Joan filming Searching for Jimi Hendrix (1991)
Dirs. Chris Hegedus, DA Pennebaker
Photo by Alan Barker
Dirs. Chris Hegedus, DA Pennebaker
Photo by Alan Barker
Biography
Churchill has collaborated extensively with Nick Broomfield on numerous films including Lily Tomlin, Aileen: Life & Death of a Serial Killer, Kurt & Courtney, Biggie & Tupac, Tattooed Tears and Sarah Palin: You Betcha! Her work on Soldier Girls earned her a BAFTA, the first woman to be so honored, as well as the Sundance Grand Jury Prize.
Churchill and her partner, Alan Barker, work on long term projects as directors, producers and crew including: two TV vérité series, The Residents and the Emmy-winning American High. They have recently brought out two shorts on their mentor, legendary cinematographer Haskell Wexler. Their other recent credits include Bedlam, a DuPont Columbia Award-winning film and Medicating Normal, both about the broken mental health system.
Churchill is the first pure documentary cinematographer to be accepted into the American Society of Cinematographers and one of the few women. She received their inaugural Lifetime Documentary Award in February, 2025. Her accolades include DOC NYC’s Life Time Achievement Visionary Award, a BAFTA, two DuPont Columbia Awards, the Prix Italia, IDA’s Award for Outstanding Cinematography; CamerImage’s Outstanding Achievement in Documentary Filmmaking.
Teacher and mentor, Churchill has been the Kodak Cinematographer in Residence at UCLA 2006 (the first woman and first documentary filmmaker selected). She has taught documentary and film workshops at UCLA, USC, Chapman, Loyola Marymount University, Art Center College, and The National Film & Television School in the UK. She has shown her work, won awards and served on juries and panels for MacArthur, Peabody, Sundance, AFI, MoMA, Traverse City, Tribeca, LA Film Festival, Film at Lincoln Center, IDFA, Sheffield, Full Frame, Cameraimage, Viennale and La Cinématheque du Documentaire a la BPI. A member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, she has served on the AMPAS documentary executive board for 14 years.
Awards, Accolades, Accomplishments
- American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Lifetime Documentary Award
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DOCNYC Visionary Award
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British Academy Award (BAFTA) Flaherty Documentary Award—First woman
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Prix Italia
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DuPont Columbia Award for Outstanding Journalism
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IDA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Documentary Cinematography
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California State Bar Award for Distinguished Reporting
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Hague Peace Prize
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Amnesty International Doen Award
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Women in Film’s Kodak Vision Award/Documentary
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Camerimage Award for Outstanding Achievement in Documentary Filmmaking
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Sundance, Chicago, Tribeca & IDFA Festivals’ Prizes
- UCLA Cinematographer in Residence 2006—First woman & first documentarian
- American Society of Cinematographers (ASC)—First pure documentary cinematographer and one of the few women
- Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Member—Documentary Executive Board for 14 years
Film Clips
Shoot From The Heart (2021) | Trailer
Angie Peacock in Meditating Normal (2020)
Johanna in Bedlam (2019)
Judy Chicago at Art Basel Miami (2018)
Dixie Chicks in Shut Up & Sing (2006)
Marie Colvin in Iraq Bearing Witness (2005)
Sunny Smith in The Residents (2003)
Aileen Wuornos in Aileen—Life & Death of a Serial Killer (2003)
Cheryl Swannack in Lily Tomlin (1985)
Sgt Abing & Joanne Johnson in Soldier Girls (1981)
Rashida in Juvenile Liaison (1976
Nancy Smith in Punishment Park (1971)
Director / DP Credits
Short doc on legendary cinematographer and filmmaker Haskell Wexler debating with award winning documentarian Hubert Sauper and world renowned photojournalist Susan Meiselas. What’s the truth? Is it truth, fact or fiction? Whose story is it? Interspersed are their films and photographs.
SHOOT FROM THE HEART
Short doc on Haskell Wexler centered around a rollicking evening with filmmakers D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus. A lively discussion about cinematic reality and whether it’s possible to capture it, we examine what it means to be an artist.
SARAH PALIN: YOU BETCHA
Feature doc co-directed with Nick Broomfield for Channel 4 (UK) where we spent three months stalking herself in her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska, as she contemplates running for president.
AILEEN: LIFE AND DEATH OF A SERIAL KILLER
Feature doc co-directed with Nick Broomfield for HBO/Channel 4. Awards: Tribeca Film Festival, Amnesty International DOEN Award. Nominations: IDA Award, European Film Award
ASYLUM
Doc about the criminally insane. Emmy nomination for HBO American Undercover.
JUVENILE LIAISON 2
Feature doc co-directed with Nick Broomfield for Channel 4 (U.K.). Revisited subjects of 1975 film on a controversial crime deterrent program in the north of England.
ONE GENERATION MORE
Feature doc directed and shot for BBC, about an Estonian Jewish family rediscovering their roots after 50 years of Soviet oppression.
Feature doc co-directed and produced with Nick Broomfield for PBS/Channel 4. Chronicling the evolution of the comedienne’s Broadway hit, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe. Shown widely theatrically throughout the U.S., at numerous festivals, and on PBS.
