Chris Hegedus

Roles: Director, Producer, Director of Photography

Chris Hegedus has been working as a director, cinematographer and editor for 40 years. In 2001 she received the prestigious DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement for Startup.com. With her long-time collaborator D A Pennebaker, she directed The War Room, a behind-the-scenes look at Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign. The film received an Academy Award® nomination and won the National Board of Review’s D.W. Griffith Award for Best Documentary. Hegedus has received the Golden Eagle CINE award and lifetime achievement awards from several organizations, including the International Documentary Association.

Hegedus first collaborated with Pennebaker as editor of Town Bloody Hall, filmed at the infamous 1971 women’s liberation debate moderated by Norman Mailer. Their other early films include the three-part PBS special, The Energy War, which followed the unprecedented congressional fight and filibuster over President Carter’s Energy Bill; DeLorean, featuring auto entrepreneur John DeLorean; Rockaby, written by Samuel Beckett specially for their project starring his muse Billie Whitelaw; and the acclaimed 1998 feature Moon Over Broadway, which chronicled Carol Burnett’s tumultuous return to Broadway theater.

In addition to making films Hegedus has conducted film seminars at numerous universities and taught documentary filmmaking at Yale for 8 years.