Eric Alan Zimmerman is a skilled and innovative media maker. He has worked as a director, editor, preditor, videographer, producer, and writer, in a variety of genres. He is a creative media professional who works closely with top producers and stars on features, documentaries, unscripted and scripted tv shows, music videos, commercials, short-form digital content, and long-form projects.
After earning a BFA from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago, he directed music videos for Trent Reznor and was nominated for MTV-Billboard Awards “Best New Director” for the Nine Inch Nails video “Down In It”. He directed NIN’s “Head Like A Hole”, which went on to become a Number One song and video, listed in the MTV Top Ten All-Time Buzz Clips. He has directed numerous music videos for bands including Soundgarden, Living Colour, Public Enemy, Megadeth, Zakk Wylde’s Black Label Society, George Clinton, and Dragonforce, He directed six MTV Buzz Clips, and was nominated three times for the MTV-Billboard awards. Soundgarden’s “Jesus Christ Pose” received the Silver Hugo Award at The Chicago International Film Festival. He has directed videos in England, France, and Sweden, where he directed ìPin Me Downî for Clawfinger, a Top Five MTV Viewer’s Choice in Europe. He worked with Eminem and Dr. Dre cutting “My Name Is Slim Shady” which won an MTV Award for “Best New Artist Video”. Zimmerman toured with Zakk Wylde’s Black Label Society (Ozzy Osbourne’s guitarist) across Europe to direct a long form dvd for the band, “Doom Troopin’ Live” featuring an hour-long tour documentary and behind-the-scenes footage, #4 in the UK Charts; and he also directed a dvd for Wylde “Skullage”, #1 on the Billboard charts. Eric also directed a music video “Primitive Futuristic” featuring music legend George Clinton. He also shot and edited a music video and promo package for Sony/Netflix for Dolly Parton’s “Girl In The Movies” tie-in for “Dumplin’” that helped get a 2019 Golden Globe nomination. He recently produced, shot, and edited “One Love Malibu” a fire benefit concert mini-doc starring Katy Perry, Gwen Stefani, Macy Gray, Robin Thicke, for We Are Hear and Linda Perry who is nominated for a 2019 Best Producer Grammy.
Most recently he wrote and directed “Caller ID: Entity”, a sci-fi thriller featuring Peter Greene (Pulp Fiction), James Duval (Doom Generation, Independence Day), Nathan Bexton (Go), and John Cho (Harold and Kumar, Star Trek), just released on Amazon Prime, Google Play, and Redbox.
Zimmerman has worked on many hit reality television shows. He lead edited and worked as a preditor on two seasons of “Snoop Dogg’s Father Hood” (E!), and lead-edited and wrote for “The Family Crews” (BET) starring Terry Crews. He edited “Marley Africa Roadtrip” with Ziggy Marley (Africa Channel) co-exec produced by Ewan McGregor. He also edited “Lil Kim Countdown to Lockdown” (BET), “DMX Soul of a Man”(BET), and “Keyshia Cole, The Way It Is” (BET) winning the Prism Award. He has edited feature music documentaries; the critically-acclaimed “Better Living Through Circuitry” explored the techno-rave music culture, and “Rhythm and Smoke”, about Cuban cigars, music, and lifestyle. He edited “Targeted: The Engineer” for History Channel, a documentary on suicide bomber mastermind Yeshiya Ayash, nominated for the IDA Awards. He also edited and did graphics for Criss Angel’s series “beLIEve” for Spike TV and LBI Entertainment. He recently edited info-comedy “Am I Doing This Right?” for BuzzFeed.
Also experienced in commercial projects, he traveled to Tokyo and Helsinki to shoot a cell phone research film for corporate client AT&T, for TWBA/Chiat Day, Appleís ad agency, which later was to provide research for the groundbreaking iPhone. He directed several convention films for Barbie Electronics (Ogilvy). He also directed two promos for Mattel Hot Wheels, and completed a dual-screen convention film for Hewlett Packard. He also co-wrote and directed a marketing film for Warner Bros. Feature Animation, for “Osmosis Jones” starring Chris Rock.
Eric is currently in post on a documentary he is co-directing and co-producing, “The Benders Circuit”, about the electronic audiovisual performance scene in LA.
He has also written scripts for projects in development, including best-selling sci-fi book “Dhalgren” by Samuel R. Delany, “Explorer of the Unknown” about documentarian Douchan Gersi, and “Headliners” about the life of rave DJ and activist Kat Goldfarb.