Phil Bertelsen

Phil Bertelsen is an Emmy and Peabody award-winning producer and director who uses film and television to entertain, inspire, and provoke audiences. His work spans from documentaries on Netflix, NBC, CBS, PBS and Prime to episodic television, including network dramas "Madame Secretary" and "The Blacklist". Through his storytelling, Bertelsen often explores topics absent from our history books. Phil’s HBO limited documentary series "Seen And Heard" was nominated for an 2025 Independent Spirit Award. His prior feature documentary "The Picture Taker" was nominated for a Peabody Award. His documentary "761st Tank Battalion-The Original Black Panthers" with Morgan Freeman is now streaming on Hulu alongside his episode of the Emmy winning documentary series, "The 1619 Project". His previous work, "Who Killed Malcolm X", is a six-part series streaming on Netflix that explores the death and controversial convictions associated with the slain civil rights leader. That series prompted a reinvestigation of the decades-old crime resulting in the exoneration of two wrongly convicted men.

What are Phil Bertelsen's films like?

Across their 7 MovieCove titles with a thematic analysis, their films lean Society and Morality.

Themes

share of theme weight

Society

45%

Morality

23%

Self

16%

Power

7%

Bonds

5%

Ideas

5%

Prejudice4 Justice4 Community3 Identity2 Legacy2

Moods and endings

endings are an aggregate; no title is named

Dominant moods · mentions across their titles

Contemplative

7

Hopeful

5

Elegiac

1

Dread

1

Warm

1

Other

4

How their films linger

Thought-provoking5 Hopeful4 Rousing2

How their films end

Happy1
Bittersweet5
Ambiguous1

AI-generated from each title's plot synopsis and cast list, with extra plot summaries, reviews and Parents Guide notes for titles the model may not know, and the model's own knowledge of the ones it recognizes. Only analyzed titles count, so this covers part of the filmography; the feel axes count films only for now.

Where can I watch Phil Bertelsen's films?

As of October 24, 2026, all 9 MovieCove titles stream on a subscription or free service.

Also on these channels

PBS Documentaries2 titles, show their 2 titles on PBS Documentaries
HISTORY Vault1 title, show their title on HISTORY Vault
PBS Living1 title, show their title on PBS Living

Subscription and free streaming for Phil Bertelsen's titles on MovieCove; rent and buy are not counted. Titles are listed by Midcredits score, highest first, at most 12 per service; a dashed chip is a producer credit or a minor one, such as a thanks. A service opens the browse page, which counts movies only, so its number can differ.

Filmography

16 credits, 9 with a MovieCove page.

Black and Jewish America: An Interwoven History(2026)
Show 4 episodes · Director · Co-Executive Producer
Midcredits score: 13th percentile of all shows
Seen & Heard: The History of Black Television(2025)
Show 2 episodes · Director · Producer
Midcredits score: 8th percentile of all shows
761st Tank Battalion: The Original Black Panthers(2023)
Director · Executive Producer
Midcredits score: 98th percentile of all films
The 1619 Project(2023)
Show 1 episode · Director
Midcredits score: 3rd percentile of all shows
The Picture Taker (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2022)
Director · Producer
Who Killed Malcolm X?(2019)
Show 6 episodes · Director · Creator · Producer
Midcredits score: 71st percentile of all shows
Hope & Fury: MLK, the Movement and the Media (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2018)
Director · Producer
School of the Future (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2016)
Director
Madam Secretary(2014)
Show 1 episode · Director
Midcredits score: 80th percentile of all shows
The Blacklist(2013)
Show 1 episode · Director
Midcredits score: 87th percentile of all shows
Finding Your Roots(2012)
Show 1 episode · Director · Producer
Midcredits score: 91st percentile of all shows
Rock the Paint (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2005)
Director
Chisholm '72: Unbought & Unbossed(2004)
Producer
Midcredits score: 87th percentile of all films
Strip Mall Trilogy (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2001)
Cinematographer · Editor · Producer · Sound Designer · Actor
Outside Looking in: Transracial Adoption in America (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2001)
Director
The Sunshine (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2000)
Director · Producer

Career shape

A full career of 15 titles from 2000 to 2026.

Highest rated

Finding Your Roots (2012)

Midcredits 91^st

By role

only this rolewith another role

Acting1 of 15Directing14 of 15 · 76^thProducing8 of 15Cinematography1 of 15Editing1 of 15Other crew2 of 15

15 titles, 8 with more than one role — directing and producing overlap on 7 of them.

By decade

2000s4 · 1 acting · 4 crew2010s6 · crew2020s5 · crew

Counts from TMDB across their full career, self appearances out; a title counts in every role they held on it. The ring is the typical Midcredits score (the median percentile) of the role's titles that are on MovieCove, shown from 5 scored.

Who does Phil Bertelsen work with?

People who share at least 2 of Phil Bertelsen's MovieCove titles, grouped by what they did on them; Rachel Dretzin shares the most, 4.