Film distributor Abramorama has appointed producer Damon G. Smith as SVP, business growth and creative strategy.
Smith, whose credits include “100 Years of Warner Bros.” and “Sisters With Transistors,” joins the executive team to drive the next phase of Abramorama’s evolution, expanding the company’s brand presence and creative partnerships across the global entertainment landscape as it celebrates its 25th anniversary.
Smith will work closely alongside Karol Martesko-Fenster, CEO and president of Abramorama, to identify new growth opportunities, enhance creative development, and deepen the company’s relationships with filmmakers, content owners, and strategic partners, with a special focus on music centric and social issue documentaries.
Martesko-Fenster said, “Having collaborated with Damon across various ventures for over fifteen years,” Martesko-Fenster added, “I have witnessed firsthand his visionary thinking and collaborative spirit, so we are thrilled to welcome him to the team. Damon’s proven track record as a producer and curator of bold, forward-thinking media aligns perfectly with our mission to champion unique stories in the film and event cinema space. His deep knowledge and passion for music culture is a huge boon for our company, and I’m excited to build on our longstanding creative partnership in this new capacity.”
Smith, a co-founding partner at Cinelan, helped lead the effort to conceptualize and execute the company’s Webby and Clio Award–winning film series “GE Focus Forward”– Short Films, Big Ideas. He recruited and worked closely with 30 award-winning international filmmakers to produce this inspiring global film series on innovative people and technologies, guiding storylines and supervising the work of all the participants. Smith also co-conceived and supervised the production of “We the Economy,” Short Films You Can’t Afford to Miss, the IDA-nominated series of 20 shorts about the U.S. economy directed by Adam McKay, Jon M. Chu, Catherine Hardwicke, James Schamus, and other notable filmmakers.
Smith said, “Joining Abramorama is both a privilege and a natural next step in my journey as a creative strategist and producer. I’ve always admired Karol’s ability to stay at the vanguard of industry innovation, so I’m excited to work alongside him and the team to cultivate new opportunities at the intersection of film, culture, and music, and to help shape Abramorama’s distinctive impact on our ever-evolving independent distribution landscape.”
In addition to filmmaking, Smith is a musician, composer and field recordist. As co-executor of the Estate of Betty (Mabry) Davis, who passed in 2022, he manages music publishing and licensing for the groundbreaking, proto-feminist Queen of Funk’s extensive catalog. In 2019, he produced and presented “Where the Homeless Elephants Go,” a Sundance Institute–supported audio documentary commissioned for BBC World Service. He has also recorded and performed with New Yorker illustrator and singer-songwriter Marcellus Hall (Matador Records, Glacial Pace), releasing three albums including 2024’s “I Will Never Let You Down,” which he co-produced. He has contributed sound design and original music to the Guggenheim Museum, Museum of the Moving Image, Three Waters Productions, and Theorem Media.
Smith is based in New York City and will operate from Abramorama’s East Coast headquarters.
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