Ruth Sergel

Writer/Director, Ruth Sergel is the founder of Street Pictures whose award-winning films have been seen throughout the United States and Europe. Her most recent film, BELLE, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and was made with the generous support of the Jerome Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts. BELLE can currently be seen on IFC. CUSP and BRUCE have screened at the Museum of Modern Art’s New Directors/New Films, Clermont-Ferrand, Boston Museum of Fine Art, the National Museum of Women in the Arts and festivals worldwide. CUSP screened as part of the United Nations Special Session on Children and was aired on IFC. Ruth’s debut short, BRUCE, was broadcast by PBS on The Short List and is distributed by BritShorts. All of Ruth’s films were shot on 35mm film.

Outside of her film work, Ruth established VOICES OF 9.11, a video oral history archive, which recorded the personal testimonies of over 550 witnesses, survivors and victims’ families in New York, Shanksville, and the Pentagon. The collection has been exhibited in New York and at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. A selection of VOICES of 9.11 can be viewed: at www.hereisnewyork.org.

In 2004, Ruth inaugurated CHALK, a community-wide commemoration of the Triangle Factory Fire. Each year on the March 25 anniversary participants fan out across the city to inscribe in chalk the victims names & ages in front of their former homes. Fliers are left detailing the importance of the fire in labor history. At noon we join with UNITE! and the FDNY for a short ceremony at the site of the factory.

Currently Ruth is working with artist Alfred Carlo to create an interactive documentary about his life and paintings. AL was presented as a work-in-progress at the Troika Ranch Live-I Workshop at 3-Legged Dog in New York, 2005.

As a member of IATSE #600 (Cinematographers Guild) since 1990 Ruth has been privileged to work with many talented directors and cinematographers. She has served on panels at the IFP Market, Women Make Movies, Tribeca Film Festival and the Oral History Association’s annual meeting. Ruth is a founding member of 3D Directors’ Lab, winner of the IFP’s Project Involve pitch contest and a graduate of Swarthmore College. (12/29/05)