Ronit Avni
Award-winning filmmaker, human right advocate
Ronit Avni is an award-winning filmmaker and human rights advocate. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Just Vision, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing media coverage and support for Palestinian and Israeli efforts to end the conflict without arms. Her work has been featured in major news outlets, including Newsweek, The Washington Post, The BBC, NPR, and The Economist. Avni produced the documentary film, Budrus, which was hailed in The New York Times as “this year’s must-see documentary” and has won twelve international awards. Avni directed and produced the documentary film, Encounter Point, which received several awards including the San Francisco International Film Festival Audience Award for Best Documentary. Encounter Point has screened in more than 200 cities worldwide and continues to be widely used in classrooms and community centers in America and the Middle East.
Previously, Avni trained human rights defenders worldwide to incorporate film into their advocacy efforts while working for Peter Gabriel’s human rights organization, WITNESS. She co-edited the book, Video for Change: A Guide for Advocacy and Activism (Pluto Press, UK), with staff from WITNESS. Ronit’s essay, “Inverting the Shame-Based Human Rights Documentation Model in the Context of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict,” was published in the spring 2006 edition of American Anthropologist.
Avni has been recognized with a variety of honors, including: the King Hussein Leadership Prize, Search for Common Ground’s Common Ground Award, the Circles of Change Award, Auburn Seminary’s Lives of Commitment Award and a Joshua Venture Fellowship for young, Jewish social entrepreneurs. She is currently a United Nation’s Global Expert through the Alliance of Civilizations, a Woodhull Fellow, a Young Global Leader through the World Economic Forum and a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Twitter: @Ronit_Avni
