Feature Film
The Bonfire of the Vanities (2018)
Feature film based on the premiere of the opera adaptation of Tom Wolfe's celebrated novel. Music by Stefania de Kenessey, libretto and direction by Michael Bergmann.
The opera is by composer Stefania de Kenessey. Michael Bergmann wrote the libretto and directed the world premiere performance.
Milk & Money (1996)
New York Times Critic's Pick
David drops out of medical school to find out what life is really about. He meets beautiful women, holds a box, helps make a movie, and takes care of 21 cows. With a stellar ensemble cast including Peter Boyle, Margaret Colin, Olympia Dukakis, Calista Flockhart, Marin Hinkle, Dina Merrill and Robert Vaughn, Milk & Money won “Best Independent American Feature Film” at the Cleveland International Film Festival and “Prix SACD” at the Avignon Film Festival.
Tied to a Chair (2009)
She left her marriage in England, auditioned in France and was falsely accused of murder in New York. But can she find the dynamite in time to stop the attack?
Michael Bergmann’s latest film has garnered critical acclaim and awards, including Best Feature Film at The New York International Independent Film & Video Festival and Best In Festival at the Heart of England International Film Festival.
Tied to a Chair was an Official Selection at the Avignon Film Festival, Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, Beverly Hills High Definition Film Festivaland the Delray Beach Film Festival. Starring Bonnie Loren and Mario Van Peebles.
Trifling with Fate (2000)
Do the gods need us more than we need them?
Starring Bridget Moynahan, Gordon Elliott, Sarah Winkler, Teri Lamm, Ed Vassallo, Vivienne Benesch, Robin Dorian, Ryan Dunn, Rob Gerlach, Charles Tuthill, and Beth Zetlin Trifling With Fate was first shown to the public as a work-in-progress at the Avignon/NY FilmFestival in late April, 2000. Its world premiere took place at the Avignon Film Festival in Avignon, France on June 26, 2000.
The Reality Trap (2005)
When a network TV show decides to have someone murdered live, how do they choose the victim and who should be the killer?
Starring Kevin Stapleton, Bonnie Loren, David Hedison and Hedy Burress, this comedy-thriller starts when a sociology professor goes on a talk show to promote her book on adultery and is surprised by the host, who confronts her with the wives of her ex-lovers. Humiliated, she hatches a counter-plot that pits her university theater department against a well-funded TV show.
Web Series
in Development
These Honored Dead (2019)
Screen adaptation of the first of the Lincoln-Speed mysteries
Burgeon & Flourish, LLC has optioned the first of the Lincoln Speed mysteries by Jonathan F. Putnam (with the option to acquire the rest). This series of meticulously researched historical novels begins when Abe Lincoln arrives in Springfield, IL in 1837 and follows his development as he becomes the man who became president.
Short Films
Aftershock (2002)
Awarded Best Short Film, Whitehead International Film Festival, Claremont, CA, January 2004
Watch the movie:
In Bed With My Books (2002)
Women may become invisible but they don't disappear.
Written by Ardythe Ashley and performed by Leclanché Durand, directed by Michael Bergmann: A woman of a certain age takes notes of her invisibility to men and explains why should would rather be in bed with her books. Winner: Prix de Jury, Montreal Film Festival.
App
Publications
Trifling With Fate: How to make a Digital Video Feature Film (2001)
An early how-to book from the days when making a feature film with a digital video camera seemed impossible.
American Gothic (2009)
Article in the American Arts Quarterly: Review of the Creation Museum in Kentucky
A review of the Creation Museum in Kentucky, which tells the same story of Adam and Eve as many a Gothic portal, had a large budget and was made by people who believe in the story with a certainty hardly seen since the Middle Ages.
What Silent Love Hath Writ (2009)
By Martin S. Bergmann & Michael Bergmann, A Psychoanalytic Exploration of the themes of Shakespeare's Sonnets