Amy Ziering

Amy Ziering (born 1962 in Massachusetts) is an American film producer and director. Mostly known for her work in documentary films, she is a regular collaborator of director Kirby Dick; the two directed 2002's Derrida and 2020's On the Record together, with Ziering also producing several of Dick's films as sole director.

Amy Ziering
Ziering in 2020
Born1962 (age 57–58)[1]
Massachusetts
OccupationProducer, director
Years active1998–present
Children3
Parent(s)Sigi Ziering
Marilyn Ziering

In 2013, she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature for producing the Dick-directed film The Invisible War.[2]

Early life

Amy Ziering was born in 1962. She is the daughter of Sigi Ziering, a Holocaust survivor, and Marilyn Ziering.[3][4] She grew up in Beverly Hills, California.[3][4] She graduated from Amherst College before pursuing graduate work at Yale University, where she studied with Jacques Derrida.[5][6]

Career

Early career

Her first film, Taylor's Campaign (1998), directed by Richard Cohen, followed Ron Taylor, a homeless resident of Santa Monica, as he campaigned to win a seat on the Santa Monica city council. Martin Sheen narrated the film.

Ziering then began work on Derrida (2002), a documentary about her former mentor, the French philosopher Jacques Derrida. She partnered with Kirby Dick, with whom she co-directed Derrida.[7] The film explores Derrida's life and work while questioning the limitations of biography. It won the Golden Gate Award at the 2002 San Francisco International Film Festival.

She next produced a feature narrative, The Memory Thief (2007), directed by Gil Kofman. The film chronicles the experiences of a young man who becomes involved in documenting the experiences of survivors of the Holocaust as his commitment turns into obsession and madness. Ziering again collaborated with Kirby Dick on Outrage (2009), a documentary that examined the lives of closeted gay politicians who legislate against gay rights, as well as the mainstream media's reluctance to report on this subject. The film received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Investigative Journalism.

The Invisible War

In 2012, she premiered The Invisible War at the Sundance Film Festival where it received the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature. The film examines the epidemic of rape in the United States Armed Forces, and has been heralded for exposing a culture of sexual abuse at Marine Barracks Washington.[8] Several government officials have commented on the film's influence on policy, including Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, who has stated that viewing the film convinced him to implement a wave of reforms designed to reduce the prevalence of military sexual assault.[9]

The film's revelations have also been discussed in congressional hearings and spurred lawmakers to seek better safeguards for assault survivors.[10] Senator Kirsten Gillibrand credits the film with inspiring her to introduce the Military Justice Improvement Act, which would establish an independent judiciary to oversee accusations of sexual assault in the armed forces.[11]

Among other honors, The Invisible War received a nomination for Best Documentary Feature at the 85th Academy Awards and won Emmy Awards for Best Documentary Feature and Outstanding Investigative Journalism.[12][13]

The Hunting Ground

In 2015, The Hunting Ground premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. Produced by Ziering, and written and directed by Kirby Dick, the film is a documentary about the incidence of sexual assault on college campuses in the United States and the failed response of college administrators. The film was released on February 27, 2015,[14] an edited version aired on CNN on November 22, 2015,[15][16] and was released on DVD the week of December 1, 2015.[17] It was released on Netflix in March 2016.[18] Lady Gaga recorded an original song, "Til It Happens to You," for the film.[19]

One day before the theatrical release of the film, a bipartisan group of twelve U.S. Senators, accompanied by the film's lead subjects, Annie Clark and Andrea Pino, reintroduced the Campus Accountability and Safety Act requiring universities to adopt standard practices for weighing sexual charges, and to survey students on the prevalence of assault.

The Hunting Ground was nominated for a 2016 Emmy Award for "Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking" and for the "Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Picture" award by the Producers Guild of America.[20] In December 2016, the film won the 2016 Stanley Kramer Award given to "a production, producer or other individual whose achievement or contribution illuminates and raises public awareness of important social issues.[21]The Hunting Ground was also one of the five movies nominated in the Documentary category of 2016 MTV Movie Awards.[22]

The Bleeding Edge

The Bleeding Edge premiered at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival to rave reviews and received further critical acclaim after its worldwide release on Netflix on July 27, 2018. Currently at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes[23] and named The New York Times' Critic's Pick of the Week,[24] the documentary, written and directed by Kirby Dick and produced by Ziering and Amy Herdy, is a deep dive exploration on the $400 billion medical device industry[25] where the filmmakers find shockingly lax regulations, corporate cover-ups and profit-driven incentives that put patients at risk daily.[26]

The impact of the film was felt immediately as a week before its release, The Bleeding Edge became a part of a national news story when Bayer removed the birth control device Essure from the U.S. market, one of the many devices heavily criticized and warned about in the doc.[27] Entertainment Weekly promptly added it on their list of documentaries that have changed the world.[28] The documentary was awarded the prestigious George Polk Award for Medical Reporting[29] — one of the only documentaries to receive the journalistic award — and was nominated for a Peabody Award[30] and the Grierson Award for Best Science Documentary.[31]

On the Record

On October 23, 2017, Dick and Ziering announced an upcoming film on equity, parity, abuse, and representation in Hollywood.[32] They had begun working on this project while screening The Invisible War.[33][34] In a statement to media, Ziering said:

"Every time we screened that film in Hollywood, actors and executives would come up to us and say that they had had similar experiences right here. So, we began working on this project and immediately found ourselves grappling with the same forces that had kept this story silenced for so long. Everyone was frightened about what would happen to their careers, and worried about whether they would be sued. Distributors were unwilling to fund or release the film, and few people were willing to talk on the record."[35]

Once the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse allegations went public, funding appeared through Impact Partners, which also financed "The Hunting Ground" and "The Invisible War."[33] Ziering noted, "People at long last are speaking out in large numbers, and we feel this industry, and the country, is finally ready for an unflinching film about the reality of sexual assault and harassment in Hollywood."[35]

On the Record, Dick and Ziering's film about sexual abuse allegations made against Def Jam co-founder Russell Simmons, premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.

