Michael Pack

Michael Pack is President of Manifold Productions, Inc., an independent film and television production company, which he founded in 1977. Through Manifold Productions, Mr. Pack has written, directed, and produced numerous award-winning nationally broadcast documentaries as well as corporate and educational films.

His most recent film, Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words, a two-hour documentary, opened in movie theaters on January 31st, 2020 and will be broadcast nationally via PBS on May 18th, 2020 at 9 PM. The Washington Post called it “a marvel of filmmaking,” and the Washington Examiner said it is “magnificent and necessary.” Also, upcoming, The Last 600 Meters, tells the story of the 2004 battles of Najaf and Fallujah, the two biggest battles of the Iraq War.

Mr. Pack’s other major television credits include: RICKOVER: The Birth of Nuclear Power, starring Tim Blake Nelson and narrated by Joan Allen (2014); Rediscovering Alexander Hamilton, hosted by Richard Brookhiser (2011); God and the Inner City, narrated by Phylicia Rashad (2003); Rediscovering George Washington, hosted by Richard Brookhiser (2002); The Fall of Newt Gingrich, narrated by Blair Brown (2000); The Rodney King Incident: Race and Justice in America, narrated by Robert Prosky (1998); Inside the Republican Revolution: The First Hundred Days, hosted by Don Lambro (1995); Hollywood vs. Religion, hosted by Michael Medved (1995); Campus Culture Wars: Five Stories about Political Correctness, narrated by Lindsay Crouse (1993); America’s Political Parties, hosted by Ben Wattenberg and David Gergen (1988 & 1992); Fire from the Sun: The Search for Fusion Energy, hosted by E. G. Marshall (1990); Hollywood’s Favorite Heavy: Businessmen on Prime Time TV, hosted by Eli Wallach (1987); among others. All have been nationally broadcast on PBS, except The Rodney King Incident, which premiered on TLC.

From 2015 to 2017, Mr. Pack served as President and CEO of the Claremont Institute in Upland, CA, and Publisher of its Claremont Review of Books. During his tenure, Mr. Pack revamped its management and organizational structure, created a new communications department which vastly increased its national prominence, and opened offices in DC to launch new programs and increase its profile in the policy world.

From 2003-2006, Mr. Pack served as Senior Vice President for Television Programming at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. He restructured the programming department and launched several new initiatives. These included: America at a Crossroads (a series of 20 documentary films addressing issues facing America in the wake of the attacks of 9/11) and the American History and Civics Initiative (innovative, new media designed to address the crisis of historical amnesia in middle and high school students).

In 2002, President Bush nominated and the Senate confirmed Mr. Pack to serve on the National Council on the Humanities, which oversees the National Endowment for the Humanities. He served from July 2002 to February 2005.  In 1993, Mr. Pack served as Co-Chair of the International TV Council at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. In this capacity, he oversaw the Council’s efforts to determine the feasibility of launching a cooperative program between American public television producers and stations and their counterparts in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

Previously, Mr. Pack received a political appointment as Director of WORLDNET, the U.S. Information Agency’s global satellite network. WORLDNET produced, acquired, and distributed programs to over 127 countries and over 200 cities on all continents twenty-four hours a day. Mr. Pack oversaw WORLDNET’s 291 employees and annual budget of $23 million. WORLDNET, now called VOA-TV, has merged with the Voice of America.

Mr. Pack attended Yale College, the University of California at Berkeley, and studied film at New York University. Before launching Manifold Productions, Mr. Pack worked extensively in production and post-production. He worked as a staff editor for RAI, the Italian TV network, and for Pathé News in New York. Mr. Pack and his wife, Gina, who also works at Manifold Productions, have three sons and reside in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

Episode Appearances

Episode 231: “Reclaiming the Culture through Film” with Michael Pack

06/19/2023

Guest(s): Michael Pack

Global streaming services are projected to reach over 1.5 billion subscribers in 2025 with worldwide spending on TV, film and documentary production reaching over $220 billion a year. Netflix, Disney, Amazon Prime, and HBO Max alone account for more than $75 billion of that spend with almost all of it on woke progressive themed entertainment. Looking only at documentaries and small independent features, the Left spends tens of billions of dollars each year.

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Episode 85: A conversation with Michael Pack, Chief Executive Officer of the U.S. Agency for Global Media

Guest(s): Michael Pack

In part two of my conversation with Michael Pack, I talk with Michael about what it’s like to be a conservative filmmaker in today’s America and how documentaries have become almost the exclusive playground of the left. Michael Pack is an extraordinary man. President and co-founder of Manifold Productions, he has produced and directed over 15 documentaries, broadcast on PBS and has had an incredible career moving back and forth between making documentaries and also working in public television and information agency non-profits. He has been President and CEO of the Claremont Institute, head of Worldnet then part of the US Information Agency, and senior vice president for TV programming at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. He is President Trump’s nominee to head the U.S. Agency for Global Media.

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Episode 85: A Conversation with Michael Pack, the Director of “Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words”

Guest(s): Michael Pack

Join me as go behind the scenes with writer, director and producer Michael Pack about the making of his extraordinary film about Justice Clarence Thomas. 

Distilled from over 30 hours of interviews during a six-month period with Justice Thomas and his wonderful wife Ginni, for the first time, he tells his entire life’s story, looking directly at the camera, speaking frankly to the audience. 

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Episode 249: You Can’t Win the Culture War Without Making Movies -Michael and Thomas Pack

10/17/2023

Guest(s): Michael PackThomas Pack

In the United States just four networks: Netflix, Disney, Amazon Prime, and HBOMax spend almost $75 billion every year on film, TV and streaming content. And most of this spending goes toward woke, progressive-themed entertainment.

The progressive Left has come to dominate our institutions and our culture and they’ve been remarkably successful in using the art of narrative storytelling to promote their agenda.

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