Founded in 2008 by Sam Katz and Phil Katz, History Making Productions is an award-winning full-service documentary film company based in Philadelphia. The company’s studios are in a former envelope factory overlooking Philadelphia’s new Viaduct Rail Park.
The company is known for crisp editing, sumptuous cinematography, dynamic reenactment, and original art, animation, and music. HMP takes an inclusionary approach to public history. Hundreds of scholars in history, the social sciences, and hard sciences have participated in over 400 interviews on various aspects of Philadelphia history, architecture, culture, economy, and religion. Many of these interviews are available on the company’s Digital History Archive or on YouTube.
HMP has developed several legacy public history film and media projects that the company distributes through its {Digital History Archive}, available on this website and embedded on the websites of 500 Philadelphia cultural institutions. These include Philadelphia: The Great Experiment, a 13-episode comprehensive film history of America’s first world city; Urban Trinity: The Story of Catholic Philadelphia; and Cecil’s People, on Civil Rights activism of the 1960s. Many of these legacy films broadcast originally on Philadelphia’s ABC affiliate, WPVI-TV.
Several other legacy public history film projects are in production. These include Sisters In Freedom, on pioneering African American and white abolitionists of the 19th century; Speed of Light, on the invention of the motion picture; Symphonic Revolution: China and the Future of Classical Music; and Tapestry: The Story of Jewish Philadelphia.
HMP has developed comprehensive curricular materials for these legacy projects. These are available on this website under the Classroom tab.
HMP also produces independent documentary film and film and video projects for newspapers, magazines, and heritage and cultural institutions. The most prominent of these films is Pope Francis Visits Philadelphia, a 55-minute documentary made for the World Meeting of Families.
