Gary Leva is a renowned filmmaker and film historian who has made a significant impact in the cinematic arts through his work on numerous documentaries, broadcast programs, and special features. One of his most notable documentaries is Fog City Mavericks, which celebrates 100 years of San Francisco's vibrant filmmaking community and premiered at the 50th San Francisco International Film Festival before being broadcast on cable television and released on disc.
Leva's documentaries have not only contributed to the history of film but have also earned him numerous awards. His documentary A Legacy of Filmmakers, which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival and was screened at the Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan, explores the creation of Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope film company against the backdrop of changing American cinema in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The documentary is now part of the curriculum at several top universities.
Leva has also produced acclaimed documentaries on the cinema of George Lucas, spanning his entire career from his early student films to the Star Wars series and beyond. His collections of documentaries on Alfred Hitchcock, Clint Eastwood, and Stanley Kubrick are often regarded as the definitive anthology on each of these masters' works.
With his reputation as a leader in his field, Leva continues to collaborate with top filmmakers, including Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee, Robert Redford, Oliver Stone, and many others.
In addition to his work in film, Leva has produced documentaries on a wide range of subjects, such as the challenges faced by investigative journalists in the digital age and the ways in which the achievements of Alexander the Great continue to influence our modern lives.
Some of Leva's other notable projects include the award-winning narrative feature film Plan B, starring Jon Cryer, the mockumentary R2-D2: Beneath the Dome, which was broadcast nationally on Fox, and the documentary 1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year, which aired nationally on TCM.
Leva is also an adjunct professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts.
