In this episode, we sit down with Matthew Heineman, the Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning filmmaker behind Cartel Land, City of Ghosts, The First Wave, American Symphony, and more. Originally on track to become a history teacher, a post-college RV trip turned impromptu film project launched him into a career documenting the world’s most urgent and harrowing stories.

From the emergence of ISIS in Syria and cartel drug wars to the battle against COVID in New York City’s hospitals and an artist couple’s struggle with cancer, Heineman shares the twists that shaped his career—why he chooses the hardest subjects, the prices he’s paid for those choices, and what documentaries can teach us about how to live our lives.

Matthew Heineman is an Academy Award®-nominated, nine-time Emmy Award-winning, and two-time DGA Award winning-filmmaker. In 2019, he received a nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement of a First Time Feature Film Director from the Directors Guild of America for his narrative debut, A Private War —making Heineman and Martin Scorsese the only filmmakers ever nominated for both narrative and documentary DGA Awards. Heineman most recently directed AMERICAN SYMPHONY, which won two GRAMMY awards including Best Music Film, earned Academy Award® and BAFTA nominations, and won a PGA and two Critics' Choice Awards.  

Learn more about Matthew Heineman's work https://www.ourtimeprojects.com/

Matthew Heineman’s IG https://www.instagram.com/mheineman

Rabbi Ingber’s IG https://www.instagram.com/rabbiingber

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Producer: Efrat Bigger

Editor: Maya Gayer 

Music by: Shimon Smith

Special Thanks: Eden Sidney Foster