Jeff Zimbalist

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Jeffrey Leib Nettler Zimbalist (born August 15, 1978 in Northampton, Massachusetts) is an American documentary filmmaker. Together with Matt Mochary, Zimbalist won the Best Emerging Filmmaker Award at the 2005 TriBeCa Film Festival for his work on Favela Rising. The powerful film follows the life of Anderson Sa through the favelas of Rio de Janeiro in his attempt to use AfroReggae music to provide a positive outlet for the residents of a dangerous environment. The film was also named as the 2005 International Documentary Association's Film of the Year.

Jeff is a director and editor whose films have been broadcast on HBO, PBS, and WE television. Jeff's work has been featured at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, and The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. He has produced educational and promotional films for over a dozen clients throughout the United States, in South Asia, and in Latin America, as well as provided media consulting services to the UNDP and various international nonprofit service organizations. Jeff teaches at the New York Film Academy and the Maine Photographic Workshops. Favela Rising is his feature film directorial debut.

Jeff is the son of prominent sports economist Andrew Zimbalist, and is often credited as having given his father the idea to investigate sports from an academic perspective.