Lisa Leeman

Lisa Leeman believes that strong narrative and character-driven films can change the world, one story at a time. She has produced, directed, written & edited award-winning feature & short documentaries for the last thirty years. Her work mainly focuses on two areas – faith and spirituality, and what she calls ‘sideways social-issue films – intimate character-driven stories that illuminate contemporary social issues by how they directly affect people’s lives.
Leeman is currently in post-production on a follow-up to her groundbreaking first film, METAMORPHOSIS, which won Sundance’s Filmmaker’s Trophy in 1990 Sundance & garnered top broadcast ratings on POV/PBS. In the new film, WALK BY ME, Lisa and animation artist Gabi P. reconnect twenty-five years after Leeman profiled Payn’s gender transition in METAMORPHOSIS. Now middle-aged, the two artists rekindle a lapsed friendship as they reckon with the past and face uncertain futures. Filmed over five years as Gabi navigates a series of crossroads in her sixties, WALK BY ME weaves past and present to explore aging, art and resiliency, faith, filmmaking, friendship, and the blurred boundaries in documentary filmmaking.

Roger Ebert named Leeman’s ONE LUCKY ELEPHANT as one of the best documentaries of 2011. Other producing & directing credits include AWAKE; CRAZY WISDOM; OUT OF FAITH; and WHO NEEDS SLEEP (with Haskell Wexler).
Lisa believes biography is a powerful way to cinematically explore spirituality. She co-wrote/directed/produced the award-winning feature documentary AWAKE which screened in U.S. theaters for 48 weeks, and in 17 countries. AWAKE is one of only 17 films directed by women in the 250 top-grossing films of 2014. Leeman produced CRAZY WISDOM, a portrait of the renowned Tibetan meditation master, Chogyam Trungpa, and is currently developing a narrative non-fiction series on the history of yoga and Vedanta in the United States, inspired by the books American Veda and The Subtle Body.
Lisa produced and directed a series of #MeToo PSAs with an all-women crew of faculty and students at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, where she is a full professor. Interview with Lisa here. Lisa has edited award-winning documentaries for the acclaimed filmmakers Stanley Nelson; Renee Tajima-Pena; Michele Ohayon; Micha Peled; Lourdes Portillo.
Leeman is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, WGA West, Documentary Producers Alliance, and Alliance of Women Directors. She has served as a judge at the Sundance Film Festival and as the president of the International Documentary Association. Her work has been supported by Sundance, ITVS, Catapult Film Fund, California Humanities Council, the Producers Guild, the American Film Institute, and has screened in theaters, festivals, and broadcasts around the world, including IDFA, PBS, HBO, ARTE, Channel 4. Lisa has taught master classes on documentary filmmaking in Azerbaijan, China, Jordan, Malawi, Portugal, the Republic of Georgia and the West Bank.

Lisa Leeman is an award-winning filmmaker best known for her social-issue documentaries that are driven by powerful character-driven narratives.
Her directorial debut, METAMORPHOSIS: MAN INTO WOMAN, follows a transgender animation artist’s transition. The film is thought to be the first American film to chronicle a gender transition and was awarded Sundance’s Filmmakers Trophy (1990).
Leeman is currently working on the sequel, which follows the artist at a new crossroads, twenty-five years after the release of METAMORPHOSIS. Some of Leeman’s other film credits include the feature documentary AWAKE, about the influential Indian swami Paramahansa Yogananda (which has screened theatrically in 17 countries and is one of only 17 films directed by women in the 250 top-grossing films of 2014), and ONE LUCKY ELEPHANT, the story of a circus producer doing right by his “star” elephant and retiring her, named by Roger Ebert as one of the best documentaries of 2011, and was broadcast on OWN as part of Oprah Winfrey’s Documentary of the Month Club, and selected for the US State Department’s American Film Showcase.
Leeman’s work has been seen on PBS, HBO, Discovery, ARTE, and in theaters and festivals worldwide. She is a frequent juror, moderator, and panelist at documentary and independent filmmaking events. In addition, she is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), and has served as a judge at the Sundance Film Festival, president of the International Documentary Association, and on the boards of the IDA and the National Coalition of Independent Public Broadcasting Producers.

Lisa Leeman is a documentary professor in the faculty of University of South California - School of Cinematic Arts, and has been a visiting professor in Beijing, China; Amman, Jordan; and Lisbon, Portugal.

She also writes, directs, produces, and edits documentary films, such as the award-winning One Lucky Elephant (Best Editing, Feature Documentary, at the Woodstock Film Festival in 2010).

Lisa’s first film, Metamorphosis: Man Into Woman, won the Filmmakers Trophy upon its premiere at Sundance (1990). It screened in festivals around the world, and has aired in over a dozen countries. Her documentary feature Out of Faith has screened in over twenty festivals internationally. Lisa also co-directed and edited Who Needs Sleep, with renowned cinematographer and director Haskell Wexler.

She produced the feature doc Crazy Wisdom: The Life & Times of Chogyam Trunga by director Johanna Demetrakas, premiered at the Santa Barbara Film Festival in 2011. Lisa also co-wrote and edited the acclaimed Made in LA (Silverdocs 2007; Los Angeles Film Festival 2007; POV/PBS 2007).

In addition to producing and directing, Lisa has served as a judge at the Sundance Film Festival, as president of the International Documentary Association, and on the boards of the IDA and the National Coalition of Independent Public Broadcasting Producers. Lisa writes articles about the international documentary scene, and on the ethics of documentary filmmaking.

Honours include the once-in-a-lifetime American Film Institute’s Independent Filmmaker Grant, the Western States Media Arts Fellowship, and the ITVS/PMN Station-Independent Partnership Program Grant, as well as numerous awards her films have received.