Rachel Grady
She co-directed Jesus Camp (Academy Award nominee), The Boys of Baraka (Emmy nominee), 12th & Delaware (Peabody Award winner), DETROPIA (Emmy winner), Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You (2016 Sundance Film Festival), One of Us (2017 Toronto International Film Festival), and the Showtime docuseries, Love Fraud, which had its world premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. Grady also co-directed Endangered, a documentary for HBO on the threats faced by journalists around the world.
Rachel Grady

MiamiFilmFestival · CC BY-SA 2.0
- Name
- Rachel Grady
- Birthplace
- United States
- Occupation
- Documentary filmmaker Rachel Grady is an American documentary filmmaker.
- Born
- 2000 · United States.
- Education
- The Field School
- Honours
- Women in Film & Video-DC Women of Vision Awards
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
She co-directed Jesus Camp (Academy Award nominee), The Boys of Baraka (Emmy nominee), 12th & Delaware (Peabody Award winner), DETROPIA (Emmy winner), Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You (2016 Sundance Film Festival), One of Us (2017 Toronto International Film Festival), and the Showtime docuseries, Love Fraud, which had its world premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. Grady also co-directed Endangered, a documentary for HBO on the threats faced by journalists around the world.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Note VALÉORINE
No house-authored Note is published until its assertions and sources pass the VALÉORINE evidence contract. The documentary article remains available in full while that enrichment is being consolidated.
Documentary enrichment in progress · no unsupported statement published
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Rachel Grady. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
Documentary evidence
Evidence Panel
not yet certified
- Identity
- unresolved
- Independent source families
- 0
- Admitted assertions
- 0
- Open conflicts
- 0
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Rachel Grady • Landscape — yes • Birthplace — United States • Occupation — Documentary filmmaker Rachel Grady is an American documentary filmmaker.
Biography
Biography
She is the stepdaughter of James Grady, author and investigative journalist. Grady was raised Jewish and still considers herself Jewish.
Filmography
Filmography
• Year — Film — Subject matter • 2005 — The Boys of Baraka — Baraka School, Kenya • 2006 — Jesus Camp — Kids on Fire School of Ministry and Becky Fischer • 2008 — The Lord's Boot Camp — Teen Missions International • 2010 — Freakonomics — Economic theory as described by Steven Levitt's book Freakonomics • 2010 — 12th & Delaware — A crisis pregnancy center and an abortion clinic in Fort Pierce, Florida • 2012 — Detropia — Detroit, Michigan • 2012 — The Education of Mohammad Hussein • 2016 — Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You — Norman Lear • 2016 — A Dream Preferred — Taharka Bros. • 2017 — One of Us — Documents three people as they adapt to civilization outside of their Hasidic Jewish community • 2020 — Love Fraud — True crime documentary miniseries revolves around Richard Scott Smith, who used the internet to prey upon women in search of love and conned them • 2022 — Endangered — An investigation of threats against journalists in the United States and internationally, from intimidation to physical violence. • 2025 — Folktales — Teenagers at a folk high school in Norway must rely on each other and a pack of sled dogs as they grow.

PHOTO CREDIT: ANDERS KRUSBERG / PEABODY AWARDS Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing 70th Annual Peabody Awards Luncheon Waldorf=Astoria Hotel May 23, 2011
Peabody Awards · 12th Delaware
Loki Films
Loki Films
Many of Grady's prominent film projects have been co-directed and produced by her friend and business partner, Heidi Ewing. Meeting in 1997, Ewing and Grady found camaraderie in their similar approaches to creative projects. Soon thereafter, the two founded Loki Films in 2001, a production company that specializes in both short and feature films, as well as television and commercials. Grady and Ewing approach their filmmaking with particular interest "in the nuances of the human experience and all of its colours and contours." Says Grady about her experience pursuing these interests: "we have found that in fundamentalist circles, you can learn a lot about human nature…you are asked to believe things that perhaps the majority of society doesn’t agree with". Being a co-directing team, Grady and Ewing come up with an initial plan and outsource locations and subjects together. From there, the directors separate to conduct solo interviews and filming. When all the footage has been shot, the duo reconvenes to the editing room and compiles their respective material to create their desired film.
Film topics
Film topics
Specializing in documentary filmmaking, Grady and Ewing have tackled many controversial topics in their films although they reject the idea that they are "advocacy filmmakers" and say they prefer to have the subjects of their films guide the focus of their stories. 2006's Jesus Camp explores an evangelical Christian summer camp for children. Scholar Michael Friesen says that Jesus Camp raises "important questions about the children's psychological development in a milieu of strong religion". Following the release of the film, the camp was forced to close down after garnering negative attention from its portrayal in the film. Loki films' feature documentary One of Us debuted on Netflix in 2017. The film exposes many elements of Brooklyn's Hasidic Jewish community. While developing the framework for One of Us, Grady said, "we started the film with what we always start all projects with, which is personal interest, curiosity". The film intimately deals with the themes of domestic and sexual abuse and the great lengths individuals must go to remove themselves from the community. Grady described the individuals who decided to leave their orthodox communities as "having an enormous amount of bravery and desperation". Writer David Edelstein of Vulture said that Grady and Ewing did not attempt to make an "objective documentary" but noted the potential challenges that attempting to infiltrate the Hasidic community would pose even to obtain their side of the controversial stories.
Awards
Jesus Camp premiered at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival and was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 79thAcademy Awards. Detropia was placed on the shortlist for Best Documentary Feature at the 85th Academy Awards and One of Us garnered critical acclaim with a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 27 September 2026.
Elsewhere in Film memorabilia
37,515 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Rachel DratchPerson
- Rachel FeldmanPerson
- Rachel FélixPerson
- Rachel GoslinsPerson
- Rachel GrantPerson
- Rachel GriffithsPerson
- Rachel HaywardPerson
- Rachel HousePerson
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Rachel Grady?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.