Ronit Bezalel

Ronit Bezalel has been producing and directing films since 1990. Her films cover a wide range of topics, from the dismantling of Public Housing to Professional Women’s Tackle Football (co-directed with Laurie Little and Sree Nallamothu). Her documentaries have been broadcast internationally, played in festivals, and used as a teaching tool in educational institutions worldwide. Ronit Bezalel, began her career at the National Film Board of Canada, where she created the documentary, When Shirley Met Florence (1994). This thirty-minute documentary features a fifty-five year friendship between two Jewish women in their mid-sixties. The video has screened throughout Canada and the States. It also received a silver award at Chicago’s Gay/Lesbian film festival and aired on television in England, Canada, and Australia. Bezalel's next film, Voices of Cabrini: Remaking Chicago's Public Housing (1999) examines the displacement of low-income residents in Chicago. Voices of Cabrini: Remaking Chicago's Public Housing has been screened throughout the United States and used as a catalyst for discussing affordable housing issues. As a result of this documentary, Newsweek Magazine (January 2001) honored Bezalel, as one of the Top 15 Women of the 21st Century. Bezalel's most recent documentary A Day on the Force: Women’s Pro-Tackle Football, chronicles Chicago’s first professional women’s tackle football team, The Chicago Force. The film shines with heart, humor, and respect for the women carving out their dreams as professional athletes. Bezalel co-directed A Day on the Force, with fellow filmmakers Sree Nallamothu and Laurie Little. Bezalel's other producing/directing credits include A Classroom Dialogue (1993) providing strategies for unlearning racism in the classroom, No Quiet Please(1991) a film about preventing sexual assault, Tearing the Veil (1990) a look at lesbian stereotypes, and You Can’t Beat it Out of Us (1992) exploring police violence against Montreal’s Gay/Lesbian communities. Bezalel also worked as an assistant editor on the documentary, Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (Mark Achbar, Peter Wintonick, 1992).