A prize-winning director, cinematographer, producer and editor, Ferne Pearlstein is a filmmaker in the fullest sense of the word. Winner of theSundance Cinematography Prize for her work on Ramona Diaz’s IMELDA, and one of only a handful of women featured in Kodak's long-running “On Film” campaign in American Cinematographer, Ferne has collaborated with acclaimed filmmakers including Debbie Hoffman, Frances Reid, Amy Hobby & Anne Hubbell (of Tangerine Entertainment), Deborah Dickson, and Linda Goode Bryant. She has shot in places as diverse as Haiti, Uganda, and Guyana, and snuck her 16mm camera from the refugee camps of Thailand across the border into the rebel bases of the Karen Liberation Army in Burma. Fernebegan developing herkeeneye with a degree from the International Center of Photography before earning her Masters in Documentary Film at Stanford. Since her first student film premiered at Sundance, she has had four features premiere at Tribeca, most recently her critically acclaimed film The Last Laugh, which concerns free speech, an urgent issue in the present political climate. The Last Laugh was released theatrically in over 25 cities, aired on PBS’s Independent Lens, and screened at over 100 festivals including London, HotDocs, Rome, and IDFA.

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