Director & Editor

Zieman directed & edited this music video in ’81 for Klaus Nomi, a performance artist with an unusual operatic-style soprano voice, well-loved in Berlin and Downtown NYC, still revered as a cult legend today.

Klaus performed with David Bowie, live and on SNL in ’80. He was one of the first celebrities to die of AIDS.

Here Zieman demonstrates a facility for using video feedback flourishes in a controlled manner, with blooming title effects, and ghostly melting images.

Zieman directed and produced several early videos for “The Friends of the High Line”, in the crucial years before The High Line was funded and approved. This first was this award-winning documentary, projected large within 2

massive billboards, in NYC’s Grand Central Station for a month; over 1,000 commuters a day watched it. It was intentionally designed to seem low-budget, reflecting the many voices of the community. Starring Edward Norton, Diane Von Furstenberg, Mayor Bloomberg, and many expert voices of architecture, urban planning, Parks Dept., city, state, and national politicians, local residents, and critics of the park plan. Zieman filmed the entire High Line with a Steadicam, as a wreck, already slated to be demolished. This film helped galvanize public opinion toward making the abandoned elevated train track into today’s park, now the third most popular tourist site in NYC.

(Music by John Petersen)

Zieman directed this for Def Jam label in 1989. Though times would soon change, during production he had to battle with the band — they suspected he was making them look “too Slick” and styled. Unforgettably, there were guns in the edit room. Lensed by Manfred Reiff.

Zieman directed, edited, and post-produced this female-centric initiative for the New School, using green screen, morphs, and unique animation software. “The New Historia is an initiative designed to document and promote the achievements of women in history that have gone unnoticed or unrecognized by our larger society. Led by Gina Luria Walker, a professor of Women’s Studies at The New School, the initiative will use a searchable digital platform to connect today’s young women with the unknown female groundbreakers of the past.”