Ruth Gumnit
Ruth Gumnit, director/producer/cinematographer, is an award-winning filmmaker whose films have screened internationally. She has been honored with a NEA/Rockefeller Interdisciplinary Artist Award, Grand Jury Best Documentary Award (Washington D.C. Independent Film Festival,) Judges and Audience Awards (San Diego Women’s Film Festival,) and Director’s Citation Award (Black Maria Film Festival.) Her film DON'T FENCE ME IN: MAJOR MARY AND THE KAREN REFUGEES FROM BURMA has screened worldwide and been a resource to build community, shape public policy, and advocate for refugee rights. DON'T FENCE ME IN has played on public television and screened in such diverse San Francisco venues as HBO’s Frame-By-Frame Festival, the Commonwealth Club of California, and the World Affairs Council of Northern California. Gumnit was named one of Film Arts Foundation’s “Film Arts 30” in 2006 and featured in its “Release Print” magazine. DON'T FENCE ME IN has also shown at the Canadian Film Centre’s Worldwide Short Film Festival; Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, UT; Krakow Film Festival, Poland; Hawaii International Festival and Frameline29/San Francisco International LGBTQ Film Festival, in 2005. Gumnit was selected for the 2006 Sundance Producers Conference for VISIBLE SILENCE (then titled TOMBOYS AND LADIES). She holds a B.A. in Visual Art and Filmmaking from Antioch College in Yellow Springs, OH and an M.F.A. in Filmmaking from the San Francisco Art Institute.
