Lisa Leeman

Adjunct Faculty

Lisa Leeman produces, directs, writes and edits documentary films. She has served as a judge at the Sundance Film Festival, the president of the International Documentary Association, and on the boards of the IDA and the National Coalition of Independent Public Broadcasting Producers. She writes articles specializing in the ethics of documentary filmmaking.

Leeman teaches Documentary Producing, Conceptualizing & Development, Writing non-fiction, Editing, and Visual Communication. This year USC sent her to Amman, Jordan, to teach a ten-day documentary workshop, and to Beijing, China, where she taught a six-week documentary workshop, in which six USC students partnered with six students from Communication of China, with each bi-national team producing a short doc on Beijing. 

Leeman is currently producing the feature documentary Crazy Wisdom: The Life & Times of Chogyam Trungpa, and is directing the feature One Lucky Elephant. Recent credits include co-directing and editing Who Needs Sleep, with renowned cinematographer Haskell Wexler (Sundance, 2006) and directing the feature doc Out of Faith (PBS, 2008).  Writing credits include Made in LA, (Silverdocs 2007; LAFF 2007; POV/PBS 2007), and the theatrically released feature doc Naked in Ashes, which  follows an ascetic yogi in India.  She recently wrapped co-writing Not in God's Name, featuring the Dalai Lama.

Her work has been seen on PBS, HBO, Discovery, ARTE, and in theaters and festivals worldwide.  Awards include the Filmmakers Trophy at the Sundance Film Festival for her directorial debut, Metamorphosis: Man into Woman (POV, 1990); an Emmy nomination for her short Fender Philosophers; the once-in-a-lifetime American Film Institute’s Independent Filmmaker Grant; a Western States Media Arts Fellowship; and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Pacific Mountain Network, and California Arts Council.

She spent a decade editing award-winning social issue documentaries, including Renee Tajima-Pena’s The Journey Home (PBS Special); Michelle LeBrun’s Death: A Love Story  (Sundance ‘99); Laura’s Simon’s Fear and Learning at Hoover Elementary  (POV; Winner, Freedom of Expression Award, Sundance ‘97); Marco Williams’ In Search of Our Fathers (FRONTLINE, PBS); Micha Peled’s Will My Mother Go to Berlin, (ARD, PBS); Stanley Nelson’s Methadone: Curse or Cure? (PBS); It Was A Wonderful Life, (Michele Ohayon) (PBS); and the TBS series The Natvie Americans and America's Music: The Roots of Country.