Julia Bacha — Director | Biography, Movies & Career

Biography

Julia Bacha is a Peabody and Guggenheim award-winning filmmaker and the Creative Director at Just Vision, an organization that fills a media gap on Israel-Palestine through independent storytelling and strategic audience engagement. Since graduating Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia University, she has strategically used documentary film to foster constructive conversations on some of the most divisive issues of our times.

Julia started her filmmaking career in Cairo, where she wrote and edited Control Room (2004), for which she was nominated for the Writer’s Guild of America Award. Control Room became one of the highest-grossing political documentaries of all time and introduced Americans for the first time to the inner workings of the Arab satellite channel, Al Jazeera

Subsequently, she moved to Jerusalem where she co-directed, wrote, and edited Encounter Point (2006), which followed Palestinians and Israelis who risked their lives and public standing to promote an end to the occupation and the conflict. Encounter Point premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, won the best documentary prize at the San Francisco Film Festival, and was broadcast on Al Arabiya to millions of viewers.

Julia then directed and produced the critically-acclaimed Budrus (2009), which chronicled the story of a Palestinian community organizer who united all Palestinian factions and Israelis to save his village from destruction by Israel's separation barrier. Hailed in The New York Times as "this year's must-see documentary," the film successfully shifted the way international media covered the protests, as confirmed by an independent media audit by Edelman PR.

Subsequently, Julia directed and produced My Neighbourhood (2012), which follows a Palestinian teenager struggling to reclaim his home in East Jerusalem from Israeli settlers. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. It was released online by The Guardian, and won the coveted Peabody Award.

Julia also directed Naila and the Uprising (2017), which chronicles the remarkable journey of Naila Ayesh whose story weaves through the most vibrant, nonviolent mobilization in Palestinian history -- the First Intifada. Julia received a Guggenheim Fellowship to produce the film, which had its US premiere at DOC NYC, European Premiere at IDFA, and Middle East Premiere at the Dubai Film Festival. It was broadcast on PBS in 2019 as part of the series Women, War and Peace II, Executive Produced by Abigail Disney.

Most recently, Julia directed Boycott (2021), which documents the efforts of three Americans from diverse backgrounds to protect the right to boycott in America. The film was an official selection at SXSW, HotDocs, and DOC NYC and was covered by CNN, MSNBC, and The New York Times, among others.

In addition to over thirty film festival awards, Julia is the recipient of the King Hussein Leadership Prize, Search for Common Ground Award, Ridenhour Film Prize, DocSociety Creative Impact Award, Chicken & Egg Prize, and Columbia University’s Medal of Excellence.

Originally from Brazil, Julia is a documentary branch member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.