Ruth Leitman

Ruth Leitman is an award-winning filmmaker recognized for highlighting social justice issues in feature documentaries over the past 20 years. Her 1994 film Wildwood, NJ (1994) has enjoyed a second life as a viral film since 2009 and screened at Hot Doc’s fifteen-year anniversary festival in 2013, and is currently playing at the Low Cinema in Queens. In 2015, she directed for Kartemquin Films’ Al Jazeera America documentary series Hard Earned, which was nominated for an International Documentary Association Award and won an Alfred I. duPont Columbia University Journalism Award (2016). Premiering at Tribeca Film Festival and Hot Docs, Lipstick & Dynamite (2005) won the Documentary Storytelling Prize at Nantucket Film Festival and was broadcast on Showtime and her immigration film Tony & Janina’s American Wedding (2010) premiered at the Chicago International Film Festival and won a jury prize as well as several social justice awards. Alma (1998) won the Documentary Feature Jury Prize at the Hamptons Film Festival and screened at IDFA, SXSW, Director’s Guild of America, and Whitney Biennial. Learn more at her website, Ruthless Films.