Rachel Dretzin
American film director
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rachel Dretzin is an American documentary film director. She has produced and directed episodes of Frontline (1993–2011), and has directed and produced the documentary series Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey (2022) and Trust Me: The False Prophet (2026), for Netflix. Dretzin is the recipient of two News & Documentary Emmy Awards and has received nominations for a Independent Spirit Award, Cinema Eye Honors and IDA Awards.
Rachel Dretzin | |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Documentary film director |
| Years active | 1993–present |
Early life
Dretzin graduated from Yale University where she majored in history.[1]
Career
Dretzin began her career by producing and directing episodes of Frontline for PBS.[2] The October 1999 episode directed and produced by Dretzin, The Lost Children of Rockdale County which focused on an outbreak of syphilis among teenagers in Atlanta won a Peabody Award.[3]
In 1996, Dretzin co-founded the production company Ark Media alongside Barak Goodman.[4] Dretzin has served as a producer on various projects produced by the company including Finding Your Roots for PBS,[5] Great Photo Lovely Life and Seen & Heard: The History of Black Television for HBO.[6][7]
In 2017, Dretzin directed the documentary feature Far from the Tree, an adaptation of the non-fiction book of the same name by Andrew Solomon, focusing on parents of children who have down syndrome, dwarfism and autism, and had its world premiere at DOC NYC, and acquired by Sundance Selects.[8][9]
Dretzin has directed and executive produced various projects for Netflix including Who Killed Malcolm X? alongside Phil Bertelsen,[10] Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey also for Netflix, focusing on Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and its leader Warren Jeffs.[11] In 2026, Dretzin directed a companion series Trust Me: The False Prophet focusing on a cult expert and her husband immersing themselves in FLDS culture, discovering disturbing evidence against Samuel Bateman, who claims to be the successor of Jeffs.[12]