Bio

Judy Lieff is a filmmaker, educator, and co-owner of New Day Films - a filmmaker-run distribution company providing social issue documetaries to educators since 1971. Her first feature documentary, Deaf Jam, premiered on the PBS series Independent Lens and has been featured at major festivals worldwide. Judy is on faculty at SUNY Purchase teaching the intersections of film and choreography, and also at Montclair State University teaching transmedia and documentary film. Judy earned her M.F.A. in interdisciplinary studies from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), following a career as a professional dancer. Her credits include: envoy for the American Film Showcase; Dance On Camera residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts; National Dance/Media fellowship from the Pew Charitable Trusts; multiple grants for media projects with youth; years of experience working in production and post-production on commercials, industrials, shorts, and EPKs for feature films. Judy has documented dance and other performance events in New York City for over a decade. She also worked as a motion capture performer/choreographer, and as a stop-motion performer/choreographer on projects including Terry Gilliam’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Pat O’Neil’s The Decay of Fiction.  Judy is developing a new documentary film series and interactive game, Up For Debate.

Portfolio Link

Contact

madebyhandllc@gmail.com
Tel: +001 917 776 6623

Education / Lecture / Workshop

SUNY Purchase - Collaborative Video for Choreography
Montclair State University - Documentary Film
American Film Showcase - Anyang Arts High School: Collaborative Arts Workshop
Pratt Institute and NYU Animation Department - Movement Architecture for Animators Workshops

Residency

Banff Centre for the Arts - Dance on Camera
UCLA Dance/Media Fellowship
Marlton School,  Los Angeles - Visiting Artist Residencies

Creative Service

Years of experience working in production and post-production on commercials, industrials, shorts, and EPKs for feature films.

Awards

NYC Women’s Fund for Media Music and Theater
SUNY Purchase - Part-Time Teaching Award to study at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Summer Program
Japan Prize (NHK Broadcasting) - Deaf Jam
American Film Showcase - 2 year Film Envoy
Independent Television Service (ITVS) Open Call - Deaf Jam
Rockefeller Foundation PACT Grant, New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) multiple year awards, National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) multiple year awards - Deaf Jam
Emerging Filmmaker - Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival
UCLA Dance Media Fellowship - Pew Charitable Trust
CalArts Scholarship - Overbrook Foundation
CalArts - Interdisciplinary Arts Grant
Scholarship - The American Dance Festival
Scholarship - Harkness Foundation