Personal life

Ziering has three daughters and resides in Brentwood.[36]

Filmography
Year Film Role
1998 Taylor's Campaign Producer
2002 Derrida Director, Producer
2007 The Memory Thief Producer
2009 Outrage Producer
2012 The Invisible War Producer
2014 The Hunting Ground Producer
2018 The Bleeding Edge Producer
2020 On the Record Director, Writer, Producer

Awards and nominations
Year Award Organization Work Category Result
2002 Golden Gate Award San Francisco Film Festival Derrida Documentary Feature Won[37]
Grand Jury Prize Sundance Film Festival Documentary Nominated[38]
2009 Jury Award Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival Outrage Best Documentary Won[39]
2010 Emmy Award National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Outstanding Investigative Journalism: Long Form Nominated[40]
2012 Audience Award Sundance Film Festival The Invisible War Best Documentary Won[41][42]
Nestor Almendros Award Human Rights Watch Film Festival Courage in Filmmaking Won[43]
Silver Heart Award Dallas International Film Festival Humanitarian Award Won[44]
Audience Award Seattle International Film Festival Best Documentary Won[45]
Audience Award Provincetown International Film Festival Best Documentary Feature Won[46]
Best of Festival DocuWest International Documentary Film Festival Humanitarian Award Won[47]
Advocacy Award Peace Over Violence Humanitarian Award Won[48]
IDA Award International Documentary Association Best Feature Nominated[49]
Audience Award Gotham Awards Audience Award Nominated
2013 Spirit Award Film Independent Best Documentary Won[50]
Academy Award Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Documentary Feature Nominated[12]
Ridenhour Prize The Nation Institute Documentary Film Won[51]
Gracie Award Alliance for Women in Media Outstanding Producer – News/Non-Fiction Won[52]
Peabody Award The Peabody Awards Won[53]
Impact Award BRITDOC Foundation Jury Special Commendation Won[54]
2014 Emmy Award National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Best Documentary Feature Won[13]
Outstanding Investigative Journalism – Long Form Won[13]
2016 Emmy Award National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences The Hunting Ground Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking Nominated[55]
PGA Award PGA Awards Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Picture Nominated[56]
Stanley Kramer Award Stanley Kramer Award Won[57]
2018 George Polk Award George Polk Awards The Bleeding Edge Medical Reporting Won[58]
2019 Peabody Award The Peabody Awards Documentary Film Nominated[59]
Grierson Award Grierson Awards Best Science Documentary Nominated[60]
gollark: It apparently uses "work-stealing" or something, and I think it depends on how complex the operations are.
gollark: I had so many accursed borrow checker issues.
gollark: Ferris is occasionally kind to us, see.
gollark: I just had to do `args.par_iter_mut().try_for_each(|arg| run_reduction(arg, env))?;` to parallelify things.
gollark: It's a Rust library for parallel iterators.

References
  1. "Derrida" – RealFictionFilme
  2. "The Invisible War – Documentary Feature – Oscars 2013". ABC. Retrieved January 21, 2013.
  3. Danielle Berrin, Amy Ziering's visible war against military rape, The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, February 6, 2013
  4. Michal Shmulovich, 'Gatekeepers' director plays down Oscar hopes, The Times of Israel, February 24, 2013
  5. "Filmmaker Amy Ziering Kofman To Present "Derrida" at Amherst College Feb. 5". Amherst College. Retrieved January 10, 2013.
  6. "Derrida on the big screen". The Guardian. London. July 20, 2002. Retrieved January 10, 2013.
  7. Handelman, Michelle (October 24, 2002). "INTERVIEW: Two Filmmakers Take On a Genius; Amy Ziering Kofman and Kirby Dick Discuss "Derrida"". Indiewire. Retrieved January 10, 2013.
  8. Dawson, Stephanie (June 19, 2012). "Film Review: The Invisible War". Limité. Archived from the original on June 19, 2015. Retrieved January 9, 2013.
  9. Panetta, Leon (2014). Worthy Fights: A Memoir of Leadership in War and Peace. New York: Penguin. p. 453.
  10. Rohter, Larry (January 23, 2013). "A Documentarian Focused on Trauma in Its Many Forms". The New York Times. Retrieved April 8, 2013.
  11. Huval, Rebecca (May 10, 2013). "Sen. Gillibrand Credits The Invisible War with Shaping New Bill". pbs.org. PBS. Retrieved December 8, 2014.
  12. "Oscars 2013: Complete list of nominees". The Los Angeles Times. January 10, 2013. Retrieved January 10, 2013.
  13. "NATIONAL ACADEMY OF TELEVISION ARTS AND SCIENCES ANNOUNCES WINNERS AT THE 35TH ANNUAL NEWS & DOCUMENTARY EMMY AWARDS". emmyonline.org. The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. September 30, 2014. Retrieved December 8, 2014.
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  27. Kiefer, Halle. "Birth Control Essure Pulled From Market Prior to Release of Netflix Doc The Bleeding Edge". Vulture.
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  30. "Peabody Awards: 'Killing Eve,' 'Pose,' 'The Good Place' Among Nominees". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved October 21, 2019.
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  32. Desta, Yohana (October 23, 2017). "The World Is Finally Ready for The Hunting Ground Duo's Next Doc". Vanity Fair. Retrieved February 28, 2018.
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