Liz Garbus is an Academy Award-nominated American filmmaker and documentary producer and director. She is best known for her work on documentaries such as The Farm: Angola, USA (1998), The Execution of Wanda Jean (2002), Ghosts of Abu Ghraib (2007), and What Happened, Miss Simone? (2015).
Garbus grew up in Scarsdale, New York, and attended Brown University where she graduated with a BA in English Literature in 1989. She then attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and graduated with a Master's degree in 1994.
Garbus' first documentary was a short film, The Chicken (1995), which was made while she was still at NYU. She then embarked on her first feature-length documentary, The Farm: Angola, USA (1998), which focused on the inmates of the Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as Angola. The film received numerous awards, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature.
Garbus has since gone on to produce and direct numerous other documentaries, including The Execution of Wanda Jean (2002), which tells the story of Wanda Jean Allen, the first woman to be executed in the United States since 1976. In 2007, she directed Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, which focused on the notorious Iraqi prison. In 2015, she directed What Happened, Miss Simone?, a biographical documentary about singer-songwriter Nina Simone.
Garbus' documentaries have won numerous awards, including an Emmy Award, a Peabody Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. She has also been honored with the Women in Film Crystal Award, the National Board of Review Freedom of Expression Award, the IDA Documentary Award, and the Director's Guild of America Award.
Garbus continues to produce and direct documentaries, as well as appearing as a guest lecturer at different film schools, universities, and festivals. She is currently working on a new documentary about the life and legacy of Bobby Fischer, the famous chess grandmaster. Garbus' work has demonstrated her commitment to telling powerful stories and exploring important social issues.
