Don Schechter
Don Schechter is a filmmaker, entrepreneur, composer, educator, and author whose work explores how storytelling shapes the ways people understand themselves, their institutions, and the future. Across film, music, education, live media, and speculative fiction, his career has centered on the intersection of technology, identity, communication, and human experience.
Childhood
Don Schechter was born in Queens, New York, on April 18, 1979. In fourth grade, his parents enrolled him in flute lessons, beginning a musical path that would shape much of his early life. He later attended Manhattan’s Stuyvesant High School, commuting from Queens while performing as All-City’s first flutist and appearing at Lincoln Center as an Honorary Member of the Goldman Memorial Band.
During high school, Schechter also worked at H/K Communications on Madison Avenue, where he gained early exposure to the world of public relations and media campaigns. Among the projects he worked on was the promotion of Deadtime Stories, featuring Al Lewis — best known as Grandpa Munster from The Munsters — as spokesman for the campaign.
Undergraduate Years
Schechter attended Tufts University, where he double majored in Media Arts and Technology and Music, graduating magna cum laude with high thesis honors in 2001. During his undergraduate years, he immersed himself in filmmaking, emerging media, and music composition while working across a wide range of creative and production environments.
He served as a Production Assistant for Walnut Park Productions, interned with the “day-of-air” staff at Dateline NBC, and became President of TUTV. He also joined director Doug Liman’s (The Bourne Identity, Edge of Tomorrow) think tank at Nibblebox, where he co-created Viscosity, an early web-based music video application developed during the formative years of online interactive media.
At Tufts, Schechter worked on numerous film and multimedia projects in a variety of roles, including Bad Boy Made Good: The Revival of George Antheil’s 1924 Ballet Mécanique and The Music of Brussels Sprouts. During this period, he also discovered a deep passion for composition and conducting after a neurological injury to his arms shifted the course of his musical life away from performance and toward composition, arranging, and large-scale creative direction.
Graduate Work
Following his undergraduate studies, Schechter remained at Tufts University to pursue an M.A. in Music Composition and Theory, studying primarily under composer and former Conservatory member John McDonald. His thesis composition, Storm, was a five-movement choral symphony, while earlier compositions such as In the Forest and Yurodivy would later influence his work as a film composer.
During graduate school, Schechter worked as Technical Assistant to the Multimedia Arts Program, where he taught editing and multimedia production skills, and also served as a Multimedia Consultant for Tufts Academic Technologies. In that role, he produced an online “Interactive Lecture Demonstration” video project designed to support university-wide instructional technology initiatives.
At the same time, he continued building experience in film and television production. He worked as a camera operator behind the scenes on filmmaker Michael Apted’s documentary project involving The Rolling Stones, and contributed to the NSF-funded educational initiative Nerd Girls. He was later nominated for the Outstanding Contribution to Undergraduate Education award and shared the Etta & Harry Winokur Award for Outstanding Achievement in Artistic or Scholarly Work.
Early Teaching and Freelance Production
After completing graduate school, Schechter taught computer and music courses at the Conservatory Lab Charter School while also instructing students through the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra and serving as assistant conductor for the Metrowest Youth Symphony Orchestra.
At the same time, he continued freelance work as a camera operator, producer, and production assistant on projects ranging from independent productions to corporate and nonprofit media campaigns. His work included production support for Filmmakers Collaborative and A&E’s documentary series God or the Girl.
In 2003, Schechter also began leading film production workshops for Tufts University’s Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service as part of the course Producing Films for Social Change. This collaboration expanded over several years and later included the course TV News: On Air and Behind the Scenes. The relationship would eventually evolve into long-term teaching appointments at Tufts University.
During this period, Schechter produced A Good Whack: The Making of Tonya and Nancy: The Opera, a documentary chronicling the creation and transformation of the widely publicized Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan opera into a touring rock opera attended by Tonya Harding herself in Portland. Footage from the documentary later aired during Keith Olbermann’s coverage on MSNBC.
Soon afterward, Schechter became involved with Transcendent Man, the feature documentary about inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil. Credited as Second Unit Director, Schechter and his team contributed filming and photography used for the film’s theatrical promotional campaign.
Charles River Media
In 2003, Schechter conceived Charles River Media Group, LLC (CRMG) as an effort to strengthen Boston’s independent film and video production community by bringing together top creative and technical talent to elevate the quality and ambition of regional production work.
