Ellen Perry is an award-winning film director, writer, producer and cinematographer. She attended the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

Her first feature documentary, Great Wall Across the Yangtze, aired nationally on PBS in 2000. Narrated by Martin Sheen

Martin Sheen

Ramón Gerardo Antonio Estévez , better known by his stage name Martin Sheen, is an American film actor best known for his performances in the films Badlands and Apocalypse Now , and in the television series The West Wing from 1999 to 2006.He is considered one of the best actors never to be...

, the film investigates the Three Gorges Dam

Three Gorges Dam

The Three Gorges Dam is a hydroelectric dam that spans the Yangtze River by the town of Sandouping, located in the Yiling District of Yichang, in Hubei province, China...

 project, on China's Yangtze River

Yangtze River

The Yangtze, Yangzi or Cháng Jiāng is the longest river in Asia, and the third-longest in the world. It flows for from the glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau in Qinghai eastward across southwest, central and eastern China before emptying into the East China Sea at Shanghai. It is also one of the...

. It won the Grand Festival Award at the Berkeley Film Festival.

Her documentary film on the Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori

Alberto Fujimori

Alberto Fujimori Fujimori served as President of Peru from 28 July 1990 to 17 November 2000. A controversial figure, Fujimori has been credited with the creation of Fujimorism, uprooting terrorism in Peru and restoring its macroeconomic stability, though his methods have drawn charges of...

, The Fall of Fujimori

The Fall of Fujimori

The Fall of Fujimori is a 2005 documentary film about Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, who fled the country for Japan in 2000 to avoid facing 21 charges of corruption, murder and human rights abuses. Then, five years later, Fujimori flew into Chile and declared his intention of once again...

, garnered much acclaim. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival

Sundance Film Festival

The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...

in 2005. The Fall of Fujimori was nominated for an Emmy for Best Feature Documentary in 2006. It was also nominated by the Writers Guild for Best Documentary Screenplay in 2005 and was an official selection at over 30 film festivals worldwide. The Fall of Fujimori was awarded the CINE Golden Eagle, Grand Jury Prize at the Independent Film Festival of Boston, Special Jury Prize at the Milan International Film Festival, Director’s Choice at the Biografilm Festival and Audience Choice at the Toronto International Latin Film Festival.

In making the film, she achieved personal access to Alberto Fujimori, despite his living in exile for his being wanted on criminal charges in Peru in regards to human rights violations. It was characterized by one critic as "brilliant, revelatory and entertaining".

External links