Wolfgang Held

Movies

Stormy
Cinematography
Delve into the life and times of Stormy Daniels as she shares her story and account of events that have become part of American history.
Addicted to Life
Producer
Strong-willed, funny and charismatic, at 37, Belgian athlete Marieke Vervoort’s time is running out. As her strength falters and her body begins to fail, she determines to end her life with the aid of her doctor. Liberated by the legal permission to die, Marieke rediscovers the freedom and thrill of living and competing and becomes a Paralympic champion. Her acceptance of death becomes an affirmation of life. Marieke demystifies one of the most controversial issues of our time.
How to Survive a Pandemic
Director of Photography
An inside look at the historic, multi-national race to research, develop, regulate, and roll out COVID-19 vaccines in the war against the coronavirus pandemic.
WeWork: or The Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn
Director of Photography
Explore the rise and fall of one of the biggest corporate flameouts and venture capitalist bubbles in recent years – the story of WeWork, and its hippie-messianic leader Adam Neumann.
A Life's Work
Cinematography
What’s it like to dedicate your life to work that won’t be completed in your lifetime? Fifteen years ago, filmmaker David Licata focused on four projects and the people behind them in an effort to answer this universal question.
Wax Paul Now
Director of Photography
Three New Yorkers will stop at nothing to get Paul Giamatti his own wax statue at Madame Tussauds.
Far from the Tree
Director of Photography
Parents of children who have Down syndrome, dwarfism or autism share intimate stories of the challenges they face. Tracing their joys, challenges, tragedies, and triumphs.
The Neighbors' Window
Director of Photography
It tells the story of a middle aged woman with small children whose life is shaken up when two free-spirited twenty-somethings move in across the street.
Museum Town
Director of Photography
A rural American town suffering economically from factory closures finds an unconventional route to recovery with the help of MASS MoCA.
It's a Hard Truth Ain't It
Director of Photography
"It’s a Hard Truth Ain’t It" is a companion piece to "O.G.", a narrative drama also directed by Madeleine Sackler. It is co-directed by thirteen men incarcerated at the Pendleton Correctional Facility in Pendleton, Indiana. Given unprecedented access to a maximum security prison, filmmaker Madeleine Sackler worked with a group of inmates to tell their own stories, giving rise to this collaborative, intimate documentary project.
O.G.
Director of Photography
Louis Menkins is five weeks away from being released after 26 years in prison. He is faced with the decision to put his own release at risk in order to protect a young man named Beecher from growing gang controversies.
Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind
Director of Photography
A funny, intimate and heartbreaking portrait of one of the world’s most beloved and inventive comedians, Robin Williams, told largely through his own words. Celebrates what he brought to comedy and to the culture at large, from the wild days of late-1970s L.A. to his death in 2014.
Sophie and the Rising Sun
Director of Photography
In a small Southern town in the autumn of 1941, Sophie’s lonely life is transformed when an Asian man arrives under mysterious circumstances. Their love affair becomes the lightning rod for long-buried conflicts that erupt in bigotry and violence with the outbreak of World War ll.
The Last Keepers
Director of Photography
This romantic fantasy movie is about two people who are the last survivors of an ancient line of goddess worshipers, who sell art at a shop. When their teenage daughter Rhea falls in love with a poetically inclined boy , she begins to develop magical powers of her own throwing everything into chaos.
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
Director of Photography
PBS series documentary based on a book of the same name that argues the oppression of women worldwide is the "paramount moral challenge" of our time.
Me @ the Zoo
Director of Photography
An intimate look at a controversial young video blogger, regarded by millions as the Internet's first rebel folk hero.
One Nation Under Dog:  Stories of Fear, Loss and Betrayal
Director of Photography
.Americans have had a long love affair with dogs, with many of us referring to our canine companions as best friends, significant others, soul mates, even children. But lost amidst all the pampering and pedestaling are hard and often tragic truths surrounding dog ownership, care and commerce, not to mention the daunting odds continuing to face millions of unwanted shelter dogs. Divided into three parts – “Fear,” “Loss” and “Betrayal” – this 73-minute documentary is comprised of eight case studies that probe the complicated and conflicted relationship we have with canines. Collectively, the segments reveal the sobering realities behind our relationship with dogs, showing not only how far some dog lovers will go for their pets, but how far we as nation have to go in order to treat all dogs humanely.
I Can't Do This But I CAN Do That: A Film for Families about Learning Differences
Director of Photography
Does having a learning disability mean that you can’t learn? Eight children prove that the answer is a definitive 'No' in this documentary. Interviews with kids are intercut with scenes of the children engaged in activities that reflect their talents to form a compelling portrait of the ways in which these young people use their strengths to overcome their challenges.
The Lottery
Director of Photography
Four children enter a high-stakes lottery. If they win, they can attend one of the best schools in New York. A look at the crisis in public education, The Lottery makes the case than any child can succeed.
Brüno
Director of Photography
Flamboyantly gay Austrian television reporter Bruno stirs up trouble with unsuspecting guests and large crowds through brutally frank interviews and painfully hilarious public displays of homosexuality.
Studs Terkel: Listening to America
Director of Photography
For over 60 years, Studs Terkel elevated the voices and experiences of everyday Americans through his skillful interviews on radio, in books and on TV. This documentary takes a fond and illuminating look back at one of America's most influential authors and media personalities whose curiosity about people never dimmed over the course of a long and brilliant career.
