Yoav Potash

Yoav Potash is a writer and filmmaker whose works include the documentaries Crime After Crime and Food Stamped.

Movies

Potash produced and directed the film Crime After Crime, about the legal battle to free Deborah Peagler from a California prison. The film premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and went on to win dozens of awards in the US and abroad. Potash produced the documentary over a five and a half year span, an experience he wrote about for The Wall Street Journal.^[1] The film was broadcast on OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network, as part of the OWN Documentary Club. Awards the film has received include the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award,^[2] The National Board of Review’s Freedom of Expression Award,^[3] The Hillman Prize for Broadcast Journalism,^[4] and over 20 other top honors for documentaries in the US and abroad.^[5] The film was a New York Times Critics' Pick.^[6]

 

Filmmaker Yoav Potash with actor George Clooney and Potash's wife Shira Potash at the 2012 National Board of Review Awards in New York City. Potash received the Freedom of Expression Award for his documentary Crime After Crime while Clooney was honored with the Best Actor Award for The Descendants.

Potash's film Food Stamped documents the challenges of eating healthy on a food stamp budget. The film won the Jury Prize at the San Francisco Independent Film Festival and was nationally broadcast on Pivot, Participant Media's satellite and cable network.^[7] "Food Stamped" was also an official selection of Whole Foods Market’s online film festival, Do Something Reel.^[8] and was featured on CNN Money.^[9]

In 2012, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Potash is currently working to adapt Crime After Crime into a dramatic major motion picture.^[10] In 2013, Potash's screenplay for that project ranked in the top 1% of over 3,000 dramatic scripts entered in the Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition.^[11] That same year, Potash was selected to participate in the Film Independent Producing Lab to further develop the dramatic adaptation project.^[12]

In 2018, Potash was selected as a filmmaker-in-residence at the Jewish Film Institute in San Francisco to produce two documentary films on untold stories of the Holocaust, entitled The Remembered and Diary from the Ashes.^[13]

Writing

Potash earned a 2018 Simon Rockower Award for Excellence in Jewish Journalism from The American Jewish Press Association^[14] for his personal essay entitled "How I learned all Israelis are not my father," published by J, The Jewish News of Northern California.^[15] Potash has also written articles about his filmmaking experiences for publications including The Wall Street Journal ^[16] IndieWire,^[17] Videomaker,^[18] The Sundance Institute^[19] and TheWrap.^[20]

Personal life

Potash, Jewish, was raised by a Jewish, Israeli father and an American Jewish mother.^[21]

References

1. Potash, Yoav (2012-04-24). "The Impact of Documentary 'Crime After Crime' Beyond Prison Walls". The Wall Street Journal.
2. "US Journalism Awards | Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights | Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights". Rfkcenter.org. Retrieved 2012-11-20.
3. . Nbrmp.org. Archived from the original on June 12, 2010. Retrieved 2012-11-20.
4. "2012 Hillman Prize for Broadcast Journalism". Hillman Foundation. 14 April 2012. Retrieved 2012-11-20.
5. "Awards « Crime After Crime".
6. Catsoulis, Jeanette (2011-06-30). "Seeking a Path to Justice". The New York Times.
7. "FOOD STAMPED (2010)". Mill Valley Film Festival – Active Cinema case study. Mill Valley Film Festival. Retrieved 29 December 2015.
8. "Do Something Reel Film Festival". Dosomethingreel.com. Retrieved 2012-11-20.
9. "Healthy eating on $1 per meal: impossible? – Video – Personal Finance". Money.cnn.com. Retrieved 2012-11-20.
10. Miller, Daniel (2012-01-21). "Chris Columbus' 1492 Pictures Partnering With ro*co prods. to Adapt Docs Into Dramas – Hollywood Reporter". The Hollywood Reporter.
11. "2013 Screenplay & Teleplay Competition Semifinalists and Second-Rounders". Austin Film Festival. Retrieved 2014-04-03.
12. "11 FILMMAKERS and 9 PROJECTS SELECTED FOR THE FILM INDEPENDENT 2013 PRODUCING LAB". Film Independent. Retrieved 2014-04-03.
13. Paull, Laura (2018-12-13). "Picks for Jewish Film Institute residencies strive to reach general audiences". J The Jewish News of Northern California. Retrieved 26 November 2019.
14. "J. wins 11 Simon Rockower Awards for Excellence in Jewish Journalism". J The Jewish News of Northern California. 2019-06-26.
15. Potash, Yoav (2018-04-05). "How I learned all Israelis are not my father". J The Jewish News of Northern California. Retrieved 26 November 2019.
16. Potash, Yoav (2012-04-24). "The Impact of Documentary 'Crime After Crime' Beyond Prison Walls". The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company. Retrieved 2013-01-09.
17. Smith, Nigel M. (June 30, 2011). "IN HIS OWN WORDS | Yoav Potash Shares a Scene from "Crime After Crime"".
18. Potash, Yoav. "UC Berkeley offers professional workshop for documentary filmmakers". Videomaker.
19. Potash, Yoav (2015-10-20). "Using Film to Create Justice for Victims of Domestic Abuse".
20. Potash, Yoav (2011-07-14). "Bringing to Light a Tale of Domestic Abuse That Led to Wrongful Incarceration for Murder". TheWrap. Retrieved 2015-11-09.
21. Reiss, Jon (June 15, 2011). "The Big Jewcy: Yoav Potash – Filmmaker Bent On Tikkun Olam". Jewcy.