The Jewish Film Institute (JFI) will present Liz Garbus with the 2018 Freedom of Expression Award. The Academy Award-nominated documentarian is set to accept the prize at the 38th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (SFJFF). The award is given to those with an “unfettered imagination, which is the cornerstone of a free, just, and open society,” a press release for the fest details.
Garbus’ latest project, “The Fourth Estate,” will screen at the festival as a film. The in-depth look into The New York Times during Trump’s first year in office has also been edited as a four-part series for Showtime. The show’s run concluded on Sunday.
“We are honored to present this year’s Freedom of Expression Award to Liz Garbus,” said JFI’s Program Director, Jay Rosenblatt. “Over a long and storied career, Liz has shown herself to be as talented in documenting life in a notorious prison [‘The Farm: Angola, USA’] as in reintroducing audiences to the voice of one of our greatest cultural treasures [‘What Happened, Miss Simone?’]. With her riveting new project ‘The Fourth Estate,’ Liz Garbus has crafted an essential viewing experience for the tumultuous times our nation finds itself in.”
Garbus’ docs “Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech” and “Bobby Fischer Against the World,” screened at SFJFF in 2009 and 2011, respectively. Her other credits include “Love, Marilyn” and “Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt & Anderson Cooper.” She received Oscar nods for “Miss Simone” and “The Farm,” and won Emmys for the former and “Ghosts of Abu Ghraib.”
Up next for the prolific director is an HBO docuseries adaptation of Michelle McNamara’s best-selling book “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer.” The true-crime story delves into the case of a serial rapist and murderer who terrorized California in the ’70s and ’80s. Garbus is also attached to helm “Lost Girls,” a mystery thriller that sees a mother searching for her missing daughter and uncovering a series of murders along the way. The film is based on Robert Kolker’s 2013 book, “Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery.”
Also screening at SFJFF this year is “Love, Gilda,” Lisa Dapolito’s look at the life and career of comedy legend Gilda Radner. The doc will serve as the fest’s Opening Night film. SFJFF will feature “The Waldheim Waltz” — Ruth Beckermann’s account of Kurt Josef Waldheim, a former UN Secretary General who was also part of the Nazi regime in WWII — and a film series and panel entitled “Hands On/Hands Off: Anatomy of a Feminist Film Movement.”
The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival runs July 19-August 5. Check out the fest’s website for tickets and more information.