SOLDIER GIRLS
Feature doc co-directed and produced with Nick Broomfield for PBS/Channel 4. Follows a platoon of women through the agonies of basic training right after the US army had to accept women on an equal basis with men due to the Equal Rights Amendment. Awards: BAFTA for Best Feature Length Documentary, Prix Italia, Grand Prize Sundance F.F., Blue Ribbon American F.F.
TATTOOED TEARS
Feature doc co-directed and produced with Nick Broomfield for PBS/Channel 4. About the indignity of life inside a California Youth Authority maximum security prison. Awards: Dupont Columbia Award for Outstanding Journalism, California State Bar for Distinguished Reporting
JUVENILE LIAISON
Documentary co-directed and produced with Nick Broomfield for BFI. Exposes the harsh practices of a British youth crime prevention program.
JIMI PLAYS BERKELEY
Feature film shot, directed and co-produced, now a cult-classic about Jimi Hendrix.
SYLVIA, FRAN & JOY
Film about women’s roles shot and directed for PBS.
Selected Cinematography Credits
Directed by Jennifer Lane, feature doc on the artist.
MEDICATING NORMAL
Feature doc directed by Lynn Cunningham and Wendy Ractliffe about people trying to get off their psych medications.
BEDLAM
Co-producer and DP, director Ken Rosenberg for PBS Independent Lens about the Psych ER in LA County Hospital. Winner DuPont Columbia Award for Outstanding Journalism.
THIS IS EVERYTHING: GIGI GORGEOUS
Feature doc directed by Barbara Kopple for YouTubeRed.
LAST DAYS IN VIETNAM
PBS American Experience doc directed by Rory Kennedy.
CITIZEN KOCH
Feature doc about the Koch Brothers & Citizens United which did away with campaign finance restrictions, directed by Tia Lessin and Carl Deal.
INVENTING DAVID GEFFEN
Directed by Susan Lacy for PBS American Masters.
SNOWBLIND
Feature doc directed by Vikram Jayanti about Rachael Scdoris, 22 year old blind Iditarod racer for Discovery.
LETTING GO OF GOD
Feature directed by Julia Sweeney doing a monologue about her conversion to atheism.
THE DIXIE CHICKS: SHUT UP & SING
Feature doc directed by Barabara Koppel and Cecilia Peck.
HIS BIG WHITE SELF
Feature doc directed by Nick Broomfield, a look at what became of the Boers in S Africa...
Feature doc directed by Anne Makepeace, following two Somali Bantu families’ U.S. resettlement.
WHO NEEDS SLEEP?
Directed by Haskell Wexler, about the danger of long working hours in Hollywood.
BEARING WITNESS
A&E doc directed by Barbara Koppel, on women journalists in Iraq including Marie Colvin.
BASTARDS OF THE PARTY
HBO doc directed by Cle Sloan about gangs in LA.
RATED R: REPUBLICANS IN HOLLYWOOD
A&E doc directed by Jesse Moss about Arnold Swartznegger on campaign trail.
HOME OF THE BRAVE
Feature doc directed by Paola di Florio about Viola Liuzzo, the only white woman killed in the U.S. civil rights movement.
THE RESIDENTS
Producer and DP, 13 TLC vérité docs shot in a hospital over a one year period, EP RJ Cutler.
CONCERT FOR GEORGE
Feature doc directed by David Leland about memorial concert for George Harrison.
BIGGIE & TUPAC
Feature doc directed by Nick Broomfield.
DOWN FROM THE MOUNTAIN
Directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, a concert film featuring country and traditional musicians who participated in Coen Bros film O Brother Where art Thou?
AMERICAN HIGH
Producer and DP, 13 Emmy-winning PBS vérité series following a senior class, EP RJ Cutler.
TWILIGHT: LOS ANGELES
PBS doc directed by Marc Levin, Anna Deavere Smith’s one woman play about the riots with multiple points of view all played by Smith.
Feature directed by Pennebaker & Hegedus, contemporary artists renditions of Jimi’s songs.
THE MISSISSIPPI: RIVER OF SONG
4 PBS shows directed by J Junkerman about the diverse music along the river.
BLOW UP
Discovery/BBC doc directed by Mike Rossiter, the Loizeaux Bros implode a building in Pittsburgh.
KURT & COURTNEY
Feature doc directed by Nick Broomfield.
DOMELESS IN SEATTLE
TLC/BBC doc directed by Mike Rossiter on Kingdome implosion.
COMIC BOOK CONFIDENTIAL
Feature doc directed by Ron Mann, a history of comics including interviews with the artists.
RUSH
TCM doc directed by Evelyn Purcell, an inside look at sorority rush week at Ole Miss.
80 BLOCKS FROM TIFFANYS
Directed by Gary Weis about gangs in the South Bronx.
AFTER THE GOLDRUSH
BBC doc directed by Phillipa Walker about displaced people in the Brazilian Amazon.
PUNISHMENT PARK
Feature film directed by Peter Watkins, conceptually groundbreaking pseudo-documentary reflecting the escalating domestic turmoil of the Vietnam era.
GIMME SHELTER
Feature doc directed by Charlotte Zwerin and the Maysles Brothers about the Rolling Stones concert at Altamont where the Hells Angels collide with the crowd killing Meredith Hunter.
AN AMERICAN FAMILY
PBS 12-part definitive vérité study of the Loud’s dysfunctional family life in Santa Barbara.