BIO
Stephen Maing is an Emmy-award winning filmmaker and cinematographer based in New York City. His most recent film UNION is an immersive cinéma vérité account of the historic efforts by workers to unionize the first Amazon fulfillment center. UNION was co-directed with Brett Story and won a Special Jury Award for The Art of Change at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. His feature documentary CRIME + PUNISHMENT which he directed, filmed and edited won a 2018 Sundance Special Jury Award, an Emmy Award for Outstanding Social Issue Documentary and was shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary. His previous films, HIGH TECH, LOW LIFE, directed, filmed and edited over five years, and THE SURRENDER, have screened internationally and were released on POV and Field of Vision, respectively. His film DIRTY GOLD, featured in Netflix’s Dirty Money series, immersively reveals US involvement in the illicit mining and trading of gold and was filmed on location in Peru’s Amazon rain forest & Miami, Florida.
Maing's films seek to expand the aesthetic form and limits of longitudinal nonfiction filmmaking. They are visual investigations of societal phenomenon, complex power structures and the fascinating individuals who challenge them. One of his upcoming films, THE GREAT EXPERIMENT, is an ambitious cinematic experiment about one of the most volatile and perplexing eras of American history & identity. Maing is a 2021 United States Artists Fellow, Sundance Institute Fellow, NBC Original Voices Fellow and a recipient of the IDA's prestigious Courage Under Fire Award shared with the whistleblowers of the NYPD12.
As a D.P. he recently worked with Lana Wilson on her intimate and inventive LOOK INTO MY EYES, released by A24. As advisor, consultant and mentor he has worked with dozens of filmmakers including on Jessica Kingdon’s Oscar-nominated ASCENSION, Elizabeth and Gulistan Mirzai's Oscar-nominated THREE SONGS FOR BENAZIR, JoeBill Muñoz & Lucas Guilkey’s THE STRIKE, David Siev’s BAD AXE, Débora Souza Silva’s FOR OUR CHILDREN, Julian Rubinstein’s THE HOLLY and Ursula Liang’s DOWN A DARK STAIRWELL.
He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a frequent visiting artist and long-time collaborator with underground music group 75 Dollar Bill. He lives in Ridgewood, Queens with his partner and young daughter.
NEWS
UNION Wins Special Jury Award - Sundance
2024 Sundance Complete List of Winners - Oscars.org
United States Artists Announces USA Fellows - Art Forum
Emmy Award Winner - Best Social Issue Documentary
Hot Docs Announce Deal Maker Projects / The Great Experiment - POV Magazine
Hot Docs Forum Lineup Celebrates ‘Breadth and Dynamism of Documentary Film’ - Variety
SELECTED PRESS
UNION
“Union” is a powerful reminder of what’s at stake when companies reduce workers to numbers”
– Jen Yamato, L.A.TIMES
“Astounding, rebellious.. brilliant”
– Alissa Wilkinson, NY TIMES
“Amazon Is the Enemy In a Stirring Workers’-Rights Doc”
– Guy Lodge, VARIETY
““Quintessential addition to Workers’ Cinema canon”
–Edward Frumkin, FILM STAGE
CRIME + PUNISHMENT
"A powerful and suspenseful film, part detective story and part courtroom drama, fueled by a potent mix of curiosity and indignation and full of memorable characters."
– A.O. Scott, NEW YORK TIMES CRITIC’S PICK
"Crime + Punishment is a quiet documentary but a potent one. Its passion, drama and concern for exposing wrongdoing is unmistakable."
– Kenneth Turan, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
“Maing is an expansive, systems and structures thinker. What does it mean to be a public servant and an active citizen pursuing political agency? Maing speaks directly to the whistle-blowers and remains on call for them.”
– Lauren O’Neill-Butler, ART FORUM
“Through sensitive portraiture and vigorous investigative reporting, Crime + Punishment tracks the struggle of minority police officers within the NYPD to reshape the culture of law enforcement itself. Maing’s film also proves arresting in its compositions, its moody, city-spanning drone photography, its occasional playful looseness. But its power rises from the courage of its subjects, men and women who don’t necessarily want to be fighting the system — they’re eager to be out there in their city, policing the way they consider just."
– Alan Scherstuhl, THE VILLAGE VOICE
"Stephen Maing’s Crime + Punishment is a Blood-Boiling Look at Systemically Racist Policing."
– Julia Felsenthal, VOGUE
"Crime + Punishment is one of 2018’s essential documentary films. Maing’s talent is undeniable, but it’s Crime Punishment’s grasp of the daring, the bravery, of its subjects in conveying their complicated realities which ultimately makes the film both address and transcend this moment—which makes it a document that will endure for years to come."
- Andy Crump, PASTE MAGAZINE
“The enraging, incendiary and expertly crafted Crime + Punishment arrives in a moment inhospitable to the nuanced conversations required of the topic.”
– Jake Nevins, THE GUARDIAN
“Filmmaker Stephen Maing discusses how he employed hidden cameras, drones and other visual methods to reveal the unseen discriminatory policing practices in the nation’s largest police force.”
– Samantha Dillard, AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER
“Crime + Punishment” is essential viewing for anyone with a suspicion that there’s corruption in law enforcement.
–Tricia Olszewski, THE WRAP
“Hulu’s Crime + Punishment Is a Powerful Work of Documentary”
– David Edelstein, VULTURE
“'Crime + Punishment,' Stephen Maing's documentary about the NYPD's illegal policing quotas and other discriminatory practices gets the blood boiling.”
– Keith Uhlich, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
THE SURRENDER
““The Surrender” rises to the top of this list because of its economy of form.”
– Erin Trahan, WBUR
“DOC NYC 2015: Critic’s Picks”
– Kurt Brokaw, INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE
HIGH TECH, LOW LIFE
“It's impossible not to feel connected with these guys and this movie. The humanity of this story is universal.”
– Beth Carter, WIRED MAGAZINE
“A delightful surprise at the Tribeca Film Festival, Stephen Maing’s “High Tech, Low Life” examines censorship of the Internet and news media in China.”
– Ronnie Schei, VARIETY
“All the while, Maing’s own camera captures the busy, rich and revealing life around them, with interested openness and visual intelligence”
– Robert Lloyd, LA TIMES