Justine Shapiro was born in South Africa and grew up in Berkeley, California, where she lives today with her young son. She
attended Tufts University in Boston where she studied History
and Theatre. She moved to Paris to study theatre with Phillippe
Gaulier and later went to Hollywood where she appeared in
films and television movies including "I'll Do Anything" (by James L. Brooks), "Storyville" (20th Century
Fox), "Floodtide" (Granada Television), and "SeaQuest
DSV"(Amblin Entertainment). During four years in Los
Angeles, Justine taught English to immigrants, and their stories
inspired her to take the next step in her life.
Justine returned to the San Francisco Bay area and became
involved in several documentary projects, including Voices
from the Storm about Gulf War veterans and IDG Film's Nagasaki Journey. In 1995, Justine began
producing an independent documentary film titled Promises,
featuring seven Israeli and Palestinian children in Jerusalem.
Rather than focusing on hard news, "Promises" offers
a human portrait of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The
film was nominated for a 2002 Academy Award for best documentary.
It won News and Documentary Emmys for best documentary and
for outstanding background/analysis. The film also received
audience awards at the San Francisco, Vancouver, Sao Paolo
and Rotterdam film festivals, as well as juried awards at
the Hamptons, Valladolid, Locarno, Munich and Jerusalem film
festivals.
Justine loves to travel and has over 40 countries and interviewed 100s of locals from all walks of life. She speaks French and Spanish and is also a mom, her (then) 6 year-old son visited Iran in her latest documentary film "Our Summer In Tehran."
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