[3] Chain Camera began a long creative partnership between Schmidt and director Kirby Dick that included The End (2004), which follows several hospice patients and their families nearing the end of life, Twist of Faith (2005), the story of a man confronting the trauma of past sexual abuse by a Catholic priest, and This Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006), an irreverent investigation into the MPAA movie ratings system and American culture, and exposed the secretive industry organization for the first time.
[5] While much of Schmidt's documentary work focuses on sobering issues, other films (as Executive Producer) take a lighter or more irreverent approach, including Candyman (2010) about the rise, fall and rebirth of the creator of Jelly Belly jellybeans, and Beauty is Embarrassing, Neil Berkeley's colorful chronicle of visual artist Wayne White.
Troubadours, released theatrically before airing on PBS's "American Masters," tells the story of the "rise of the singer-songwriter" in the late 1960s / early 1970s Los Angeles, featuring Carole King, James Taylor, Jackson Browne, David Crosby and Bonnie Raitt.
2013 brought Schmidt back to the Sundance Film Festival for a fifth time as the producer of Valentine Road, a critically acclaimed documentary that followed the tragic events and aftermath of a school shooting in Oxnard, CA.
As the film was nearing completion, the Sandy Hook, CT school shooting tragedy occurred, which was an especially saddening parallel for Schmidt, who spent his teenage years growing up there.
In each hour-long episode, Chelsea examines a different topic - marriage, Silicon Valley, racism, and drugs - through conversations with friends, family, and experts ranging from Los Angeles matchmakers to American civil rights activist Al Sharpton.
The series premiere, scheduled against the Emmy's, attracted 10.3 million viewers[18] and received praise from Colorado Governor Bill Owens for "stripping away the many myths surrounding this horrible case and presenting factually and unemotionally an unbiased account of this tragedy.
"[19] Eddie is an executive producer and director of the History Channel's "In Search Of" reboot, with actor Zachary Quinto traveling the world to investigate and explore unexplained phenomena, in the spirit of the original show's 1970s host, Leonard Nimoy.
He guested several times on G4's Attack of the Show, as well as appeared on MSNBC, IFC, CNN and other outlets to discuss his work as a documentarian and give his expert opinion on everything from award nominations to film distribution.
[20] In addition to his film and television career, Schmidt served as the Board President of the IDA (International Documentary Association), a major, nonprofit community and resource for nonfiction filmmakers, since 2009.
For the latter half of 2008, Schmidt served as the organization's day-to-day interim executive director, overseeing its 2008 DocuWeeks Theatrical Showcase and the 2008 IDA Documentary Awards, hosted by Morgan Spurlock, and honoring Werner Herzog.
The group performed live and produced numerous video pranks targeting celebrities, PETA, tourism, and mainstream pornography, with their stunts reaching over 500,000 views on YouTube.