Abby Ginzberg

Abby Ginzberg is an independent documentary film director and producer and founder of Ginzberg Productions. For the past 30 years, Ginzberg has been creating films that tackle discrimination and the legal profession.

Career
She graduated from UC Hastings College of the Law in 1975, and taught at Boalt Hall School of Law from 1975 to 1976, and at New College School of Law from 1981 to 1985.

In 2005, Ginzberg released the documentary Soul of Justice: Thelton Henderson’s American Journey, which profiled federal district judge Thelton Henderson. Another film, A Tale of Two Cities, discusses the difficulty of forming high-school education for disadvantaged juvenile youths. Her film, Doing Justice: The Life and Trials of Arthur Kinoy, won a number of awards.

She also directed the Peabody award-winning film, Soft Vengeance: Albie Sachs and the New South Africa. The documentary, which was supported by the Ford Foundation, chronicled the life of anti-apartheid freedom fighter and former Constitutional Court judge Albie Sachs, who lost an arm and an eye in an attack by the South African security services in Mozambique in 1988.

In 2015, Ginzberg collaborated with filmmaker Frank Dawson on Agents of Change, a documentary that profiles the black student movement on college campuses in the late 1960’s that led to the creation of Ethnic studies departments at San Francisco State University and Cornell University.

Ginzberg is a member of Film Fatales women directors of independent film.

Select awards

 * NAACP Image Award for Best Documentary (2022); Best Director, Harlem International Film Festival, Best Documentary, American Film Festival (Poland), Barbara Lee:Speaking Truth to Power
 * Peabody Award, Soft Vengeance: Albie Sachs and the New South Africa (2014)
 * Silver Gavel Award for Media and The Arts, 2006, ''Soul of Justice: Thelton Henderson's American Journey (2006)
 * CINE Golden Eagle Soul of Justice: Thelton Henderson's American Journey (2006)

Filmography
Everyday Heroes (Documentary, 2001) Director & Producer

Soul of Justice: Thelton Henderson's American Journey (Documentary, 2005) Director & Producer

Cruz Reynoso: Sowing the Seeds of Justice (2010) Director & Producer

The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement (Documentary short, 2011) Consulting Producer

Soft Vengeance: Albie Sachs and the New South Africa (Documentary, 2014) Director & Producer

Agents of Change (Documentary, 2016) Co-Director & Co-Producer

And Then They Came for Us (Documentary, 2017) Co-Director & Producer

Waging Change(Documentary,2019) Director and Producer

'’ Barbara Lee:Speaking Truth to Power”(Documentary, 2020) Director & Producer

American Justice on Trial (Documentary short, 2022) Co-Producer