David Shapiro

History

David Shapiro has been a prolific filmmaker and visual artist for over twenty years. He wrote, produced, and shares a film by credit for FINISHING HEAVEN (HBO, 2009), for which he was nominated for a 2010 Emmy as producer. The film premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival in 2009. Shapiro co-directed, wrote and produced KEEP THE RIVER ON YOUR RIGHT. The film had its international premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in 2000. Based on Tobias Schneebaum's book, the film went on to play in over 37 international film festivals winning many major awards, including the Independent Spirit Award for Best New Director (2001), the Special Jury Award at IDFA (2000), Best Documentary Feature at the Hamptons Film festival (2000) and a Special Critics Award At LAFF (2000). It was shortlisted for an Academy Award. Shapiro's visual art has been exhibited extensively in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including shows at MoMA, the Tate, the Norton and the Brooklyn Museum. His work is included in many prominent collections, including the Tate, the Whitney and the collection of Beth Rudin DeWoody. Shapiro's film, MISSING PEOPLE (2015) has its world premiere as an official selection of the 2015 Hot Docs International Documentary Film Festival. David lives and works in Queens, New York.

Movies

Untitled Pizza Movie
Untitled Pizza Movie
Editor
How do you remember somebody in a disposable world? Untitled Pizza Movie sets out to do just that, by weaving an abandoned film about pizza (shot in NYC in the 1990s), and a stunning, filmed archive (thousands of objects), with a remarkable triple portrait, tracing the trajectory of three lives, across thirty years and three continents.
Untitled Pizza Movie
Untitled Pizza Movie
Writer
How do you remember somebody in a disposable world? Untitled Pizza Movie sets out to do just that, by weaving an abandoned film about pizza (shot in NYC in the 1990s), and a stunning, filmed archive (thousands of objects), with a remarkable triple portrait, tracing the trajectory of three lives, across thirty years and three continents.
Untitled Pizza Movie
Untitled Pizza Movie
Producer
How do you remember somebody in a disposable world? Untitled Pizza Movie sets out to do just that, by weaving an abandoned film about pizza (shot in NYC in the 1990s), and a stunning, filmed archive (thousands of objects), with a remarkable triple portrait, tracing the trajectory of three lives, across thirty years and three continents.
Untitled Pizza Movie
Untitled Pizza Movie
Director
How do you remember somebody in a disposable world? Untitled Pizza Movie sets out to do just that, by weaving an abandoned film about pizza (shot in NYC in the 1990s), and a stunning, filmed archive (thousands of objects), with a remarkable triple portrait, tracing the trajectory of three lives, across thirty years and three continents.
Missing People
Missing People
Director
Missing People is a nonfiction mystery about a enigmatic woman investigating her brother's long unsolved murder, while obsessively collecting and researching the violent work and life of an outsider artist. As these parallel narratives intertwine, shocking events unfold.
Keep the River on Your Right: A Modern Cannibal Tale
Keep the River on Your Right: A Modern Cannibal Tale
Director
In 1955, Tobias Schneebaum disappeared into the depths of the Peruvian Amazon. He had no guide, no map, and only the vaguest of instructions: Keep the river on your right. A year later Schneebaum emerged from the jungle…naked, covered in body paint, and a modern-day cannibal. Titled after Schneebaum’s 1969 cult classic memoir about his formative experiences living in the Amazon, Keep The River On Your Right is the extraordinary stranger-than-fiction story of Schneebaum’s return to the jungle, 45 years after his original visit, to reunite with the very tribesmen he loved and who gave him nightmares for nearly half a century. A deeply affecting and searing portrait, sibling filmmakers Laurie and David Shapiro capture a man in utter conflict, a fearless adventurer, and one of the most charming, enigmatic, and perplexing men ever captured on screen.