By GREGORY ZELLER //
That’s a wrap for Nassau County Film Commissioner Debra Markowitz, who has officially resigned from her post.
But as the credits roll on her county career, stay tuned – the post-credit scene is pretty amazing.
Make that scenes, as Markowitz – who created the Nassau County Film Office and helped build Nassau into New York State’s second-busiest location, behind Manhattan, for film and television production – leaves government work behind with lots of irons in the fire.
Serving four different Nassau County executives over her 33-year tenure as film commissioner, Markowitz began inching toward actual film production about a decade ago, first as a casting agent for other directors circling Nassau’s fertile film-production environs – including Gold Coast Studios, Grumman Studios and rich variety of scenic locales, from Gold Coast mansions to gritty prisons to historic beachfronts.
Big names like Linda Hamilton, William Sadler, Ed Asner and Joan Jett were soon passing through Intention Films and Media, Markowitz’s Bellmore-based startup, which she cofounded in 2014 with her husband, cinematography and sound-recording veteran John Marean.
Debra Markowitz: Calling the shots.
The film commissioner lit to all those bright lights, and by 2015 she was writing and directing her own films. And while she’s “very thankful” for her time in Nassau County government, it was soon clear that her heart was behind the camera.
“The minute I came home from the Film Office, I’d eat dinner and get back to work,” Markowitz said. “When others were taking vacations, holidays, days off, going to parties or even sleeping, you could pretty much bet I was writing or working on a film.”
Even with all that extra effort, the fledgling filmmaker – also a novelist and ghostwriter, and the vice president of the Long Island Film-TV Foundation, a registered 501(C)3 corporation promoting LI moviemaking – was “turning down a job a day,” and something had to give.
“It was a difficult decision to make,” Markowitz said. “I could have run the Film Office forever.
“It’s never easy leaving a job you love,” she added. “But … it was time to challenge myself differently.”
Her challenges now include taking over directorial duties on “The Lonely Road to Nowhere,” the last script completed by indie-film icon John Gallagher before his October 2020 passing. The film is in pre-production, according to Markowitz, and plans are to film in Massapequa beginning in May.
The director is also knee-deep in post-production of her first feature film, “The Only Woman in the World,” which has been scored and edited and is now working up a release plan – “probably streaming,” Markowitz told Innovate LI, “we just don’t know what streaming sites yet.”
Sarah Connor?: Markowitz (right), with Terminatrix Linda Hamilton.
“I have some contacts in the industry,” she added.
“The Only Woman in the World” features a host of Long Island-based actors and was filmed at a Bellmore fitness center, a Massapequa restaurant and private homes in Merrick and New Hyde Park, among other local locations – all of which is “very much by design,” according to the former film commissioner.
“You want to work with people who you’re comfortable with, in areas you’re comfortable with,” she noted. “And of course, promote Nassau County.”
Markowitz has done her duty in that regard, building Nassau’s film-production engine from virtually nothing into a $169 million annual driver of regional economics, with more production days on the books than any other New York county, city or borough, except Manhattan.
Now, her inner creativity is ready for a leading role – twice as ready, she notes, considering the lessons of COVID-19.
“The pandemic has hit many people very hard, and it made a lot of us reevaluate where we are and where we are going,” Markowitz said. “It was time to take the leap.
“And so far, so good.”
