Early life and education
James Rutenbeck grew up in DeWitt, Iowa, a small farming town in eastern Iowa.
He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Macalester College in 1975, graduating magna cum laude. He received a Master of Science in Visual Studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Film/Video Section in 1984, where he studied with filmmaker Richard Leacock. He later became a Fellow at the Harvard University Film Study Center (2019–2020) and a Journalism Fellow at the Poynter Institute and Yale University in 2021. [2]
Career
Rutenbeck directed Losing Ground (1988), a psychological portrait of an Iowa family facing the loss of their small farm. Losing Ground screened at Cinema du Reel and Museum of Modern Art. [3]
Rutenbeck directed Raise the Dead (1998), a documentary examining itinerant holiness preachers in the Appalachian region. [4] Raise the Dead premiered at Cinema du Reel in 1999. [5]
He directed Scenes from a Parish (2009), which chronicled tensions within a diverse Catholic parish in a former mill town in Massachusetts. [6] [7] Scenes from a Parish was broadcast on the PBS series Independent Lens. [8]
In 2016, he executive produced, directed and edited Class of '27, a three short film anthology about young children in three low-income rural American communities. [9] Class of '27 was an Editor's Pick at The Atlantic and winner of the Alfred I. duPont Columbia University Award. [10] [11]
Rutenbeck has edited films for independent filmmakers and the PBS series American Experience, including Roberto Clemente, Jimmy Carter, Zoot Suit Riots and God in America. [12] [13] He produced an episode of the PBS series on the social determinants of health, Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick? [14]
In 2021, Rutenbeck released A Reckoning in Boston, a feature-length documentary that originated as a portrait of students in the Clemente Course in the Humanities but turned into a broader examination of systemic racism, gentrification, and class inequity in Boston. [15] [16] The film incorporates first-person narration by Rutenbeck and storytelling with its subjects. [17] The film premiered as part of PBS's "Independent Lens" series. [18] [19]
He edited the Emmy® Award-winning My Disability Roadmap and The Ride Ahead, with directors Samuel and Dan Habib. [20] [21] In 2023, he directed and produced Nixon Reversal, a documentary examining the political transformation of Richard Nixon. The film was nominated for a national Emmy Award and received The Motion Awards. [22] [23] [24]
In March 2023, Rutenbeck started working on a hybrid feature film with artist, writer and actor Harmon dot aut. [25]
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