Rachel Leah Jones

Rachel Leah Jones was born in 1970 in Berkeley

Jones was born in Berkeley, California, in 1970 and grew up in Tel Aviv. Her father was a guitarist with roots in Alabama who played flamenco.

She earned a bachelor's degree from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. In 2000 she received a Master of Fine Arts in documentary media arts from the City College of New York.

From 1992 to 1998 she worked for nonprofit groups, including the Alternative Information Center, HILA and the Jerusalem Link. In 1994 she began working in documentary film as a line producer and assistant director, mainly for Duki Dror and Simone Bitton.

Her first film as director, 500 Dunam on the Moon, came out in 2002 and told the story of the village that became Ein Hod. She followed it with Ashkenaz in 2007 and Gypsy Davy, a film about her father, in 2011.

With cinematographer Philippe Bellaïche she co-directed and co-produced Advocate, about human rights lawyer Lea Tsemel. It premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and won an Emmy Award.