David Novack
Director/Producer

David Novack is the director, and a writer/producer of Finding Babel (Special Jury Prize, Moscow Jewish Film Festival).  Prior to his work with Finding Babel, Mr. Novack wrote, produced and directed the filmBurning the Future: Coal in America, which opened in theaters, aired on international television, and won awards at numerous festivals in the US and Europe including the prestigious IDA Pare Lorentz award for social documentary filmmaking.  Mr. Novack toured with Burning the Future to China and Ukraine with the American Documentary Showcase, sponsored by the US Department of State.  With the program, Mr. Novack lectured extensively at universities and film festivals and was profiled in magazines and television programs.

Mr. Novack produced Kimjongilia, a documentary about N. Korean refugees that premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and enjoyed a theatrical run at the International Documentary Association’s Docuweeks Theatrical Showcase. Kimjongilia aired in the US and abroad.  The film won the 2010 best human rights documentary award from the One World Brussels Film Fest of the Human Rights and Democracy Network.

In audio post production, Mr. Novack has enjoyed a successful career as a re-recording mixer/sound designer, recently adding a major new opera by Roger Waters to his credits.  Mr. Novack received an engineering degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and a degree in music from Berklee College of Music.  In additional to making films, Mr. Novack is a Professor of Film at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design where he enjoys mentoring a new generation of filmmakers.