Sue Marx, Oscar-winning filmmaker from Michigan, dies at 92

Sue Marx found a calling as a filmmaker and professional photographer.

She turned her skill into an award-winning run that had her touting Michigan's name on a national stage.

“She had this curiosity about people and the world, and expressed it artistically through the lens,” said her daughter, Terry Marx.

Mrs. Marx died Monday, July 17, 2023, at her home. She was 92.

The longtime Birmingham resident produced more than 200 films, relatives said.

She perhaps is best known for “Young at Heart,” a 29-minute 1987 documentary film that chronicled the relationship between her father, Louis Gothelf, and his second wife, Reva Shwayder, who were both artists and had lost a spouse.

It won the Oscar for Best Documentary Short in 1988.

"From Hollywood, hooray for Michigan,” Mrs. Marx said to end her acceptance speech.

While the piece earned much praise for its depiction of the couple and was considered a crowning accomplishment, Mrs. Marx had merely hoped to highlight an inspiring relationship, her daughter said.

“It wasn’t just a movie. It was a movie about her father, which made it particularly special. She followed it more than just an interested filmmaker. It was her father’s life, and the storyline was meaningful to her.”

Also significant were the many subjects behind the pieces the filmmaker helmed over the years through her company, Sue Marx Films, which launched in 1980.

It specialized in documentary films while also producing marketing, political, educational and fundraising videos, according to the website.

Productions included “AIDS 101: Tammy Boccomino Talks With Teenagers,” a one-hour TV special on a Warren woman who tested HIV-positive after contracting the illness from her first husband; “Encore on Woodward,” a documentary on the restoration of the Fox Theatre; 10 films centered on the Detroit Zoo; and “Detroit Remember When: The Jewish Community.”

Her client list featured big names such as General Motors, Cranbrook Educational Community and former Detroit Mayor Coleman A. Young.

Mrs. Marx’s success owed to her constant collaborations and friendly nature, relatives said.

“She was a people person,” Terry Marx said. “The films that were about people, and where she could learn their story and tell their story were important.”

The road to stardom was an unconventional one.

Born Nov. 17, 1930, to immigrants in Yonkers, New York, Suzanne Elaine Gothelf was raised in Wisconsin and Indiana.

After graduating from Indiana University in 1952, she relocated to Detroit to live with relatives and taught in Oak Park.

She soon met Stanley “Hank” Marx, who owned a lead smelting company. They wed on Dec. 19, 1953.

While raising their three daughters, Mrs. Marx earned a master’s degree at Wayne State University and started working as a model, according to her obituary.

She then pursued photojournalism. As she recounted to The Detroit News in 2020, a friend, Hubert G. Locke, who wrote books including "Detroit 1967,” had been launching a neighborhood newspaper during the 1964 city newspaper strike.

"Hubert said, 'Just go shoot stuff in Detroit,' and a lot of the pictures in the show are those free-to-do, just-get-neighborhood stuff," she said.

Mrs. Marx spent about a year with Locke before working for area publications and as a freelance photographer.

Capitalizing on her close connections, Mrs. Marx shot two historic figures: civil rights icon Rosa Parks and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at Grosse Pointe South High School weeks before his assassination in 1968.

Her portraits were featured in an exhibit, "Photographs by Sue Marx — Images from History: People Who Defined Detroit in the 1960s,” at the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center.

She also photographed the Kennedys and a young Bob Seger, her family said.

Mrs. Marx went on produce "Profiles in Black” in the 1970s for what is now WDIV-TV (Channel 4). The program sought to illustrate the lives of Metro Detroit Black residents.

After founding her company, she went on win more than 20 Emmys, 11 CINE Golden Eagles, honors from many film festivals as well as an Award of Excellence from what is now the Alliance for Women in Media, relatives said.

She has been named a Detroit News Michiganian of the Year, and some of her films on art and artists are in a collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Mrs. Marx was a lifelong voting member with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.She also served on the Michigan Film Office Advisory Council, joined the Friends of the Detroit Film Theatre advisory committee and judged for the Kresge Foundation’s Artist Fellows program.

“She was very accomplished,” Terry Marx said.

Besides her daughter, other survivors include two children, Jane Marx and Liz Marx; and three grandchildren. Her husband died in 2007.

A funeral service is scheduled for 1 p.m. Wednesday at Ira Kaufman Chapel, 18325 W. Nine Mile, Southfield. It also will be live-streamed.

Interment is at Clover Hill Park Cemetery.

Memorials may be made to the Wayne State University Math Corps, 656 W. Kirby, Room 1311, Detroit, MI 48202, or the Jewish Hospice & Chaplaincy Network, 6555 W. Maple, West Bloomfield, MI 48322.