Yorktown Filmmaker's Documentary Hits Theaters Nationwide

Yorktown resident Jeremy Newberger, along with two fellow area filmmakers, will have their documentary film about controversial 80s TV talk show host Morton Downey, Jr. hit theaters nationwide on June 7. 

Newberger, the CEO of the Garrison-based Ironbound Films, made Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie with co-directors Seth Kramer of Red Hook, Daniel A. Miller of Cold Spring. 

The film, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on April 19, 2012, dissects the mind and motivation of television’s most notorious agitator. 

Morton Downey, Jr., a singer and songwriter who started his career in radio, became a popular talk show host. The success of his talk show The Morton Downey Jr. Show made him a pop culture celebrity. He is best known as a "chain smoking" and "screaming" arguer. He died in 2001.

The three filmmakers, who grew up in the suburbs of New Jersey, Long Island and New York, watched the The Morton Downey Jr. Show as teenagers in the late 80s. They were the young impressionable generation, Newberger said, that was "eating it up" and having conversations about issues they otherwise might not have discussed if it wasn't for Downey Jr.

For their film, the men got a hold of old tapes that were kept in storage by Clear Channel CEO Bob Pittman, of Katonah – the man who created the The Morton Downey Jr. Show. They would later sift through 400 hours of show footage.

"Our mission was to steer as clear as possible of a 'Best of Downey' compilation," according to the three men. "We instead sought the subtleties that betrayed Downey’s methods and motivations, and the moments that would help craft a narrative of his rise and fall."

They also reached out to Downey’s coworkers and colleagues, family and friends, and some of his most frequent and memorable guests. They wanted to tell the story of his life on and off camera and give people a sense of who he was.

Click here to watch the official trailer of Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie.

Newberger, Kramer and Miller recently directed the critically acclaimed, Emmy nominated documentaries The New Recruits and The Linguists, which premiered at Sundance.

Newberger, who lives in Yorktown with his wife Michele and their two kids, Samson and Annabelle, has also worked as a producer and on-air contributor to the Imus in the Morning television program on MSNBC. 

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You can catch Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie at the following theaters:

Montclair, NJ: Clairidge Cinemas 6
Kew Gardens, NY: Kew Gardens Cinemas 6
Malverne, NY: Malverne Cinema 5
New York, NY: Quad Cinemas 4
Roslyn Hights, NY: Roslyn Cinemas 4