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Karim López is an Emmy award-winning editor and director with over 30 credits in television, documentary and narrative film. Over the years, his work has received various accolades, including: an Emmy for Outstanding Editing, a duPont-Columbia Award for Excellence in Journalism, a John Cassavetes Independent Spirit Award, a Critics Choice Award nomination for Best Limited Doc Series, and the Special Jury Prize for Comedy at the 2016 L.A. Film Festival. He edited and produced the feature documentary, Garden of the Peaceful Dragon, recipient of the Best Documentary award at the 2017 Harlem International Film Festival. In 2021 Karim edited the first episode of the Showtime documentary series, The Lincoln Project, directed by Fisher Stevens (Beckham, The Tiger King), and Karim Amer (The Great Hack, The Vow), which follows the infamous group of former Republicans who dedicated themselves to defeating Donald Trump in 2020. The series was nominated for a 2022 Critics Choice Award for Best Limited Doc Series. In 2020 he cut two episodes on the acclaimed HBO documentary series, The Vow, directed by Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated directors, Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer (The Square, The Great Hack, Control Room), which made many 2020 year-end 'Best of' lists for TV and Documentary including The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Entertainment Weekly, and Variety. The New York Times called it "irresistible... an impressive and even transfixing achievement." Karim edited the feature-length documentary, The Shockwave, about the 2020 shipping terminal explosion in Beirut and the governmental corruption and negligence which led to the blast. The doc received a 2022 duPont-Columbia Award for Excellence in Journalism and two News and Doc Emmy awards. Karim won an Emmy for Outstanding Editing. The narrative feature, En el Séptimo Día (On the Seventh Day), which Karim edited with acclaimed writer-director, Jim McKay (Girlstown, Our Song), is about a week-in-the-life of an undocumented Mexican immigrant in New York City. Septimo received widespread critical praise. It was a New York Times Critics' Pick and included on Variety's "Best Films of 2018, so far" list by Owen Gleiberman (“Captivating. Exquisitely crafted. Supremely confident.") It went on to win the John Cassavetes Award at the 2019 Independent Spirit Awards. He edited the narrative feature, Chee and T, directed by Tanuj Chopra (Punching at the Sun, Delhi Crime) which won a Special Jury Prize for Comedy at the 2016 L.A. Film Festival. Karim's narrative short, The Last Days of Hustling, (which he wrote, shot, directed and edited) played at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival's Short Film Corner and won Best Narrative Short at the 2016 Miami Independent Film Festival. Most recently he edited Roberta, a feature-length documentary about legendary artist, Roberta Flack, for PBS/American Masters and the French network, Arte, which aired in early 2023 across the U.S. and Europe. Karim is a member of the Motion Picture Editors Guild, Local 700, and resides in Los Angeles, CA, USA.
________________________________________ More career highlights: In 2018, Karim also edited the Netflix Original concert documentary, Los Tigres del Norte at Folsom Prison, featuring the renowned Mexican Norteño band playing Folsom prison on the 50th anniversary of the legendary Johnny Cash concert. The doc, directed by Tom Donahue (This Changes Everything, Casting By, Guest of Cindy Sherman) is part-concert film, and part intimate portrait of a number of Latino/a inmates. It was Netflix’s fourth most-watched documentary in Mexico in 2019. It was nominated for a Latin Grammy (the Los Tigres soundtrack album from the doc won the Grammy.) In 2017, Karim was also a lead editor on The Last Defense, an ABC limited series Executive Produced by Viola Davis, which examines flawed death row cases and racial/economic injustice in the criminal justice system. His episode was selected to premiere at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival, where it was a New York Times Critics' Pick, before airing nationally on ABC. The Last Defense has helped to spark national outcry around the case of Julius Jones, a black man on death row in Oklahoma, whose case featured compelling evidence that he was wrongfully convicted, and that racism played a role. Later that year, Garden of the Peaceful Dragon, a feature-length doc produced and edited by Karim, won Best Documentary at the Harlem International Film Festival. In 2015, Karim edited the documentary, Frank Serpico, about (and featuring) the legendary NYPD detective who blew the whistle on corruption in the 1970s, and was immortalized by Al Pacino in the classic Sidney Lumet film. The doc premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival and was released by IFC / Sundance Selects. “A wondrous portrait.” (The New Yorker); “Suspenseful, captivating and thrilling.” (The Hollywood Reporter) ________________________________________ • 2017 / Cut two episodes on The Preppy Murder: Death in Central Park, a true-crime documentary series for AMC and the Sundance Channel, directed by award-winning filmmakers, Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg (Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, In My Father’s House, Reversing Roe). • 2017 / Edited the narrative feature, Dementia 13 a re-make of Francis Ford Coppola's cult horror film, for NBC Universal and Chiller Films. • 2014 / Edited the feature-length documentary, We're Still Here (Director, Antonino D’Ambrosio, based on his book, A Heartbeat and a Guitar), for Sony Masterworks, about the little-known Native American protest album, Bitter Tears, recorded by Johnny Cash. The doc aired nationally on PBS, Winter 2016.
