Directing

Betsy West

Betsy West is an Academy Award®-nominated Emmy winning director/producer of RBG (2018), along with Julie Cohen. She and Cohen recently directed the new documentaries Julia (2021), and My Name is Pauli Murray (2021). As a producer at ABC News, Betsy won 21 Emmy Awards. She is the Fred W. Friendly Professor Emerita at Columbia Journalism School.

Known For

FridaFrida · 2024
Frida
★ 6.82024
MovieDocumentary
An intimately raw and magical journey through the life, mind, and heart of iconic artist Frida Kahlo. Told through her own words for the very first time — drawn from her diary, revealing letters, essays, and print interviews — and brought vividly to life by lyrical animation inspired by her unforgettable artwork.
On BroadwayOn Broadway · 2019
On Broadway
★ 8.72019
MovieDocumentary
An all-star cast tells the inside story of the Broadway theater, and how it came back from the brink thanks to innovative work, a new attention to inclusion and a sometimes uneasy balance between art and commerce. Legends of the stage and screen—including Helen Mirren, Christine Baranski, August Wilson, James Corden, Alec Baldwin, John Lithgow, Viola Davis, Hugh Jackman and Ian McKellen—take us behind the scenes of Broadway's most groundbreaking and beloved shows, from A Chorus Line to Hamilton. Iconic performances by Lin Manuel Miranda, Patti LuPone, Bernadette Peters, James Earl Jones and Mandy Patinkin lead the way on a hurly burly ride through Times Square, once again the main street of American show business in this documentary directed by Academy-Award nominee Oren Jacoby.
JuliaJulia · 2021
Julia
★ 6.22021
MovieDocumentaryHistory
Using never-before-seen archival footage, personal photos, first-person narratives, and cutting-edge, mouth-watering food cinematography, the film traces Julia Child's surprising path, from her struggles to create and publish the revolutionary Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961) which has sold more than 2.5 million copies to date, to her empowering story of a woman who found fame in her 50s, and her calling as an unlikely television sensation.
My Name Is Pauli MurrayMy Name Is Pauli Murray · 2021
My Name Is Pauli Murray
★ 8.22021
MovieDocumentary
Overlooked by history, Pauli Murray was a legal trailblazer whose ideas influenced RBG's fight for gender equality and Thurgood Marshall's landmark civil rights arguments. Featuring never-before-seen footage and audio recordings, a portrait of Murray's impact as a non-binary Black luminary: lawyer, activist, poet, and priest who transformed our world.
RBGRBG · 2018
RBG
★ 7.52018
MovieDocumentary
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg now 84, and still inspired by the lawyers who defended free speech during the Red Scare, Ginsburg refuses to relinquish her passionate duty, steadily fighting for equal rights for all citizens under the law. Through intimate interviews and unprecedented access to Ginsburg’s life outside the court, RBG tells the electric story of Ginsburg’s consuming love affairs with both the Constitution and her beloved husband Marty—and of a life’s work that led her to become an icon of justice in the highest court in the land.
Top of the WorldTop of the World · 2026
Top of the World
2026
MovieDocumentary
Explores Windows on the World, the iconic restaurant that occupied the 106th and 107th floors of the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
Barbara Walters: Tell Me EverythingBarbara Walters: Tell Me Everything · 2025
Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything
★ 7.42025
MovieDocumentary
Few American journalists have had a career as trailblazing and transformative as Barbara Walters, whose astonishing life and work are recounted in her own words in this raw, intimate, decades-spanning doc.
The Lavender ScareThe Lavender Scare · 2019
The Lavender Scare
★ 5.62019
MovieDocumentary
At the height of the Cold War, President Eisenhower deems homosexuals to be security risks. A vicious witch hunt ensues, ruining thousands of American lives.

Filmography

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On BroadwayOn Broadway · 2019
On Broadway
★ 8.72019
MovieDocumentary
An all-star cast tells the inside story of the Broadway theater, and how it came back from the brink thanks to innovative work, a new attention to inclusion and a sometimes uneasy balance between art and commerce. Legends of the stage and screen—including Helen Mirren, Christine Baranski, August Wilson, James Corden, Alec Baldwin, John Lithgow, Viola Davis, Hugh Jackman and Ian McKellen—take us behind the scenes of Broadway's most groundbreaking and beloved shows, from A Chorus Line to Hamilton. Iconic performances by Lin Manuel Miranda, Patti LuPone, Bernadette Peters, James Earl Jones and Mandy Patinkin lead the way on a hurly burly ride through Times Square, once again the main street of American show business in this documentary directed by Academy-Award nominee Oren Jacoby.

Executive Producer