Deborah Kaufman
Deborah Kaufman produced and directed the award-winning documentaries Company Town (2016), Between Two Worlds (2011), Thirst (2004), Secrets of Silicon Valley (2001), and Blacks and Jews (1997). She founded and was for thirteen years Director of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, the first and largest independent Jewish film showcase in the world. Kaufman has been a board member of the California Council for the Humanities, Amnesty International USA, and the New Israel Fund. She has been a consultant, programmer, lecturer, and activist with a variety of human rights and media arts organizations. Kaufman is a graduate of University of California Hastings College of the Law and a member of the California Bar.
Jewish women directors have made significant contributions to independent film and have created mainstream and experimental works that attempt to redefine Jewish identity. Subverting male-dominated Jewish literary and Hollywood traditions, these filmmakers employ images of hybrid identities and illuminate the lives of Jewish women in their work.
