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AWARDS AND DISTINCTIONS

​​​​​Artist-in-Residencies: Headland Center for Contemporary Arts, Shack15, American Jewish History Museum

 

Awards:

My Hero Media Award -2024

 

The Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Intellectual Activity -2022

 

Marshall McLuhan Outstanding Book Award Winner for 24/6 - 2020

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Facing History and Ourselves Facing History Upstander for Community 2018

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Marin Women’s Commission Certificate of Recognition for Work in Gender Parity 2019

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Genius100 Inclusion in The Albert Einstein Foundation book Genius100. 2017

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The Future Starts Here - Two Seasons 2013 to 2014

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  • Nominated for an Emmy Award (New Approaches: Arts, Culture, Lifestyle 2014)

  • 2015: Best of Fest – The My Hero Project Film Festival

  • 2015: Relationships First Award – The My Hero Project Film Festival

  • 2015: Best Documentary / Comedy US – Webfest Montréal

  • 2015: Best Non-Fiction – Rome Web Awards

  • 2015: Best Editing – Rome Web Awards

  • 2015: Media Partner Award – WAU (Best Innovative Creation) – Rome Web Awards

  • 2015: Outstanding Host – LA Web Fest

  • 2015: Outstanding Editing – LA Web Fest

  • 2015: Outstanding Sound Design – LA Web Fest

  • 2014: Best Educational Film- Robot Film Festival (Why We Love Robots)

  • 2013: Nominee Best Original Non-Scripted Video Show/Series- Digiday Video Awards

Connected: An Autoblogography about Love, Death & Technology (2011)


Connected has played at over 70 top film festivals including: Sundance Film Festival, Cannes MIPdoc, Nashville Film Festival, Jerusalem International Film Festival, Ashland Independent Film Festival, and Rio de Janeiro Film Festival.

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  • 2013: Best Documentary Film – Mumbai Women’s Int’l Film Festival, India

  • 2013: Best Feature – The Big Easy Film and Music Festival

  • 2012: Disruptive Innovation Award – The Tribeca Film Festival

  • 2012: Selected by the US State Department's American Film Showcase 

  • 2012: Best Documentary Feature – Atlanta Int’l Film Festival

  • 2012: Best in Show- LA Movie Awards

  • 2012: Best Director- LA Movie Awards

  • 2012: Best Visual Effects- LA Movie Awards

  • 2012: 1st Place Feature Documentary- LA Movie Awards

  • 2012: Award of Excellence from the Accolade Competition

  • 2011: Women in Film Award – All Roads Grant National Geographic

  • 2011: Interdependence Film Prize – Berlin Film Festival & The Interdependence Movement

  • 2011: Audience Award for Best Documentary – Maui Film Festival

  • 2011: Metta Media Award – Dallas Video Fest

  • 2011: Best Feature Documentary – Portland Maine Film Festival

  • 2011: Honorable Mention – Jerusalem Int’l Film Festival

  • 2011: World Premiere Sundance Film Festival documentary competition

  • Included in the Sundance Collection at UCLA

  • Script selected to be part of the core collection at the Library of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences

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The Science of Character (2014)

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  • 2014: Selected by the U.S. State Department for the 2014 American Film Showcase

  • 2014: Best Educational Film from My HERO Film Festival

The Making of a Mensch: Global Insights Award from The Black Maria Film Festival

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Brain Power: From Neurons to Networks (2013)

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  • 2013: Selected by the U.S. State Department for the 2013 American Film Showcase

  • 2013: 1st Place in “Animated” Film from MY HERO Film Festival

  • 2013: The Best Short Educational Film from The Int’l Family Film Festival

  • 2013: The Best Documentary award at The West Chester Film Festival

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A Declaration of Interdependence (2011)

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  • 2013: 1st Place in “Experimental” Film from MY HERO Film Festival

  • 2012: Nominated for Best Chronicle, Best Music and Best Editing- Maverick Movie Awards

  • 2012: Selected by the National Gallery of Art screening – Black Maria Film Festival

  • 2012: Director’s Choice – Black Maria Film Festival

  • 2012: Award of Merit- Best Shorts Competition

  • Translated into 65 different languages

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Yelp:With Apologies to Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl (2011)
 

  • 2012: Juror’s Citation – Black Maria Film Festival

  • 2012: Award of Excellence – Best Shorts Competition

  • 2011: Best Performance (Peter Coyote-Narrator) – Maverick Movie Awards

  • 2011: Nominated for Ovation TV Short Film Contest Finalist

  • 2011: Airing on Outside TV starting November 2011 in Telluride, CO

  • 2011: World Premiere Sundance Film Festival

  • 2010: Guggenheim Museum/Youtube Video Biennial  

  • Included in The Journal of Short Films Volume 26

  • Included in the Sundance Collection at UCLA

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The Tribe (2006)

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The Tribe has played at over 100 film festivals including: Sundance Film Festival, Rotterdam International Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, Cleveland International Film Festival, and Warsaw.

