Rachel Grady

Last updated

Rachel Grady
Rachel Grady at NORMAN LEAR-JUST ANOTHER VERSION OF YOU.jpg
Rachel Grady
Born
United States
OccupationDocumentary filmmaker

Rachel Grady is an American documentary filmmaker.

She co-directed Jesus Camp (Academy Award nominee), The Boys of Baraka (Emmy nominee), 12th & Delaware (Peabody Award winner), DETROPIA (Emmy winner), Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You (2016 Sundance Film Festival), One of Us (2017 Toronto International Film Festival), and the Showtime docuseries, Love Fraud, which had its world premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. Grady also co-directed Endangered , a documentary for HBO on the threats faced by journalists around the world. [1]

Contents

Biography

She is the stepdaughter of James Grady, author and investigative journalist. [2] Grady was raised Jewish and still considers herself Jewish. [3]

Career

Loki Films

Many of Grady's prominent film projects have been co-directed and produced by her friend and business partner, Heidi Ewing. Meeting in 1997, Ewing and Grady found camaraderie in their similar approaches to creative projects. [4] Soon thereafter, the two founded Loki Films in 2001, [5] a production company that specializes in both short and feature films, as well as television and commercials.

Grady and Ewing approach their filmmaking with particular interest "in the nuances of the human experience and all of its colours and contours." [5] Says Grady about her experience pursuing these interests: "we have found that in fundamentalist circles, you can learn a lot about human nature…you are asked to believe things that perhaps the majority of society doesn’t agree with". [5]

Being a co-directing team, Grady and Ewing come up with an initial plan and outsource locations and subjects together. From there, the directors separate to conduct solo interviews and filming. When all the footage has been shot, the duo reconvenes to the editing room and compiles their respective material to create their desired film. [4]

Film topics

Specializing in documentary filmmaking, Grady and Ewing have tackled many controversial topics in their films although they reject the idea that they are "advocacy filmmakers" and say they prefer to have the subjects of their films guide the focus of their stories. [4]

2006's Jesus Camp explores an evangelical Christian summer camp for children. Scholar Michael Friesen says that Jesus Camp raises "important questions about the children's psychological development in a milieu of strong religion". [6] Following the release of the film, the camp was forced to close down after garnering negative attention from its portrayal in the film. [7]

Loki films' feature documentary One of Us debuted on Netflix in 2017. The film exposes many elements of Brooklyn's Hasidic Jewish community. [8]

While developing the framework for One of Us, Grady said, "we started the film with what we always start all projects with, which is personal interest, curiosity". [5] The film intimately deals with the themes of domestic and sexual abuse and the great lengths individuals must go to remove themselves from the community. Grady described the individuals who decided to leave their orthodox communities as "having an enormous amount of bravery and desperation". [5]

Writer David Edelstein of Vulture said that Grady and Ewing did not attempt to make an "objective documentary" but noted the potential challenges that attempting to infiltrate the Hasidic community would pose even to obtain their side of the controversial stories. [9]

Awards

Jesus Camp premiered at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival and was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 79thAcademy Awards. [5] Detropia was placed on the shortlist for Best Documentary Feature at the 85th Academy Awards and One of Us garnered critical acclaim with a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. [10]

Filmography

YearFilmSubject matter
2005 The Boys of Baraka Baraka School, Kenya
2006 Jesus Camp Kids on Fire School of Ministry and Becky Fischer
2008The Lord's Boot Camp Teen Missions International
2010 Freakonomics Economic theory as described by Steven Levitt's book Freakonomics
2010 12th & Delaware A crisis pregnancy center and an abortion clinic in Fort Pierce, Florida
2012 Detropia Detroit, Michigan
2012The Education of Mohammad Hussein
2016Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You Norman Lear
2016A Dream PreferredTaharka Bros.
2017 One of Us Documents three people as they adapt to civilization outside of their Hasidic Jewish community
2020 Love Fraud True crime documentary miniseries revolves around Richard Scott Smith, who used the internet to prey upon women in search of love and conned them
2022 Endangered An investigation of threats against journalists in the United States and internationally, from intimidation to physical violence.

Related Research Articles

Force Theory was a musical production team and performance art band from Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is the largest documentary festival in North America. The event takes place annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The 27th edition of the festival took place online throughout May and June 2020. In addition to the annual festival, Hot Docs owns and operates the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, administers multiple production funds, and runs year-round screening programs including Doc Soup and Hot Docs Showcase.

<i>Jesus Camp</i> 2006 American documentary film

Jesus Camp is a 2006 American documentary film directed by Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing about a charismatic Christian summer camp, where children spend their summers being taught that they have "prophetic gifts" and can "take back America for Christ". According to the distributor, it "doesn't come with any prepackaged point of view" and attempts to be "an honest and impartial depiction of one faction of the evangelical Christian community".

<i>12th & Delaware</i> 2010 American documentary film

12th & Delaware is a documentary film set in a crisis pregnancy center and an abortion clinic across the street from it in Fort Pierce, Florida. The film was produced and filmed by Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing and covers the center and its patients over the period of a year. The film shows interviews of staff at both facilities, as well as pregnant women who are going to them. 12th & Delaware premiered on January 24, 2010, at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival in the U.S. Documentary Competition. It won a Peabody Award that same year "for its poignant portrait of women facing exceedingly difficult decisions at a literal intersection of opposing ideologies."

