David Notowitz spends most of his time alone in a dark room.

The former San Carlos resident isn't being punished or held hostage, though. He's pursuing his dream career as a film editor.

His first film was a college project, an 18 minute profile of Grateful Dead fans that got a lot of reaction from other students - both positive and negative.

From then on, he was hooked on documentaries. A week after graduating from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1989, he moved to Southern California to find work.

After a year and a half as an associate producer at the Financial News Network, he began freelancing as an editor.

His most recent product is the critically acclaimed, "The Last Klezmer," which has been hailed as one of the finest films ever made about the Holocaust.

Notowitz, 27, is now working on another documentary with "Klezmer" director Yale Strom, based on the story of Carpathian Jews and shot in the Ukraine.

Notowitz, whose parents Allen and Gayle, still live in San Carlos, began developing an interest in film at an early age.

"Our family traveled a lot in our motor home," he said in a recent interview from his Santa Monica apartment. "I would get bored, so my parents gave me a camera. I loved taking pictures to document our travels."

Notowitz attended San Carlos High School until it closed in 1982, then finished up at Sequoia High in Redwood City. At UC Santa Cruz, he looked for a course of study that would allow him to combine his interest in photography and writing.

"I chose to study film because it was a specific skill that I could learn," he said. "It wasn't vague like economics or philosophy."

At college, Notowitz said, he was exposed to many different types of films that he hadn't seen before - independent and foreign films, and those not in the mainstream.

He also had access to equipment at school and developed a knack for editing.

"I found it was the only job on a film where you have total control. You don't have to depend on anyone else. I loved being in a dark room studying footage, creating something from nothing."

He would work for hours on end, creating incentives for himself along the way. "Like, I'd promise myself a Snickers if I went for another hour," he said.

College also exposed him to Grateful Dead fans, who became the subject of his first film.

He thrived on the reactions to his film's campus screenings: "Some people loved it and really thought I captured the personality of the fans. Others would say, 'They're not like that at all.' - even from a few people who walked out."

Notowitz was convinced he had found his true calling.

"I just love documentaries," he said. "They are so real. It's not something that can be faked."

As he got more excited about working on documentary films, Notowitz got more nervous about making a living at it.

"I talked to tons of people, and they all said, 'you must go to LA' I was reluctant at first to leave my family and friends, but i knew that's where the work was."

He landed the FNN job, which gave him a good grounding in the business end of production. "But my dream was still to make movies," he said.

He went to a lot of movies, and saw Yale Strom's "At the Crossroads," at a a screening where the director was present. "I met him and told him, 'I want to edit your next film.' Six months later, he called.

After viewing some of Notowitz's work, Strom hired him for"The Last Klezmer." The film, screened recently at UC Berkeley and opening April 7 in San Jose, has drawn raves wherever it has played.

The film tells the powerful story of Leopold Kozlowski of Poland, the last living Klezmer musician to have grown up with the music and traditions of pre World War II Eastern Europe. He tells how playing his accordion literally saved his life when he was in a prison camp because guards wanted him to play at their parties.

Kozlowski now composes, conducts, and teaches Klezmer music to a mostly non-Jewish public in Poland.

Film Critic Michael Medved named, "The Last Klezmer" to his Top 10 list for last year, calling it, "the best film made about the holocaust next to 'Schindlers List" and praising the editing as "Magnificent."

Notowitz worked on the film during all of 1993. "It was a lonely job, but there was a terrific sense of satisfaction when I was done," he said. "It's really a work of love."

It was shot on video, then transferred to 16mm film. "We are breaking some rules, which I like to do," Notowitz said.

Strom and Notowitz are teaming up again for "The Ice Cream Man of the Carpathians." another film about Holocaust survivors. They have 32 hours of tape already and plan to return to the Ukraine in April for some extra footage.

Notowitz also hopes to branch out into feature films, and is writing a script based on his travels to the West Bank which he would like to direct.

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