Ruthie Shatz

Ruthie Shatz
OccupationsDocumentary filmmaker, director, producer, writer, editor
Years active2001–present
Known forGarden, The Collaborator and His Family, Lenox Hill, Emergency: NYC

Ruthie Shatz is an American documentary filmmaker, director, producer, writer and editor. Working frequently with filmmaker Adi Barash, she has directed the documentary films Diamonds and Rust (2001), Garden (2003) and The Collaborator and His Family (2011), as well as the documentary television series Ichilov, Ambulance Israel, Lenox Hill and Emergency: NYC.

Her film Garden received Sundance Documentary Fund grants in both 2002 and 2003 before screening in the World Documentary program at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. Shatz and Barash's films have received awards at international documentary festivals, including the Robert and Frances Flaherty Prize for The Collaborator and His Family. Lenox Hill was nominated for Best Multi-Part Documentary at the International Documentary Association's 2020 Documentary Awards.

Early life and education

Shatz was born on a kibbutz in Israel. She graduated from the full program at the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School in Jerusalem in 1998. She later served as a senior lecturer and script-pitching adviser at the school.

Career

Early documentary films

Shatz's documentary directorial debut was Diamonds and Rust, co-directed with Barash. The film follows the multinational crew of the diamond-mining vessel Spirit of Namibia off the coast of Namibia. It received the International SCAM Award at the 2001 Cinéma du Réel festival and a Golden Gate Award at the 2001 San Francisco International Film Festival.

Shatz and Barash next directed and produced Garden, about two young men living and working in the Electricity Garden area of Tel Aviv. The film follows its subjects, Nino and Dudu, as they encounter violence, drug addiction, imprisonment and discrimination. It received Sundance Documentary Fund grants in 2002 and 2003, as well as support from the Alter-Ciné Foundation. The film screened in the World Documentary program at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. Variety reviewed the film following its 2004 release. In addition to its Yamagata award, Garden received a Special Mention at the 2004 Seville European Film Festival and Best Documentary Film at the 2005 Turin International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. In 2021, the film screened at the 48th Telluride Film Festival as one of six special selections curated by the festival's guest director, Barry Jenkins, with Shatz and Barash appearing in person.

Their third feature documentary, The Collaborator and His Family, follows a Palestinian family living in Tel Aviv after the father worked with Israeli security services. Shatz and Barash first encountered the family while making Garden. The film won the Robert and Frances Flaherty Prize, the grand prize of the 2011 Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, awarded by an international jury chaired by filmmaker Atom Egoyan. Shatz subsequently took part in a 2012 Yamagata retrospective that screened both films.

Television documentaries

Shatz and Barash wrote, directed and produced the Israeli documentary series Ichilov, which follows medical residents at Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital. The series returned for a second season in 2016. Shatz and Barash subsequently directed Ambulance Israel, an adaptation of the British documentary format Ambulance, following emergency teams from Magen David Adom.

In 2020, Shatz and Barash created, directed and executive-produced the Netflix documentary series Lenox Hill. The series follows four physicians working in neurosurgery, emergency medicine, and obstetrics and gynecology at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. The filmmakers returned to the hospital during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to make an additional episode.

Lenox Hill received favorable reviews from The Hollywood Reporter, Variety and Time. The New York Times included it in its selection of the best television shows of 2020, and its first season holds a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 15 critic reviews.

Shatz and Barash subsequently created and directed Emergency: NYC, released by Netflix in 2023. The series broadened the earlier program's focus to emergency medical workers across New York City and received reviews from IndieWire, The Wall Street Journal and Newsday. Time named it among the best new television shows its critic watched in March 2023.

Filmography

YearTitleRole
2001Diamonds and RustDirector
2003GardenDirector, producer
2009Yuri ForemanDirector
2011The Collaborator and His FamilyDirector, cinematographer
2011–2017IchilovDirector, writer, producer
2018Ambulance IsraelDirector
2020Lenox HillDirector, executive producer, editor
2020Lenox Hill: PandemicDirector
2023Emergency: NYCDirector, executive producer

