Lisa Rinzler

Rinzler dropped out of high school to attend the Pratt Institute in New York. Initially studying painting, she then switched to film-making and moved to New York University's bigger film department.

As a graduate, Rinzler shot two short films with Robert Mapplethorpe and one short film with Wim Wenders. She worked as an assistant cinematographer for Nancy Schreiber and Fred Murphy. She moved into photographing documentaries, including The Dead with John Huston, and music videos. Her work with Tamra Davis on music videos led to her working as Director of Photography on Davis's feature film Guncrazy. She and Davis were both then fired from the film Bad Girls for their feminist perspective. Davis introduced Rinzler to the Hughes brothers who employed her as Director of Photography on Menace II Society and Dead Presidents. Rinzler then shot Steve Buscemi's directorial debut, Trees Lounge, and Tony Bui's award-winning film Three Seasons. She returned to documentary film-making, shooting part of Wim Wenders' Buena Vista Social Club (film), an episode of Martin Scorsese's The Blues (film series) and the Oscar-winning short Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You're a Girl).

• No Sense of Crime (1987) • The Dead (1987) • True Love (1988) • Guncrazy (1991) • Menace II Society (1992) • Hookers, Prostitutes, Pimps and their Johns (1993) - tv documentary • Lisbon Story (1994) • Dead Presidents (1994) • Trees Lounge (1995) • Black Kites (1995) • Three Seasons (1998) • Buena Vista Social Club (1998) • Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues • An Invisible Sign (2010) • Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence In The House Of God (2012) • The 50 Year Argument (2014) • Hitchcock Truffaut (2015) • Pope Francis: A Man of His Word (2018) • Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You're a Girl) (2019) • Rare Objects (2023) • Move Ya Body: The Birth of House (2025)