DIRECTORS

Lisa Leeman has been directing and producing award-winning feature documentaries for thirty-five years. Her cinematic portraits, shot over many years, illuminate contemporary social issues through intimate character-driven stories that follow people at critical turning points in their lives. A 2024 MacDowell Fellow and a 2025 Bogliasco Fellow, she is writing and editing Walk by Me, a portrait of an evangelical transgender artist’s life over thirty-five years, a follow-up to her groundbreaking film, Metamorphosis (Sundance Filmmakers Trophy; POV/PBS, 1990). Filmed over nine years, Walk by Me weaves past and present to explore aging and friendship, art and resiliency, faith and gender -- and the blurred boundaries in documentary filmmaking.  Roger Ebert cited Leeman’s One Lucky as one of the best documentaries of 2011. Other acclaimed films include Out of Faith, Who Needs Sleep (with Haskell Wexler), Awake, and Crazy Wisdom.  Lisa has also edited award-winning documentaries for the celebrated filmmakers Stanley Nelson; Renee Tajima-Pena; Michele Ohayon; Micha Peled; Lourdes Portillo. A member of the Motion Picture Academy and a professor at University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, Lisa teaches documentary filmmaking and cinematic ethics. She writes articles about the ethics of documentary filmmaking and co-chairs the DPA Ethics subcommittee. Her films have been supported by the Sundance Documentary Program, Catapult Film Fund, the Producers Guild, American Film Institute, National Endowment for the Arts, and California Humanities Council.