Judith Helfand

Producer, AFF Documentary Pitch Program

Peabody award winning filmmaker Judith Helfand is best known for her open- hearted, artfully self-deprecating and very transparent approach to non-fiction filmmaking. The resulting body of work , includes: A HEALTHY BABY GIRL (‘Sundance/PBS POV 97), BLUE VINYL (Sundance/HBO 2002), COOKED: SURVIVAL BY ZIP CODE ( DOC NYC 2018/PBS Independent Lens 2019-20) and LOVE & STUFF the feature (Hot Docs 2020 PBS/POV 2022)

As much a filmmaker as she is a committed field-builder, Helfand co-founded two field-changing non-fiction organizations, Working Films in 1999 and Chicken & Egg Pictures in 2005. Over the last five years, she has produced, designed and moderated a range of intensive pitch training/storytelling workshops including, Chicken & Egg Pictures’ live Sheffield Pitch for emerging makers, a pitch program at DC’s DOUBLE TAKE film festival for just graduated/poised to graduate visual journalists from J’s schools with their capstone projects, “Pitch and Kvell” for The Jewish Film Institute, a pitch for interactive/immersive storytellers for The March on Washington Film Festival and for the past seven years with The Athena Film Festival’s Doc Pitch Program.