Documentary filmmaker and activist Judith Helfand is set to receive the Freedom of Expression Award at the 39th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (SFJFF), a press release confirms. The award is presented annually at the SFJFF in recognition of “the unfettered imagination, which is the cornerstone of a just, free, and open society.”

The Peabody award-winning director and producer will receive the honor on July 22 at the San Francisco Castro Theater, followed by a screening of her most recent film, “Cooked: Survival By Zip Code.” The doc focuses on the deadly 1995 Chicago heat wave and the politics and implications of disaster preparedness. Helfand will participate in a Q&A after the screening.

“The reason why I wound up being so interested in the world of disaster preparedness is that you can use an extreme weather event to pull the curtain off something and look at everyday life in a radically different way,” the director has explained. “It enables us to look at something that we want to deny every single day, which is the long-term impact of structural racism and how that leads to extreme poverty and extreme disenfranchisement.”

Helfand’s other credits include “Everything’s Cool,” an exploration of global warming, and “Blue Vinyl,” an investigation into the potentially toxic effects of vinyl which received two Emmy nods.

Also active in the film community, Helfand co-founded non-profits Chicken & Egg Pictures and Working Films. The former supports female documentary filmmakers and the latter champions docs that advance social justice and environmental protection.

Liz Garbus (“Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt & Anderson Cooper”) and Aviva Kempner (“The Spy Behind Home Plate”) are among the past recipients of the Freedom of Expression Award.

The 2019 edition of SFJFF will take place July 18-August 4.