American Teen
Director of Photography
A documentary on seniors at a high school in a small Indiana town and their various cliques.
Teeth
Director of Photography
Dawn is an active member of her high-school chastity club but, when she meets Tobey, nature takes its course, and the pair answer the call. They suddenly learn she is a living example of the vagina dentata myth, when the encounter takes a grisly turn.
Hair: Let the Sun Shine In
Director
Learn what happened backstage during the creation of "Hair," the seminal 1960s musical that defined the hippie era, with this documentary featuring in-depth interviews with the original producers and cast members, including Tim Curry and Ben Vereen. "Hair" tried to explain peace, love, drugs, sex and war; in the process it became a cornerstone of the counterculture movement and has lasting relevance decades later with the Iraq War.
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
Director of Photography
After bassist Jason Newsted quits the band in 2001, heavy metal superstars Metallica realize that they need an intervention. In this revealing documentary, filmmakers follow the three rock stars as they hire a group therapist and grapple with 20 years of repressed anger and aggression. Between searching for a replacement bass player, creating a new album and confronting their personal demons, the band learns to open up in ways they never thought possible.
Poster Boy
Director of Photography
The gay son of a conservative senator who is also the poster boy for his father's re-election unknowingly befriends a gay activist bent on destroying the hypocritical campaign.
Undermind
Director of Photography
Derrick, a corporate lawyer with a large trust fund, and Zane, a criminal, live in opposite social spheres. Although they never meet, their lives are more connected than either one of them could ever imagine.
Heartbreak Hospital
Director of Photography
Neely, an aspiring actress, gets a role on the popular soap opera "Heartbreak Hospital." Her neighbor, Lottie, a huge fan of the show, can't differentiate between fiction and reality, and her obsession and jealousy endanger Neely and the rest of the cast.
Maze
Director of Photography
Artist Lyle Maze is reconciled to a life without romance thanks to his dual afflictions: Tourette's Syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorder. But his life takes an unexpected turn when his friend Mike departs on a humanitarian mission, leaving behind his pregnant girlfriend Callie. She leans on Lyle for help, and before long he's Lamaze coach, pinch-hitting father-to-be and in love with Callie.
Children Underground
Director of Photography
Children Underground follows the story of five street children, aged eight to sixteen who live in a subway station in Bucharest, Romania. The street kids are encountered daily by commuting adults, who pass them by in the station as they starve, swindle, and steal, all while searching desperately for a fresh can of paint to get high with.
Sam the Man
Director of Photography
A writer having difficulty completing his second novel goes on a journey of self-discovery.
Enough Already
Director of Photography
A graduating college student planning to drift through Central and South America has an uphill battle with his girlfriend who has other plans for his and their lives including him becoming a stock broker.
Dogs: The Rise and Fall of an All-Girl Bookie Joint
Director of Photography
Four twenty-something women, crammed into a small Manhattan apartment, have dead end jobs (or no job) and overdue rent. They discover cash and self esteem when they set up an illegal bookie joint in their kitchen. Suddenly they can pay their bills; they imagine joining the middle class; they even make corporate donations to charity. The film also explores their relationships with men, most of whom are unfit for anything lasting, and with their mothers, who appear in surreal, imagined conversations with their daughters.
Floating
Director of Photography
Already suffering fiscal and emotional bankruptcy after a car crash shatters his life, young Van finds himself in a vacuum when his buddies go off to college and he stays behind to look after his disabled, alcoholic father. Lacking an outlet for his rage, Van starts to run with two local punks and drifts into a life of crime. Then he meets Doug, who seems to have everything Van desires ... but Doug has demons of his own.
Ripe
Director of Photography
When their abusive parents are killed in a car crash, twin sisters Rosie and Violet vow to run away to Kentucky in search of a better life. While on the road, the girls meet up with Pete, a drifter working as a grounds keeper on a derelict army base, who takes them in. While Violet falls for him, Rosie becomes increasingly angry and hostile, and the sisters' childhood bond is eventually destroyed forever.
Wigstock: The Movie
Director of Photography
The three-decade-old annual Manhattan gathering of drag queens and their fans is portrayed in this colorful documentary. The film concentrates on the spectacle of the event, providing abundant examples of the elaborate costumes, flamboyant wigs, and campy musical performances that characterize the event.
Criminal
Writer
A man impulsively commits a crime.
I Wish I Were a Pigeon
Writer
The story of German minority members who, after escaping from Wehrmacht, form a partisan unit named "Ernst Thalmann" in eastern Croatia. The focus is a family whose members fight on different sides of the barricade.
Three Birthdays
Director of Photography
In 1970, with the Kent State protests as a backdrop, sixteen-year-old Bobbie and her professor parents Kate and Rob, are torn between their high ideals and the old- fashioned comforts of the nuclear family.
My Favorite Neoconservative
Cinematography
My Favorite Neoconservative offers a rare glimpse of intimate Washington politics through a unique father-daughter relationship. The main character is the filmmaker’s father, Edward Luttwak, who makes a living as a military strategist. He devised the air campaign of the first Iraq War; his life was threatened on the nightly news by the notorious terrorist, Abu Nidal. The film tells a father-daughter story with a massive military and political twist.