Spanning approximately five linear feet, the Liz Manne Papers feature material from 1991 through 2016, with a majority of records coming from 1995 to 2005. This collection is reflective of Liz Manne's expansive career as an executive in film marketing with a focus on her work in independent films from Fine Line Features, the Sundance Channel, and Duopoly.
Liz Manne is an independent film industry pioneer. She has worked as a senior media executive, entrepreneur, business, organizational, marketing strategist, and film and television producer. She received her BA in Dramatic Art from the University of California, Berkeley, and her MBA from New York University's Leonard N. Stern School of Business.
She began her entertainment career as a stagehand for the legendary rock and roll promoter Bill Graham, who taught her an enduring respect for the audience. Early in her film marketing career, she worked under the tutelage of Ira Deutchman and consulted on the marketing of Steven Soderbergh's Sex, Lies and Videotape (1989), Whit Stillman's Metropolitan (1990), and Charles Burnett's To Sleep with Anger (1990). In 1990, with Ira Deutchman, she co-founded Fine Line Features, New Line Cinema's independent film division, and served as the company's Executive Vice President of marketing. During her tenure, Manne ran the marketing and awards campaigns for more than 70 feature films, including Robert Altman's The Player (1992) and Short Cuts (1993), the critically acclaimed documentary Hoop Dreams (1994), and the Academy Award-winning Shine (1996). At Fine Line, she worked with many world-class filmmakers, including Woody Allen, Jane Campion, David Cronenberg, Atom Egoyan, Jim Jarmusch, Ken Loach, Alan Rudolph, David O. Russell, and Gus Van Sant.
From 1998 to 2001, Liz Manne served as Executive Vice President, Programming & Marketing for Robert Redford's Sundance Channel, where she re-branded the network, introduced original programming, and programmed a variety of on-air film festivals for underserved audiences and artists, including African-American, Latino, women, and LGBTQ film festivals.
From 2002 to 2009, Manne was President of Duopoly, an independent production company she co-founded with Catherine Tait that also provides business and marketing strategy consulting services to the film and television industry. At Duopoly, Manne produced several well-received projects, including A Dog Year (HBO Films, 2009) based on the book by Jon Katz and starring Jeff Bridges, Fall from Grace (Showtime, 2007), a documentary about the controversial preacher Fred Phelps, The Heart of the Game (Miramax, 2005), and Lucky (Big Beach, 2010), a documentary about the lottery from director Jeffrey Blitz. Manne's consulting clients at Duopoly included the Toronto International Film Festival Group and HBO Films for its theatrical features, including Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini's American Splendor (2003), Gus Van Sant's Elephant (2003), and Joshua Marston's Maria Full of Grace (2004). She also advised HBO on the start-up and launch of Picturehouse, HBO's theatrical distribution joint venture with New Line Cinema. In 2006, with Catherine Tait and Al Cattabiani, Manne co-founded iThentic, an online and mobile video content company. iThentic aggregates, produces, and distributes original, high-quality, independently-produced video content to digital and wireless platforms.
The Liz Manne Papers are divided into 6 series: Fine Line Features, Sundance Channel, Duopoly, Other, Books, and Media.
Fine Line Features: This series consists of records from Manne's role as Executive Vice President of Marketing at Fine Line Features, including the subseries of "Projects" and "Business and Financial".
Sundance Channel: This series, which spans from 1998 to 2001, contains materials from Manne's work as the Executive Vice President of Programming and Marketing at the Sundance Channel, includes the subseries of "Business and Financial", "Robert Redford", "Programming", "Market Research", and "Press Clippings".
Duopoly: This series is dedicated to Manne's time as Co-Founder and President at Duopoly, it includes the subseries of "HBO Films", "Projects", "Unproduced Projects", and "Business and Financial".
Other: This series holds records outside the scope of the aforementioned professional roles, it includes records related to Manne's social justice work as well as press clippings.
Books: This series refers to bound industry festival guides.
Media: This series encompasses visual media that had been collected by Manne, predominantly VHS tapes from the Sundance Channel.
