Heidi Ewing
{{short description|American documentary filmmaker}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2021}}
{{BLP sources|date=June 2010}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Heidi Ewing
| image = Heidi Ewing at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival 01.jpg
| caption = Ewing at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival
| death_date =
| death_place =
| known_for = Observational filmmaking.
| occupation = Filmmaker
}}
Heidi Ewing is an American documentary filmmaker and the co-director of Jesus Camp, The Boys of Baraka, 12th & Delaware, DETROPIA, Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You, One of Us, Love Fraud (series), I Carry You With Me (narrative) and Endangered.
Biography
Ewing is a native of the Detroit area. She was introduced to film by her father who encouraged her and her siblings to watch Fellini films at a young age. But it was her exposure to Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo" at the age of ten that had the greatest impact. "It blew my mind into thousands of pieces, and I couldn't stop going back to see it over and over again," she says. "I didn't know something could be so potent."{{Cite web |last=Graham |first=Adam |title=Metro Detroiter Heidi Ewing mixes styles with 'I Carry You With Me' |url=https://www.detroitnews.com/story/entertainment/movies/2021/07/02/metro-detroiter-heidi-ewing-mixes-styles-i-carry-you-me/7819102002/ |access-date=2023-01-30 |website=The Detroit News |language=en-US}}
Ewing graduated of Mercy High School{{cite web |title=September 2012 | Mercy High School |url=http://mhsmi.org/life_at_mercy/parent_newsletter/2012/september |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130415115552/http://mhsmi.org/life_at_mercy/parent_newsletter/2012/september |archive-date=April 15, 2013 |access-date=December 31, 2012}} and then attended and graduated from the Georgetown University.{{Cite web |title=SPOTLIGHT July, 2021: Heidi Ewing on Nonfiction, Partnership and I CARRY YOU WITH ME – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS |url=https://awfj.org/blog/2021/07/04/spotlight-july-2021-heidi-ewing-on-nonfiction-partnership-and-i-carry-you-with-me/ |access-date=2023-01-30 |language=en-US}}
In 2001 she and Rachel Grady founded Loki Films in New York.{{Cite web |title=Loki Films |url=https://lokifilms.com/ |access-date=2023-01-30 |language=en-US}}
Her first film as a director was the short "Dissident: Oswaldo Paya and The Varela Project," a short film financed by the National Democratic Institute {{Cite web |last=jbowen |date=2008-07-14 |title=Dissident: Oswaldo Payá and the Varela Project |url=https://www.ndi.org/payadocumentary |access-date=2023-01-30 |website=www.ndi.org |language=en}} about the now deceased activist and his efforts to push for human rights in Cuba.
Her first feature-length documentary, "The Boys of Baraka," was co-directed with Rachel Grady. The film, made with ITVS, premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival and was release theatrically by ThinkFilm before airing on PBS.{{Cite web |last=POV |date=2006-01-23 |title=Film Description {{!}} The Boys of Baraka {{!}} POV {{!}} PBS |url=http://archive.pov.org/boysofbaraka/film-description |access-date=2023-01-30 |website=POV {{!}} American Documentary Inc. |language=en-US}} The film follows a group of 12-year-old boys from Baltimore who leave home for an experimental middle school in rural Kenya.{{Cite web |last=Ebert |first=Roger |title=The Boys of Baraka movie review (2006) {{!}} Roger Ebert |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-boys-of-baraka-2006 |access-date=2023-01-30 |website=www.rogerebert.com/ |language=en}}
In 2006 she and Grady released "Jesus Camp," which premiered at The Tribeca Film Festival and was released by Magnolia Pictures.{{Cite news |last=Holden |first=Stephen |date=2006-09-22 |title=Children's Boot Camp for the Culture Wars |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/22/movies/childrens-boot-camp-for-the-culture-wars.html |access-date=2023-01-30 |issn=0362-4331}} The film was nominated for the 2006 Academy Award.{{Citation |title=Jesus Camp (2006) - IMDb |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0486358/awards/ |language=en |access-date=2023-01-30}}
In 2011 she returned to her native Detroit to make "DETROPIA," an impressionistic documentary that focuses on the challenges of a shrinking city and those who refuse to give up on it.{{Cite web |title=Detropia {{!}} Reinventing Detroit {{!}} Independent Lens |url=https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/documentaries/detropia/ |access-date=2023-01-30 |website=Independent Lens |language=en-US}} The film premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and won the editing award {{Cite web |date=2012-01-29 |title=2012 Sundance Film Festival Announces Awards - sundance.org |url=https://www.sundance.org/blogs/news/2012-sundance-film-festival-awards/ |access-date=2023-01-30 |language=en-US}}
In 2017 she co-directed Netflix Original film, "One of Us," which follows three Hasidic Jews who attempt to leave the insular community and pursue a secular life. The film premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. Ewing appeared on Charlie Rose in October 2017 to discuss the film and said that Hasidic Jews died disproportionally in the Holocaust because they "refused to blend in". She later apologized.{{cite web |title=Director apologizes for Holocaust statement about Hasidic Jews |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/director-apologizes-for-holocaust-statement-about-hasidic-jews/ |agency=JTA |website=The Times of Israel |access-date=January 2, 2019 |date=October 24, 2017}}
Ewing made her narrative debut in 2020 with "I Carry You With Me," a love story based on her two close friends, Ivan and Gerardo, who had emigrated to the United States from a conservative town in Mexico. The film began as a documentary, but over the course of the process Ewing realized it was best presented as a narrative film with non-fiction elements woven through.{{Cite web |last=Aguilar |first=Carlos |date=2021-06-25 |title=How a story of love, loss and cooking became the immigration tale 'I Carry You With Me' |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2021-06-25/the-story-behind-i-carry-you-with-me |access-date=2023-01-30 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}} The film made its world premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival where it won the jury and audiences awards in the festival's NEXT section. The film was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards and was released by Sony Pictures Classics in 2021.
Ewing recently co-directed "Endangered," a film for HBO on the silencing of journalists around the world.
Filmography
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb name|1823216}}
- {{cite web|title=2012 Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady: Detropia|url=http://www.sundance.org/video/meet-the-artists-12-heidi-ewing-and-rachel-grady/|publisher=Sundance|access-date=March 22, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130725103611/http://www.sundance.org/video/meet-the-artists-12-heidi-ewing-and-rachel-grady/|archive-date=July 25, 2013|url-status=dead}}
- {{cite web|title=Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady on their Documentary 'Detropia'|url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/video/heidi-ewing-rachel-grady-documentary-365118|work=August 22, 2012|date=August 22, 2012 |publisher=Holly Reporter|access-date=March 22, 2013}}
- {{C-SPAN|67940}}
- [http://www.c-span.org/video/?308719-1/qa-heidi-ewing C-SPAN Q&A interview with Heidi Ewing, October 28, 2012]
{{Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ewing, Heidi}}
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:People from Farmington Hills, Michigan
Category:American documentary filmmakers
Category:Walsh School of Foreign Service alumni
Category:Film directors from Michigan