| Michael Paxton | |
| Birth Date: | 29 March 1957 |
| Birth Place: | Kingston, New York |
| Alma Mater: | University at Albany, SUNY (BA) New York University (MFA) |
| Occupation: | Film director, film producer, screenwriter, playwright |
Michael Paxton (born March 29, 1957) is an American filmmaker and writer.[1] He has directed, produced, and written several films, both live action and animated, as well as plays and books. His feature documentary [2] received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature and a Golden Satellite Award for Best Documentary film in 1997. Paxton currently works as Multimedia Producer for the Ayn Rand Institute.[3]
Michael Paxton was born Michael Anthony Palumbo on March 29, 1957, in Kingston, New York.
In 1975, Paxton began attending the University at Albany, SUNY, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy in 1979.
He then attended the New York University Tisch School of the Arts, where he received a Master of Fine Arts in for Film & Television in 1988. Paxton's graduate thesis film, Forbidden Fruit, won awards for Best Screenplay and Best Editing at the 1988 NYU Film Festival.[4]
In 1989, Paxton co-produced and directed the world premiere of Ayn Rand's play Ideal at the Melrose Theater in Hollywood, and in 1991, he adapted and directed a dramatic presentation of Rand's futuristic novella Anthem.[4] In 1995, he was the assistant director on the live-action/animated feature The Pagemaster for Turner Pictures.
In November 1996, Paxton released the feature documentary . The documentary takes its name from the concept of a sense of life, a concept that Ayn Rand developed and defined as a "pre-conceptual equivalent of metaphysics, an emotional, subconsciously integrated appraisal of man and of existence. It sets the nature of a man’s emotional responses and the essence of his character."[5] In 1997, Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 69th Academy Awards. It also won the Golden Satellite Award for Best Feature Documentary of 1997.
Paxton also co-produced the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack to Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life and was Visual Effects Supervisor on Stuart Little 2. He was the Associate Producer on The Lion King 1½ for Disney, for Miramax, and Smallville Legends: Kara and the Chronicles of Krypton for The CW.
In addition to his film and theater work, Paxton has written four books: Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life (The Companion Book) and three children's books for Disney based on classic animated features: Cinderella, The Rescuers Down Under, and The Aristocats.
. Ayn Rand . The Romantic Manifesto . New York . Signet . 1971 . paperback . 733753672.