Rebecca Cammisa (born 9 July 1966) is an American documentary filmmaker two-times Oscar nominated,

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

award winner, and founder of Documentress Films. Her first film ''

Sister Helen A sister is a woman or a girl who shares one or more parents with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to ...

'' (2002), aired on

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

, won the 2002

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

’s Documentary Directing Award. Sister Helen also received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Cultural and Artistic Programming and an Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary Film Award nomination by the

Directors Guild of America The Directors Guild of America (DGA) is an entertainment guild that represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry and abroad. Founded as the Screen Directors Guild in 1936, the group merge ...

. The documentary won the Gold Hugo Award for best documentary film at the

Chicago International Film Festival The Chicago International Film Festival is an annual film festival held every fall. Founded in 1964 by Michael Kutza, it is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America. Its logo is a stark, black and white close up of the comp ...

, the Jury Prize for best documentary film at the

Newport Film Festival Newport International Film Festival was an annual film festival in Newport, Rhode Island, established in 1998. The Newport Film Festival was generally held the first week in June and featured various international films at several local cinemas. ...

, the Best Documentary Film Award at the Nashville Film Festival;, the Freddie Award for outstanding performing by the International Health & Medical Media Awards and a Grand Marnier Foundation film grant. In addition, in 2006 the Museum of Modern Art Film Library acquired Sister Helen for its permanent collection. Rebecca teamed up with Mr.Mudd Productions to create "

Which Way Home ''Which Way Home'' is a 2009 documentary film directed by Rebecca Cammisa. The film follows several children who are attempting to get from Mexico and Central America to the United States, on top of a freight train that crosses Mexico known as " ...

" which had its world premiere at the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...

and its European premiere at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, both in 2009. The Traverse City Film Festival awarded ''Which Way Home'' its Special Jury Prize for

Human Rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

. When it aired in August of that year on HBO's Documentary Summer series, it reached over 3.5 million viewers. In 2010 ''Which Way Home'' won a News & Documentary Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational Programming and received four more nominations in the News & Documentary category. It was also nominated for a 2010 Oscar and to Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary. Cammisa was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship for Filmmaking, and in 2011, she directed and produced the HBO documentary ''

God Is the Bigger Elvis ''God Is the Bigger Elvis'' is a 2011 documentary film about actress Dolores Hart, who abandoned her successful career at the age of 24 to become a Benedictine nun. The film was nominated for the 2012 Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Sub ...

'', which received an Oscar

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

nomination for Best Documentary Short Subject on January 24, 2012. Her 2017 Documentary "

Atomic Homefront ''Atomic Homefront'' is a 2017 documentary film about the effects of radioactive waste stored in West Lake Landfill in St. Louis County, Missouri St. Louis County is located in the eastern-central portion of Missouri. It is bounded by the Cit ...

" won the 2019 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for Domestic Television and the 2019 Impact Docs Award for Best Documentary Film and premiered at AFI Docs Film Festival.

References

External links

* American filmmakers Living people Place of birth missing (living people) 1966 births {{US-film-bio-stub