The Tillman Story is Amir Bar-Lev’s third feature film. His directorial debut, Fighter, was released theatrically
in the fall of 2001, aired on IFC, and was named one of the top documentaries of the year by Newsweek, Rolling Stone, The Village Voice and other major publications. It won six international awards and was called
“brilliant,” by The New Yorker, “enthralling” by the New York Times ,and “one of the best documentaries of
this year or any other” by Rolling Stone. Bar-Lev’s second film, My Kid Could Paint That, was released internationally by Sony Pictures Classics in 2007, with broadcast on Starz, A&E and BBC. New York Newsday called it “a mysterious, gripping metadocumentary… that reflects upon the thorny, unpredictable process of capturing a real-life story on film at the same time it's trying to figure out what the story is.” According to At The Movies With Ebert and Roeper, it was “one of the best documentaries of this or any other year.”
Bar-Lev traveled to New Orleans nine days after Hurricane Katrina and began filming a young married couple,
both crack dealers, with a heroic story of survival during the storm and an uncertain future ahead. Bar-Lev
served as co-producer on the resulting film, Trouble The Water, which was a 2009 Academy Award Nominee.
Trouble the Water also took the Grand Jury Prize at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, the Grand Jury Award at
Full Frame, a Special Jury Mention at Silverdocs, won the IFP Gotham Award for Best Documentary, and was
nominated for the PGA Documentary prize, and the NAACP Image Awards Best Documentary.
Bar-Lev has taught documentary at NYU, produced and executive produced shows for the Sundance Channel,
VH1, MTV, Spike!, and The Weather Channel, as well as directed numerous award-winning short films. He
lives in Brooklyn with his wife and infant daughter, who was born during the final weeks of editing The Tillman
Story.