Tia Lessin

Tia Lessin
Tia Lessin
Born	United States
Occupation(s)	Film director, film producer

Tia Lessin is an American documentary filmmaker.^[1] Lessin has produced and directed documentaries, earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary, three Emmy Awards, two primetime Emmy Nominations, the duPont Columbia Award, and the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for Documentary.

She directed the Emmy Award-winning film The Janes, with Emma Pildes, and is the director and producer, with Carl Deal, of Trouble the Water, Citizen Koch, and the forthcoming "Steal This Story Please." She directed Behind the Labels and produced several of Michael Moore's films including Fahrenheit 9/11, Where to Invade Next and Fahrenheit 11/9.

Career

Lessin is producer and director, together with Carl Deal, of the Academy Award-nominated feature documentary Trouble the Water, winner of the Gotham Independent Film Award and the Sundance Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize for best documentary.

She directed the HBO film The Janes with Emma Pildes and won three Emmys in the categories of Best Documentary, Outstanding Social Issue Documentary and Outstanding Direction, Documentary at the 44th News and Documentary Emmy Awards.^[2] The film also won the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award's Silver Baton, which honors outstanding public service audio and video reporting in television, radio and digital journalism.^[3]

Lessin was a co-producer of Michael Moore's Where to Invade Next, Capitalism: A Love Story, Fahrenheit 9/11, winner of the Palme d'Or, and the supervising producer of Academy Award-winning Bowling for Columbine.

Lessin received the Sidney Hillman Prize for Broadcast Journalism for her documentary Behind the Labels. She line produced Martin Scorsese's No Direction Home: Bob Dylan and was consulting producer for his Living in the Material World: George Harrison. She began her career as associate producer of Charles Guggenheim's Oscar-nominated short film Shadows of Hate.

In television, Lessin's work as producer of the series The Awful Truth earned her two Emmy Award nominations and one arrest.^[4]

Lessin is a Sundance Institute Fellow, an Open Society Institute Katrina Media Fellow, a Creative Capital awardee and won the Women of Worth "Vision" Award by L’Oréal Paris and Women in Film.

Awards and recognitions

Winner, Ridenhour Documentary Film Prize (2024)
Winner, Emmy Award, Best Documentary (2023)^[2]
Winner, Emmy Award, Outstanding Social Issue Documentary (2023)^[2]
Winner, Emmy Award, Best Direction, Documentary (2023)^[2]
Nominee, Emmy Award, Best Research, Documentary (2023)
Winner, Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Awards, 2023^[3]
Academy Award nominee, Best Documentary Feature, 2008
Winner, Grand Jury Prize, Sundance Film Festival
Winner, Grand Jury Prize, Full Frame Film Festival
Winner, Gotham Independent Film Award
Nominee, Emmy Award for producer of Outstanding Informational program: long form, 2010
Nominee, Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Research, 2010
Nominee, Producers Guild of America Award, best non fiction producer 2008
Nominee, NAACP Image Award, 2008
Council On Foundations Henry Hampton Award for Excellence In Film And Digital Media, 2009
Harry Chapin Media Award for Film, 2009
Winner, Sidney Hillman Prize for Broadcast Journalism
Women of Worth Vision Award by L'Oréal Paris and Women in Film.^[5]
Nominee, Primetime Emmy Award for producer of Outstanding Non-Fiction Series, 2000–2001
Nominee, Primetime Emmy Award for producer of Outstanding Non-Fiction Series, 1998–1999
Creative Capital grantee
Sundance Institute Fellow
Open Society Institute Katrina Media Fellow

Filmography

Feature films and documentaries

The Janes (2022), director
Fahrenheit 11/9 (2018), executive producer
Where to Invade Next (2016), producer
Citizen Koch (2013), director & producer
Living in the Material World: George Harrison (2011), co-executive producer
Capitalism: A Love Story (2009), co-producer
Trouble the Water (2008), director & producer
No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (2005), line producer
Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004), producer
Bowling for Columbine (2002), supervising producer
Behind the Labels (2002), producer & director
The Big One (1997), coordinating producer
Shadows of Hate (1995), associate producer

Television

The Awful Truth (1999, 2000), producer
TV Nation: Volume One & Two (1997), associate producer

References

^ The New York Times
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "Winners for the Documentary Categories of the 44th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards Announced" (PDF). National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. September 28, 2023. Retrieved October 3, 2024.
^ ^a ^b Thomas, Carly (February 6, 2023). "Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Awards: PBS and CNN Lead With Two Wins Each". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved October 3, 2024.
^ Ericson Jr., Edward (December 23, 1998). "A Disney rap sheet that's for the birds". Orlando Weekly. Orlando, Florida. Retrieved October 3, 2024.
^ "Women of Worth Vision Award". Retrieved October 11, 2009.

External links

[NYT-1] The New York Times

[Emmy-2] "Winners for the Documentary Categories of the 44th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards Announced" (PDF). National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. September 28, 2023. Retrieved October 3, 2024.

[DuPont-3] Thomas, Carly (February 6, 2023). "Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Awards: PBS and CNN Lead With Two Wins Each". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved October 3, 2024.

[arrest-4] Ericson Jr., Edward (December 23, 1998). "A Disney rap sheet that's for the birds". Orlando Weekly. Orlando, Florida. Retrieved October 3, 2024.

[5] "Women of Worth Vision Award". Retrieved October 11, 2009.

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