FEATURE DOCUMENTARIES
NETFLIX ORIGINAL
137 SHOTS
NATIONAL EMMY NOMINEE - OUTSTANDING CURRENT AFFAIRS DOCUMENTARY 2021
“In Cleveland in November 2012, a 60-plus police car chase ended with 13 officers firing 137 rounds to kill Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, who were unarmed. Michael Milano’s riveting documentary investigates not only the night in question (via powerfully intercut testimony, dashcam videos and expert witnesses) but the department’s attempt to cover up their mistakes as part of the city’s powder-keg history of racial inequality and the pattern of “unreasonable and unnecessary use of force” by its police. Milano keeps peeling back layers of bias and corruption before folding in the near-concurrent murder of Tamir Rice, ultimately amounting to much more than the story he sets out to tell; it becomes less a true-crime documentary than an in-depth exploration of the psychic divide that has split this country in two.”
HBO ORIGINAL
BURNING OJAI: OUR FIRE STORY
A community's journey of devastation, repair, and survival after one of the largest wildfires in California's history.
WRITING by Michael Milano
Artwork by Thomas Pomarico
BOOKS
In Milano's debut book, he takes us inside Michigan Football’s locker room during legendary coach, Lloyd Carr's final year and into Rich Rodriguez's disastrous first season in 2008. This book is Milano’s first-person story switching from varsity wrestling to varsity football, and joining just a handful of two-sport athletes in university history. But, during Milano’s senior year disaster struck when he tried to stop a domestic violence incident and was charged with a crime himself. Eventually vindicated and acquitted, this book is an uplifting journey of perseverance that led Milano to a life in journalism. In this gripping non-fiction novel, Milano takes us deep into the whirlwind of college athletics and the effect they had on his life. Purchase Here.
NEWSPAPER REPORTING
THE RICHMOND CONFIDENTIAL - BAY AREA
MAGAZINE WRITING
ESQUIRE.COM - SAVING SHARKS IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Hours before sunrise in the warmth of the Australian night, I stepped off a splintered dock and onto a 20 foot powerboat with determined activists battling the state of Western Australia's ... Click here to continue.
THE ELDERS: MY TIME WITH THE MORMONS IN BERKELEY, CA
Terry sat on a stool, desperate to change his life. The Elders calmly placed their hands on Terry’s head. Continue reading ...
CHARLES BRADLEY - SCREAMIN’ EAGLE OF SOUL
A fan beat shadows in a balmy dressing room above the carousel at the Santa Monica Pier. Continue reading ...
Jon Stewart, Maziar Bahari and Mike Milano in discussion about journalism at UC Berkeley.
Selected by his peers, Mike delivered the commencement address at UC Berkeley’s Grad School of Journalism in 2015.