Detropia is a 2012 American documentary film, directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, about the city of Detroit, Michigan. It focuses on the decline of the economy of Detroit due to long-term changes in the automobile industry, and the effects that the decline has had on the city's residents and infrastructure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heidi Ewing</span> American documentary filmmaker

Heidi Ewing is an American documentary filmmaker and the co-director of Jesus Camp, The Boys of Baraka, 12th & Delaware, DETROPIA, Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You, One of Us, Love Fraud (series), I Carry You With Me (narrative) and Endangered.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2016 Sundance Film Festival</span>

The 2016 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 21 to January 31, 2016. The first lineup of competition films was announced on December 2, 2015. The opening night film was Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You, directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady. The closing night film was Louis Black and Karen Bernstein's Richard Linklater: Dream Is Destiny.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew Heineman</span> American documentary filmmaker

Matthew Heineman is an American documentary filmmaker, director, and producer. His inspiration and fascination with American history led him to early success with the documentary film Cartel Land, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film, a BAFTA Award for Best Documentary, and won three Primetime Emmy Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luzer Twersky</span> American film and television actor (born 1985)

Luzer Twersky is an American film and television actor. He is best known for his role in the film Felix and Meira, for which he garnered a Jutra Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor at the 18th Jutra Awards and won the Best Actor award at the Amiens International Film Festival and the Torino International Film Festival.

Pearl Gluck is an American filmmaker and professor. Her films, which explores themes of class, gender, and faith, have appeared as a part of the Sundance Lab, as well as played at Cannes Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, and on PBS.

<i>One of Us</i> (2017 film) 2017 American documentary film

One of Us is a 2017 documentary feature film that chronicles the lives of three ex-Hasidic Jews from Brooklyn. The film was directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, who also created the documentary Jesus Camp. One of Us opened at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2017, and was distributed the following month of October via Netflix, which also financed the film.

Chani Getter, LCSW (they/them) is a U.S. speaker, writer, therapist, and interfaith minister. Rev. Chani is also an award-winning activist and educator who supports a growing community of LGBTQ+ and non-binary people. Their life and work has been featured in two documentary films, DevOUT (2012) and One of Us (2017).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joshua Z Weinstein</span> American filmmaker

Joshua Z Weinstein is an American independent filmmaker based in New York City. He directed the A24 film Menashe (2017), and the feature documentaries Drivers Wanted (2012) and Flying on One Engine (2008). His director of photography credits include Bikini Moon (2017), Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me (2013), and Code of the West (2012). Weinstein was nominated for Best First Feature at the Independent Spirit Awards and Breakthrough Director at the Gotham Awards. He has been nominated for a Cannes Lion for his advertising work and won a first place POY for his work with The New York Times.

Rachel Leah Jones is an American-Israeli documentary film director and producer. Her documentary film Advocate about the controversial human rights lawyer Leah Tsemel, which she co-directed and co-produced with cinematographer Philippe Bellaïche, premiered at 2019 Sundance Film Festival, and won top prizes at Kraków Film Festival, Thessaloniki Documentary Festival and Docaviv Festival.

<i>Gypsy Davy</i> (film) 2011 documentary film

Gypsy Davy is a 2011 documentary film, directed by Rachel Leah Jones, and co-produced by Jones and Philippe Ballaiche.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2020 Sundance Film Festival</span> Film festival

The 2020 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 23 to February 2, 2020. The first lineup of competition films was announced on December 4, 2019. The opening night film was Miss Americana directed by Lana Wilson and produced by Morgan Neville, Caitrin Rogers, and Christine O'Malley.

<i>Love Fraud</i> American true crime documentary miniseries

Love Fraud is an American true crime documentary miniseries, directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, about the hunt for a serial romance scammer. It premiered on August 30, 2020, on Showtime.

<i>93Queen</i> 2018 American film

93Queen is a 2018 documentary film on Hasidic women in Borough Park, Brooklyn who form Ezras Nashim, an all-female ambulance corps. The film follows Judge Rachel Freier, a Hasidic lawyer running for public office as a New York Judge, and mother of six who is determined to shake up the “boys club” in her Hasidic community by creating the first all-female ambulance corps in the United States, as she negotiates her community initiative within the context of a male-dominated Hasidic community.

<i>Baby God</i> 2020 American film

Baby God is an 2020 American documentary film, directed and produced by Hannah Olson, which follows Quincy Fortier, a doctor who used his own sperm to inseminate fertility patients. Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady were executive producers under their Loki Films banner.

References

  1. ↑ "With Ronan Farrow's New Film, HBO Is All in on Reporters Under Attack". Vanity Fair. January 15, 2020. Retrieved March 23, 2022.
  2. ↑ "Rachel Grady". IMDb. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
  3. ↑ "Heidi Ewing & Rachel Grady Interview for Jesus Camp - The Cinema Source-TCS". May 26, 2013. Archived from the original on May 26, 2013. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
  4. 1 2 3 "Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady Discuss the Causes and Effects of 'Detropia' (Video)". The Hollywood Reporter. August 26, 2012. Retrieved October 12, 2019.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "LARB Radio Hour: "Controversial Jews" With Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady, and Eric Lax on Woody Allen". Los Angeles Review of Books. December 8, 2017. Retrieved October 12, 2019.
  6. ↑ Friesen, Michael (August 17, 2016). "Jesus Camp". Journal of Religion and Faith. 11: 4.
  7. ↑ "The Seattle Times: Nation & World: Pastor will shut down controversial kids camp". April 21, 2007. Archived from the original on April 21, 2007. Retrieved October 12, 2019.
  8. ↑ "How 'One of Us' Filmmakers Gained Access to the Insular Hasidic Jewish Community". The Hollywood Reporter. November 9, 2017. Retrieved October 12, 2019.
  9. ↑ "One of Us is a Fascinating Look at Leaving Ultra-Orthodox Judaism". vulture.com. November 7, 2017. Retrieved October 12, 2019.
  10. ↑ One of Us (2017) , retrieved October 12, 2019
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.