One of the company’s earliest major initiatives involved producing hundreds of short-form informational videos for About.com on subjects ranging from software instruction to cooking demonstrations. The success of this large-scale content initiative generated millions of online views during the early expansion of web video and helped establish the company during the emerging digital media revolution.
Over time, CRMG evolved into a collaborative network of producers, cinematographers, editors, colorists, sound designers, photographers, animators, makeup artists, and voice performers. The company operated out of multiple Massachusetts locations, including Revere, Brookline, and later a studio built inside a former boxing gym in Newton Centre that housed editing suites, color grading stations, and a black-box production studio. The adoption of RED digital cinema cameras further elevated the company’s production capabilities.
In 2019, the organization relocated to its current facility at 73 TV Place in Needham Heights, Massachusetts, expanding into a significantly larger production studio with sound, color, editorial, office, and live production infrastructure.
More than two decades after its founding, the company evolved into Charles River Media, Inc. (CRMi), a Massachusetts-based production studio and creative agency focused on helping organizations communicate with clarity, emotional resonance, and strategic impact. Through video production, live events, livestreaming, and strategic communications, CRMi serves corporate, nonprofit, political, educational, and technology-focused organizations. The company also includes LXD Research, a division dedicated to educational technology research and evaluation for organizations exploring the future of learning.
Teaching and Public Discourse
Schechter’s early collaborations with Tufts University eventually led to his co-teaching Making Movies through the Experimental College before later becoming sole instructor for the course and additional offerings including Producing Films for Social Change and The History of Documentary: From Nanook to The Real World.
When Tufts formally established its Film and Media Studies program in 2015, Making Movies evolved into the two-semester sequence Filmmaking I and Filmmaking II. In 2016, Schechter became a Professor of the Practice and continues teaching courses including From Script to Screen and The Art and Business of Crafting Compelling Media Campaigns.
His interest in how ideas move through audiences and communities has also shaped his collaborations with TEDx organizations including TEDxCambridge and TEDxNewEngland, where storytelling, technology, and public discourse intersect. In his TEDx talk, Overcoming Imposter Syndrome: Storytellers, Sci-Fi, & Unreliable Mirrors, Schechter explored the relationship between identity, perception, and the narratives people construct about themselves and the world around them.
Ascendants
In 2009, Schechter began developing a science fiction concept that would eventually become Ascendants, a large-scale speculative universe exploring consciousness, mortality, technological evolution, and the future of human identity.
What began as a single scene imagined during brainstorming for a 24-hour film competition gradually evolved into an expansive mythology first developed as a feature screenplay and later reconceived as a serialized narrative world. Recognizing the scale of the project, Schechter began producing a collection of interconnected short films designed to explore key moments within the mythology. These films became The Ascendants Anthology, with actor Johnny Lee Davenport serving as “The Guide” between episodes in homage to Rod Serling’s role in The Twilight Zone.
The anthology screened internationally at festivals including HollyShorts at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, the Boston International Film Festival (where it received the award for Best Sci-Fi), the Philip K. Dick Film Festival, the Boston Sci-Fi Film Festival, Hot Springs International Film Festival, the Independent Television and Film Festival, Tri-Cities Film Festival, and Boston Comic Con. The fourth and final produced short received the Economic Development Production Grant from the town of Dover, Vermont. Coverage of the anthology also appeared in The Boston Globe.
In 2026, Schechter released his bestselling debut novel, Ascendants, expanding the mythology into a large-scale techno-thriller exploring a near-future society divided after the discovery of proof of the afterlife. Inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil described the novel as “a provocative thought experiment on the future of consciousness” that “underscores the moral imperative to guide our technological ingenuity toward the common good.” In less than a month after publication, the novel became an Amazon bestseller in Crime & Mystery Science Fiction. Read more on the book’s website.
Pizza Baby Films
Schechter later founded Pizza Baby Films, Inc. as a separate banner dedicated specifically to independent film development and production. Originally conceived to support a feature-length comedy project planned for production in Boston, the company evolved into a broader initiative supporting independent filmmaking throughout New England.
Through Pizza Baby Films, Schechter supported projects including the short film Rot, the independent feature Marranos — for which he also composed the score — as well as The Ascendants Anthology film series and the thriller The Arborist. His work as a filmmaker and creative collaborator has ultimately reached audiences across theaters, festivals, broadcast media, and streaming platforms worldwide.