Liz Garbus


Elizabeth Freya Garbus is an American documentary film director and producer. Notable documentaries Garbus has made are , Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, Bobby Fischer Against the World, Love, Marilyn, and What Happened, Miss Simone?

Early life and education

Garbus grew up in New York City. She is the daughter of civil rights attorney Martin Garbus and writer, therapist, and social worker Ruth Meitin Garbus. Her family is Jewish.
In 1992, Garbus graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in history and semiotics from Brown University.

Career

While in high school, Garbus made a documentary about students' last day of school. Then while at Brown she took classes in video production.
After college, Garbus worked as an intern at Miramax, eventually getting a job working for filmmaker Jonathan Stack.
In 1998, ', which she co-directed with Jonathan Stack, was nominated for an Academy Award. The film garnered multiple awards including the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and two Emmy awards.
In 1998, she co-founded an independent documentary production company, Moxie Firecracker Films, with fellow Brown University alumni Rory Kennedy. The company name is a combination of each woman's previously separate production companies: Kennedy’s company was called Moxie and Garbus’ company was called Firecracker.
In 2002, Garbus' film The Execution of Wanda Jean was shown at the Sundance Film Festival.
In 2003, Garbus directed The Nazi Officer's Wife, which was narrated by Susan Sarandon and Julia Ormond.
In 2005, Garbus collaborated with partner Rory Kennedy to executive-produce Street Fight about the 2002 Newark mayoral election; it was nominated for an Academy Award.
In 2006, the pair worked with actress Rosie Perez to produce her film Yo Soy Boricua.
In 2007, Garbus' film Ghosts of Abu Ghraib premiered at Sundance and won an Emmy for Outstanding Non-Fiction Special of 2007.
In 2007, Garbus directed the film Coma, which aired on HBO in July of that year. The film follows four brain-injured patients receiving treatment at the JFK-Johnson Medical Facility in New Jersey.
In 2009, Garbus’s film, ' premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
In 2011, There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane was chosen to be a part of HBO’s Documentary Films Summer Series.
In 2011, Garbus directed Bobby Fischer Against the World, which chronicled the great Cold War showdown between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky in 1972. The film premiered on HBO and opened the Premiere Documentary Section of the Sundance Film Festival.
Bobby Fischer Against the World, opened the documentary section of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, reserved for master American documentary filmmakers.
In 2011, Garbus was nominated a second time for an Academy Award, for her film Killing in the Name, which she produced with her producing partner Rory Kennedy.
Garbus' 2012 film, Love, Marilyn featured Elizabeth Banks, Ellen Burstyn, Glenn Close, Viola Davis, Jennifer Ehle, Lindsay Lohan, Lili Taylor, Uma Thurman, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood and others reading from Monroe’s never-before-seen private writings. The film opened as a Gala Premiere at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival and was acquired by HBO for a 2013 debut.
Love, Marilyn, internationally opened as a Gala Premiere at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival and aired on HBO summer of 2013.
In 2014, A Good Job: Stories of the FDNY, which Garbus directed and produced, premiered on HBO and featured first-hand accounts of veteran firefighters and interviews conducted by former FDNY member Steve Buscemi.
In 2015, she directed What Happened, Miss Simone? a documentary about the singer Nina Simone. What Happened, Miss Simone? was the opening night film for Sundance Film Festival, it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature 2015, a Grammy for Best Music Film 2015, and Garbus was nominated for a DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary. The film was released by Netflix on June 26, 2015. It won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary.
In January 2018, The New York Times announced that Garbus and a documentary crew have been "basically living in the @nytimes newsroom since Inauguration Day full access to the Russia investigation and much more." The completed work called The Fourth Estate airs on Showtime May 2018.
In May 2018, HBO premiered Garbus' documentary, A Dangerous Son, which portrays three families as they deal with the severe mental illness of three different children, and efforts to get treatment and navigate the health care system. Garbus' subject and editing, focuses on: abandoned; alienated, and / or; rejected children; who then 'turn in on themselves'; become overly-mature, partly to become child prodigies, so as to 'become their own parents', exhibit narcissistic aspects and struggle with socialisation, similar to a ''.

Personal life

Garbus is married to film producer Dan Cogan. They have a daughter and a son.

Selected honors and awards

Works and publications

*