Michelle Budnick

Award Winning Documentary Producer...

Michelle’s first documentary as Producer, Run for His Life, won the Social Justice award at the Charlotte Film festival and was invited to participate in the American Black Film Festival and Hot Docs, where it was picked up for distribution by GQ Magazine and later won the Gold Telly Award for Social Impact. In 2020 she produced Descended from the Promised Land: The Legacy of Black Wall Street, a documentary short centered on the descendants of Tulsa’s prosperous Greenwood district and its systematic destruction, which screened at Martha's Vineyard African American Film Festival, New Orleans Film Festival, American Black Film Festival and Doc NYC. It was selected to air on American Airlines for Black History Month before being acquired by Black Public Media.

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Alongside Creative Producing, Michelle is a well respected Line Producer with credits on award winning documentaries including; Newtown (PBS 2016 - Peabody Award Winner), Milwaukee 53206 (PBS 2018), Lessons from a School Shooting (Netflix 2018), By Whatever Means Necessary (Epix 2020) and Kings from Queens: The Run-DMC Story (Peacock 2023). 

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Currently Michelle consults for documentary development while supporting production on two feature docs; one for PBS on Criminal Justice in Wisconsin and the other, a developing story that follows everyday people questioning the legitimacy of public safety initiatives driven by corporate interests that disregard their impact on local communities and the growing climate emergency.