About Miriam
Miriam Zimmerman, 2004.
A fascination with people’s lives —what they have accomplished, how they have endured — propelled me from fiction writing at Vassar College to a career in documentary filmmaking.
I started my career researching and writing funding proposals for public television. Before joining forces with Steve York in 1995, I freelanced for 10 years. Highlights include field producer on Throwaway People (PBS, Robert F. Kennedy Humanitarian Award), associate producer on The Education of Admiral Watkins, (PBS, Emmy Award), and story editor for NBC’s Emmy-winning series, Lost Civilizations.
At the A Force More Powerful premiere in 2000 with civil resistance leaders, Mkhuseli Jack, and Rev. James Lawson.
As Managing Producer at York Zimmerman Inc., I shepherded our productions from conception to post, overseeing production on 5 continents, versioning in 20 languages, and footage & stills acquisition from more than 75 archival sources around the world.
Handling all budgetary, personnel, promotional, and legal matters for our projects was by turns fun, stressful, and always challenging.
At a 2014 screening with some of the talented Sparta teens.
In 2014, an opportunity fell into my lap and I grabbed it: to produce & direct This is Sparta!, an intimate feature-length film about a group of high-school outcasts who write and perform a hilarious musical celebrating their quirkiness.
Preparing to record an interview for Drug Stories, 2018.
Next I conceived and created the Meet Your Neighbor series for community radio, for which I produced dozens of segments before one memorable interview inspired me in early 2018 to launch Drug Stories, a stigma-fighting podcast about addiction. Drug Stories has attracted nearly 20,000 listeners from all over the U.S. and over 60 countries. The final episode was released in late 2019.
Since 2020, I have been creating art. Learn more at Art from the Garden Originals.