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Lang, Brent (April 15, 2021). "'Lenox Hill' Creators Adi Barash and Ruthie Shatz Signed". Variety. Retrieved September 5, 2026.
  2. 1 2 Variety Staff (October 28, 2002). "Sundance Doc Fund Picks Projects". Variety. Retrieved September 5, 2026.
  3. 1 2 "Sundance Doc Fund to Support 14 New Projects and Sets MoMA Screening Series". IndieWire. April 8, 2003. Retrieved September 5, 2026.
  4. 1 2 Kay, Jeremy (December 2, 2003). "A World of Premieres at Sundance 2004". Screen Daily. Retrieved September 5, 2026.
  5. 1 2 "YIDFF 2011 Award Recipients". Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival. 2011. Retrieved September 5, 2026.
  6. ↑ "IDA Documentary Awards 2020". International Documentary Association. Retrieved September 5, 2026.
  7. ↑ "רותי שץ" [Ruthie Shatz]. Sam Spiegel Film and Television School (in Hebrew). Retrieved September 5, 2026.
  8. ↑ "Ruthie Shatz". Cinéma du Réel Archives. Retrieved September 5, 2026.
  9. ↑ "Diamonds and Rust". Educational Media Reviews Online. 2002. Retrieved September 5, 2026.
  10. ↑ "Ruthie Shatz et Adi Barash". Alter-Ciné Foundation. Retrieved September 5, 2026.
  11. ↑ "Garden". Variety. February 8, 2004. Retrieved September 5, 2026.
  12. ↑ "Telluride Film Festival Announces 2021 Lineup". Telluride Film Festival. September 1, 2021. Retrieved September 5, 2026.
  13. ↑ Taubin, Amy (December 2021). "Telluride and After: The Revival of Sensation". Film Quarterly. 75 (2). Retrieved September 5, 2026.
  14. ↑ "The Collaborator and His Family". Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival. 2011. Retrieved September 5, 2026.
  15. ↑ "2011 Jury Comments: Award Recipients". Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival. 2011. Retrieved September 5, 2026.
  16. ↑ "Documentary Dream Show—Yamagata in Tokyo 2012". Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival. October 12, 2012. Retrieved September 5, 2026.
  17. ↑ Anderman, Nirit (April 2, 2013). "New Israeli Reality Series Gives Viewers a Glimpse at Life Inside a Hospital". Haaretz. Retrieved September 5, 2026.
  18. ↑ "איכילוב: אל האזורים האפורים של הרפואה" [Ichilov: Into the Gray Areas of Medicine]. Haaretz (in Hebrew). December 9, 2016. Retrieved September 5, 2026.
  19. ↑ Shiloni, Smadar (August 10, 2018). "אמבולנס: קשה לצפות במלאכים האלה" [Ambulance: It Is Hard to Watch These Angels]. Ynet (in Hebrew). Retrieved September 5, 2026.
  20. ↑ VanArendonk, Kathryn (June 3, 2020). "Netflix's Lenox Hill Documents Doctors' Everyday Heroism". Time. Retrieved September 5, 2026.
  21. ↑ "'Lenox Hill' Directors Adi Barash & Ruthie Shatz Interview". Deadline Hollywood. May 1, 2021. Retrieved September 5, 2026.
  22. ↑ Fienberg, Daniel (June 9, 2020). "'Lenox Hill': TV Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved September 5, 2026.
  23. ↑ D'Addario, Daniel (June 6, 2020). "'Lenox Hill' on Netflix: TV Review". Variety. Retrieved September 5, 2026.
  24. ↑ VanArendonk, Kathryn (June 3, 2020). "Netflix Docuseries Lenox Hill Is a Moving, Timely Look at the Everyday Heroism of Doctors". Time. Retrieved September 5, 2026.
  25. ↑ Poniewozik, James; Hale, Mike; Lyons, Margaret (December 1, 2020). "Best TV Shows of 2020". The New York Times. Retrieved September 5, 2026.
  26. ↑ "Lenox Hill: Season 1". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved September 5, 2026.
  27. ↑ Greene, Steve (March 29, 2023). "Netflix's 'Emergency: NYC' Is Another Riveting Look at American Health Care from 'Lenox Hill' Team". IndieWire. Retrieved September 5, 2026.
  28. ↑ Anderson, John (March 28, 2023). "'Emergency NYC' Review: Netflix's Medical-System Checkup". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved September 5, 2026.
  29. ↑ Gay, Verne (March 29, 2023). "'Emergency: NYC' review: Hospital docuseries celebrates the human spirit". Newsday. Retrieved September 5, 2026.
  30. ↑ VanArendonk, Kathryn (March 31, 2023). "Best New TV Shows March 2023: What Our Critic Loved". Time. Retrieved September 5, 2026.