• 2014 / Edited the short doc, Speak the Words the Way You Breathe, broadcast on French-German network Arte • 2013 / Edited the narrative feature, Sunset Edge (Director, Daniel Peddle), distributed by KINO LORBER.
• 2012 / Edited the documentary, Let Fury Have the Hour (Director, Antonino D'Ambrosio) ________________________________________
Praise for En el Séptimo Día (On the Seventh Day): "A gem. Thoroughly engaging. A work of unforced charm." — Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter
"The first film in 13 years from director Jim McKay (“Our Song”) has a bone-deep humanity that transcends technique that reaches right back to Cassavetes, yet it’s also exquisitely made: a micro-budget drama that’s less scrappy than classical. The movie turns into a rousing sports drama, but it also captures the reality behind a thousand news stories, sketching in what the politics of undocumented immigration really means: the way that small businesses depend on these workers, and how the promise of America as an oasis of salvation is alive in the immigrants’ hearts." "A sparkling fable…Part De Sica, part Loach, and all Brooklyn….The neo-realist tradition can affirm the resilience, humor, and even charm of its characters—which En el Séptimo Día does so generously that it gave me more pleasure than any film I’ve seen in a while." — Stuart Klawans, The Nation "En el Séptimo Día...succeeds both as a feel-good sports movie and a deeply humanistic portrait of the kind of people whose lives may be devastated by the immigration debate playing out in the headlines of newspapers." — Julia Felsenthal, Vogue “En el Séptimo Día… makes its points powerfully, even more so since the set-up is so simple. Even better, its third act is as thrilling as anything in a traditional sports movie. McKay’s control of tone and rhythm is in high gear, creating a work both thought-provoking and hugely entertaining." — Sheila O'Malley, rogerebert.com
"McKay does no editorializing in En el Séptimo Día. He’s a simple, graceful storyteller — so graceful that we don’t notice all the technique he brings to the task of making us see the world through José’s eyes…..McKay leaves those of us with vastly more power than José feeling angry at ourselves for living comfortably within this system, for lacking not so much empathy as curiosity."
Praise for Frank Serpico: “Finally, the definitive documentary on the man who has arguably become the world's most famous police officer comes to the big screen... with artistry and grace.” — Forbes “Suspenseful, captivating and thrilling.” — Hollywood Reporter 2017 Tribeca Film Festival Critics Choice – The Independent
Winner, Best Narrative Feature, 2016 / San Diego Asian American Film Festival
“meditative and introspective DIY filmmaking at its finest… the second section is a mini-masterpiece in pure visual storytelling." — Indiewire "a densely atmospheric portrait of disaffected youth… that flouts preconceived notions at every unconventional turn...at once immediate and timeless." — LA Times More information about Sunset Edge / Press
"Applying the DIY aesthetic that once galvanized his interviewees, D'Ambrosio (working with editor Karim López) infuses faded bits of found footage with surprising energy. Artists... beam about the social consciousness their efforts engendered, while a wall-to-wall soundtrack, and excerpts from "Matewan" and "Brother From Another Planet" illustrate the power of their output and the importance of those that influenced them." — Variety “Exuberant… a thoughtful and entertaining debut film.” — Adam Schartoff, New York Times “Dynamic and exhilarating… Less a history of art than a history of what art can do, the documentary has the potential to testify to the power of artistic expression -- and also become a version of it.” — Indiewire “Let Fury Have the Hour is a cinematic movement, not just a film.” — E. Nina Rothe, Huffington Post More information about Let Fury Have the Hour / Press
Representation: Pipeline Talent |