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  • 2011: Selected as one of the retrospective films to stream in the Tribeca Online Film Festival

  • 2010: Ovation Award for Best Documentary – LACMA screening in LA

  • 2008: Best Documentary Short – Cleveland Int’l Film Festival

  • 2008: Third Prize – Brothers Festival of Shorts

  • 2008: Best Documentary – Westchester Film Festival

  • 2007: First Documentary to be #1 on iTunes

  • 2007: Grand Jury Prize for Best Short Doc – Florida Film Festival

  • 2007: Best Documentary – New York Shorts Fest

  • 2007: Best Documentary Short – Golden Star Awards

  • 2007: Best Short Documentary: Warsaw Jewish Film Festival

  • 2007: Best Contemporary Jewish Film: Warsaw International Film Festival of Jewish Motifs

  • 2007: Best Documentary: LA Shorts Fest

  • 2007: Best Int’l Jewish Topics – Argentina Int’l Jewish Film Festival

  • 2007: Pioneer Award – Warsaw Film Festival

  • 2006: Indiewire’s Sundance Critics’ Choice Award

  • 2006: Best Short Documentary – Nashville Film Festival

  • 2006: Directors Choice Award – Black Maria Film Festival

  • 2006: Audience Award – Ann Arbor Film Festival

  • 2006: Best Historical Documentary – San Francisco Women’s Film Festival

Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness (2003)

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Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness played at 20 film festivals including: Sundance Film Festival, Rotterdam International Film Festival, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, Cleveland International Film Festival and Nashville Film Festival.

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  • 2004: Inclusion in the Sundance Collection at UCLA

  • 2003: Best Documentary Short – Moab Film Festival

  • 2003: Juror’s Citation – Black Maria Film Festival

  • 2003: Finalist in National Short Film & Video Competition – USA Film Festival

  • 2003: Affiliate Award for Excellence from Planned Parenthood Federation

  • 2003: Nominated for Golden Gate Award – San Francisco Int’l Film Festival

  • 2003: Honorable Mention in Best Women’s Short Category – Cleveland Int’l Film Festival

Earlier Films:

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  • 1992: Best Experimental Film – Hunter & Pandora – Cinequest Film Festival

  • 1992: Eisner Award, Highest Award in Art by the Chancellor’s Committee – UCBerkeley

Design:

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  • 2001: HOW International Design Award for Webby Awards Invitation

  • 1999: American Graphic Design Award for Webby Awards Invitation

Leadership:

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  • 2022: The Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Intellectual Activity

  • 2017: Inclusion in The Albert Einstein Foundation book Genius100.

  • 2017: US State Department Film Expert for The American Film Showcase

  • 2017: Keynote Commencement Speaker: San Jose State Art Department

  • 2012-2016: American Film Showcase filmmaker for the past 3 years

  • 2013: Disruptive Innovation Award from The Tribeca Film Festival

  • 2007: Present: Henry Crown Fellow of The Aspen Institute

  • 2011: Nominated for Women of Vision Award – L’Oreal/Entertainment Weekly/Sundance

  • 2010: Named one of Newsweek’s “Women Shaping the 21st Century”

  • 2010: Keynote Commencement Address at UCBerkeley

  • Recipient: Creating Socially Responsible Films by Partners Ending Domestic Abuse

  • Recipient: The Victoria Award for Ethical Leadership – The Woodhull Institute

  • Recipient: Activist Award on behalf of Women’s Rights – Ritz Carlton from Planned Parenthood

  • Recipient: Shining Star Award – American Women in Radio in Television

  • 1992: Valedictorian Speaker – Interdisciplinary Department UCBerkeley

  • 1988: Student Ambassador in the People to People program – traveled to the USSR

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Special Screenings:

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  • 2020: Live Spoken Cinema Performance of Dear Human at The Museum of Modern Art in New York

  • 2017: 50/50 at LucasFilms in SF for 50/50 Day, The National Museum of Women in the Arts in DC and the Leonardo Da Vinci Museum in Salt Lake City.

  • 2016: The Science of Character, The Adaptable Mind & The Making of a Mensch screened online and at over 93,00 schools and organizations around the world for our first ever Global Cloud Film Premiere

  • 2014: Brain Power screened in Tel Aviv, Israel as part of The American Film Showcase

  • 2013: Special San Francisco screening of the full series, The Future Starts Here at the new Exploratorium Theater

  • 2013: Launched The Future Starts Here AOL original series in New York City

  • 2013: Premiered Brain Power the film and TED Book simultaneously at The California Academy of Sciences Nightlife

  • 2012: Screening Connected in South Africa as part of The American Film Showcase

  • 2012: "Connected" had a theatrical release and screened in 11 cities around the US

  • 2011: Premiered A Declaration of Interdependence at Ground Zero on the 10 year anniversary of 9/11

  • 2011: Both Connected and Yelp: With Apologies to Allen Ginsberg’s Howl premiered at Sundance

  • 2005: "The Tribe" at the Herbst Theater in SF

  • 2004: “Film Feasts” – award winning shorts screening Ohio

  • 2004: The Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences

  • 2004: Berkeley Rep. Theater Berkeley, California

  • 2004: Parkway Theater, Oakland

  • 2004: IFP Los Angeles

  • 2004: Laemmle Theaters in Los Angeles – Political Documentary Run

  • 2004: Reproductive Rights March in DC

  • 2004: Inclusion in “Best of Film Festival Shorts DVD”

  • 2003: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, SF200

  • 2003: Pacific Film Archive at UCBerkeley

  • 2003: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, SF Ten Year Anniversary

  • 2003: Museum of Fine Arts

  • 2003: Queen’s Bench – San Francisco Women’s Lawyers

  • 2002: Planned Parenthood Golden Gate Gala (600 attendees)

  • 2002: Headland Center for the Arts – Machine Time

  • 2002: NYU Film School Director’s Series

  • 2001: San Francisco Opera House – Natural Connection

  • 2000: San Francisco Masonic Theater – Machine Time

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