The Filmmaker
Dubbed the “boy with bat ears” by Academy Award-winning composer, Hans Zimmer, Ashton Gleckman is a twenty two-year-old composer, producer, and filmmaker from Carmel, Indiana, USA. He is the founder of Blackbird Pictures.
In March 2019, Ashton set out to make his directorial debut, a feature length Holocaust documentary film titled “We Shall Not Die Now.” Ashton filmed over twenty-five interviews throughout the US, UK, and Poland. In addition to directing and shooting the film, Ashton also edited and co-scored the film alongside Grammy-nominated composer, Benjamin Wallfisch (Blade Runner 2049), and Austria-based composer, Michael Frankenberger. The film premiered at the 28th Heartland International Film Festival on October 12th and won the audience choice award for the Indiana Spotlight category. The film was released on December 5th 2019 on Amazon Prime in the United States and United Kingdom. In early 2021, the film reached over 40 million minutes watched worldwide. Ashton’s sophomore film endeavor was The Hills I Call Home, an intimate hour-long documentary film chronicling a small town in the middle of the Appalachian mountains. The film was produced during the COVID-19 pandemic and was released in March 2021 by distributors, Gravitas Ventures (Score: A Film Music Documentary).
In early 2020, Ashton began research on what would become his third documentary project as director, Kennedy, a documentary series chronicling the life and legacy of John F. Kennedy and his leadership as President in the early 1960s. Ashton began filming the series in March 2021, going on to film a hundred interviews in over 25 states. Interviewees ranged from TV personalities like Conan O’Brien to historians, biographers, Kennedy family members, politicians, and surviving Kennedy White House insiders. The series is narrated by Emmy Award-winner Peter Coyote, known for his work with Ken Burns on projects like The Roosevelts, The Dust Bowl, the Vietnam War, and the US and the Holocaust. Ashton wrote the narration script read by Coyote, and also took on the role of editor and co-composer, working with Michael Frankenberger (We Shall Not Die Now) and Cameron Moody, a California-based composer who worked on Jordan Peele’s acclaimed film, NOPE. The series is produced by the Academy Award-winning team behind Summer of Soul and The Fog of War, RadicalMedia. The series is scheduled for release in the fall of 2023, which will mark the 60th anniversary of JFK’s assassination.