RICK GOLDSMITH’S mission is to tell stories that encourage social engagement and active participation in community life and the democratic process, and to stimulate young minds to question the world around them.

Rick is currently directing and producing Stripped for Parts: American Journalism at the Crossroads. His latest project, Mind/Game: The Unquiet Journey of Chamique Holdsclaw (2015), aired on LOGO and is part of the NBA’s Mind Health campaign to bring greater awareness to the importance of mental health, particularly among athletes.

Goldsmith is a two-time Academy Award nominee. He co-produced and co-directed (with Judith Ehrlich) The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (2009), an Academy-Award nominee for Best Feature Documentary, an Emmy nominee, and winner of a George Foster Peabody award (for its POV nationwide broadcast on PBS).

He is the Producer/Director/Editor/Co-writer of Tell the Truth and Run: George Seldes and the American Press (1996), which was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. This acclaimed film on the pioneering muckraking journalist was broadcast nationwide on public television and has become a staple in college and high school journalism programs across the country.

Goldsmith also co-produced and co-directed (with Abby Ginzberg) and edited the acclaimed Everyday Heroes (2001), a behind-the-headlines look at AmeriCorps and a provocative look at youth, race and national service.

All four of the above films are distributed to the educational market through New Day Films, a filmmakers distribution co-op of social justice-oriented films.

Born and raised in the suburbs of New York City, Goldsmith came west in 1975 and has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area ever since. Trained in architecture, music and community activism, he started working in films in 1979 and made his living for years as an editor. Goldsmith is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS); and Writers Guild of America, West.

Photo by Ben Selkow