Yael Luttwak
Yael’s extensive background in film began in London where she obtained a Master’s in Filmmaking from the London Film School. Her first feature film, A Slim Peace, followed Israeli, Palestinian, Bedouin, and American women who came together for a shared nutrition group. The experience led her to start a nonprofit that brought women from different backgrounds together around health and community. Since then, she’s made five more films including about women rebuilding their lives after incarceration, teens from different cultures finding common ground, and even a personal documentary about her own family.
She founded a nonprofit called Slim Peace working with 1,000 women and girls in 35 cohorts in the Middle East and 6 U.S. cities to build bridges through health programs. A director and producer, she has been involved with many documentaries and news programs such as, Thomson Reuters News Agency (London and Jerusalem), National Geographic Society, Voice of America, MSNBC and the United States Holocaust Museum.
Yael has also worked in cultural and educational spaces, including several years as Programming Producer at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. She later became the Artistic Director of the JxJ Jewish Film & Music Festival for several years where she curated films and music from around the world. She currently serves as Senior Director for Programming and Communications at the Matthew Harris Ornstein Memorial Foundation, where she helps guide the foundation’s projects and is also working as an impact producer on the documentary Immutable.
Yael loves hiking, sushi, and playing board games with her son and learning to cook!