attracting acclaim in publications such as Vanity Fair and BlackBook. Stereogum hailed the film as one of the 10 best rock documentaries of all time.
Following "Cure For Pain", Bralver co-wrote, produced, and edited "Our Vinyl Weighs A Ton: This Is Stones Throw Records". The film chronicled the notorious Los Angeles-based independent label Stones Throw Records, and the backstory of its founder DJ Peanut Butter Wolf. It premiered at the LA Film Festival. The eclectic avant-garde cast of musicians launched by the label including Madlib, MF Doom, Mayer Hawthorne, Aloe Blacc, and a supporting ensemble of megastars such as Kanye West, Common, and Tyler the Creator drew global attention and positive reviews. "Vinyl" sold out the ArcLight Cinerama Dome in Hollywood and was sold to Netflix and Red Bull Media. The British Film Institute listed "Vinyl" as one of their top 10 landmark hip-hop documentaries ever made.
Bralver was simultaneously brought on to edit and co-produce a biographical documentary of cultural icon and author Gore Vidal. Ultimately titled "Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia", the film had been being shot for several years when Bralver joined the filmmaking team and was instrumental in crafting hundreds of hours of footage spanning Vidal's eventful life into an account of Vidal's final years, before his death in 2014. Featuring appearances by David Mamet, Mikhail Gorbachev, Tim Robbins, Sting, and a final interview with the late Vidal protege Christopher Hitchens, the film premiered at Tribeca and went on to win the Audience Award and Best Documentary Film prizes at Michael Moore's Traverse City and the Palm Springs, and sold to Netflix via Sundance Selects/IFC.
He then began a collaboration with Moby to produce and direct several music videos on the album Everything Was Beautiful And Nothing Hurt, including This Wild Darkness and Like a Motherless Child, which were viewed more than 10 million times on YouTube and featured in Rolling Stone and on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Moby and Bralver began a feature length documentary that chronicled Moby's personal life, music career, and animal rights activism. They began production in 2018 and filmed and edited for three years, releasing the film in 2021 on Hulu. "Moby Doc" featured special appearances from David Lynch and David Bowie, and was distributed in theaters and on digital platforms by Greenwich Entertainment. Owen Gleiberman at Variety reviewed the film as a "playful Dadaesque ramble", and RogerEbert praised its unique idiosyncratic style for "breathing thrilling new life into a safe and conventional genre."
His debut as writer/director at age 22 was "Cure For Pain: The Mark Sandman Story" about the lead singer of cult band Morphine, The film was made in collaboration with the surviving Sandman family and Mark's former bandmates Dana Colley and Billy Conway, chronicling Sandman's tragic family background and the rise to cult stardom Sandman had as a unique and innovative instrumentalist. "Cure For Pain" won widespread acclaim and multiple best film awards on the festival circuit including Doc NYC, Full Frame Documentary, and Santa Barbara. The cast included Josh Homme, Ben Harper, Les Claypool, John Medeski, and Dicky Barrett. Success at festivals led to the film being acquired for sales by The Gersh Agency and a distribution deal with Cinetic Media, attracting acclaim in publications such as Vanity Fair and BlackBook. Stereogum hailed the film as one of the 10 best rock documentaries of all time.
Following "Cure For Pain", Bralver co-wrote, produced, and edited "Our Vinyl Weighs A Ton: This Is Stones Throw Records". The film chronicled the notorious Los Angeles-based independent label Stones Throw Records, and the backstory of its founder DJ Peanut Butter Wolf. It premiered at the LA Film Festival. The eclectic avant-garde cast of musicians launched by the label including Madlib, MF Doom, Mayer Hawthorne, Aloe Blacc, and a supporting ensemble of megastars such as Kanye West, Common, and Tyler the Creator drew global attention and positive reviews. "Vinyl" sold out the ArcLight Cinerama Dome in Hollywood and was sold to Netflix and Red Bull Media. The British Film Institute listed "Vinyl" as one of their top 10 landmark hip-hop documentaries ever made.
Bralver was simultaneously brought on to edit and co-produce a biographical documentary of cultural icon and author Gore Vidal. Ultimately titled "Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia", the film had been being shot for several years when Bralver joined the filmmaking team and was instrumental in crafting hundreds of hours of footage spanning Vidal's eventful life into an account of Vidal's final years, before his death in 2014. Featuring appearances by David Mamet, Mikhail Gorbachev, Tim Robbins, Sting, and a final interview with the late Vidal protege Christopher Hitchens, the film premiered at Tribeca and went on to win the Audience Award and Best Documentary Film prizes at Michael Moore's Traverse City and the Palm Springs, and sold to Netflix via Sundance Selects/IFC.
He then began a collaboration with Moby to produce and direct several music videos on the album Everything Was Beautiful And Nothing Hurt, including This Wild Darkness and Like a Motherless Child, which were viewed more than 10 million times on YouTube and featured in Rolling Stone and on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Moby and Bralver began a feature length documentary that chronicled Moby's personal life, music career, and animal rights activism. They began production in 2018 and filmed and edited for three years, releasing the film in 2021 on Hulu. "Moby Doc" featured special appearances from David Lynch and David Bowie, and was distributed in theaters and on digital platforms by Greenwich Entertainment. Owen Gleiberman at Variety reviewed the film as a "playful Dadaesque ramble", and RogerEbert praised its unique idiosyncratic style for "breathing thrilling new life into a safe and conventional genre."
