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"Goodness is Loving Your Neighbor as Yourself" - Interview with Oren Rudavsky
May 22, 2025
By Bessy ADUT
Oren Rudavsky is currently adapting his award-winning 2004 documentary "Hiding and Seeking" as a drama. He is working on "Remembrance of Things Past", a film about Memory Keepers in Poland. Oren has worked on five feature documentaries over the years in Poland. He recently completed "Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire," which premiered at the Hamptons International Film Festival and is screening nationally and internationally. He also produced the film "Todo Parecía Posible (Everything Seemed Possible)" which premiered at the Rotterdam International Film Festival. Oren is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, and several National Endowment for the Humanities and National Endowment for the Arts grants. Rudavsky wrote, produced and directed the Writers Guild and Critics choice nominated PBS American Masters film "Joseph Pulitzer: Voice of the People" which was narrated by Adam Driver and voiced by Liev Schreiber. His films "Colliding Dreams" and "The Ruins of Lifta" were released theatrically in 2016. "Colliding Dreams" was broadcast on PBS in 2018.
His film "A Life Apart: Hasidism in America" was short-listed for the Academy Awards and broadcast on PBS and "Hiding and Seeking" was nominated for an Independent Spirit award and was chosen for the PBS POV series. Rudavsky produced a series of profile documentaries for Bloomberg Television called "Risk Takers." These included profiles of Michael Burry and Michelle Rhee. In 2009 Rudavsky was Producer/Writer of the two-part series "Time for School 3," a twelve-year longitudinal study examining the education of seven children in the developing world for the PBS series Wide Angle. In 2006, Oren completed "The Treatment", his fiction feature as Producer/Writer/Director, starring Chris Eigeman, Ian Holm and Famke Janssen. The film premiered at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival, where it was awarded Best Film, Made in New York. It played in Edinburgh and was theatrically released in the United States. Other work by Rudavsky includes "And Baby Makes Two," presented on PBS Independent Lens, "Spark Among the Ashes" which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, "At the Crossroads," "Theater of the Palms," "Dreams So Real," and "A Film About My Home." He was director of photography on most of his films as well as on the PBS POV film "Twitch and Shout," the Berlinale jury prize-winning film "The Last Klezmer," and "Voices in the Attic," which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival.
Rudavsky’s work includes writing and producing segments for the ABC national series "PrimeTime Live," the PBS series "Media Matters, Religion and Ethics Newsweekly," and other national programming. He has also worked as a post-production supervisor on the film unit of "Saturday Night Live" and the syndicated series "Tales From the Darkside" in the 1980s.
Where are you located?
New York City
What are your current projects?
I am working on adapting my documentary film Hiding and Seeking into a drama. I am also finishing my colleague Menachem Daum’s incomplete film of Memory Keepers in Polans.
Please share how you started and got to where you are today...
I was interested in film in high school and started making films then. I learned by doing with some great filmmakers and by just making films on my own, one by one.
Has it been a smooth road?
Absolutely not. Unless you have a remarkable gift, money and drive, it is a roller coaster of a ride with many highs and lows.
Tell us more about your life and career...
I’ve been making films for nearly 50 years! I am married and have two children and try to keep busy making films, growing vegetables in my garden, hiking and playing tennis. I love nature and good simple food. I love people from all over the world.
What do you think goodness is?
Goodness is loving your neighbor as yourself, not harming anyone, not speaking badly about others without very good reason, and trying to do simple good works, deeds, actions. Lending a helping hand in small and large ways.
Who are you outside of your professional life?
Hopefully a good friend, father, and husband. And a curious person.
Are you interested in environmental issues?
Yes, absolutely.
Do you think the world is not a good place right now?
Sadly. I am certain it is not in a good place. Nationalism, poverty, climate change, and a lack of civic civility don’t help.
How do you make the world a better place?
One action at a time. Trying to do good work. Trying to live a simple life.
How can we all make the world better?
Same way?
How can science and spirituality coexist?
I see no contradiction between the two.
If you could go anywhere, where would you go (and why)?
India, Morocco, Italy, Vietnam. I love those cultures and food.
Please provide shareable links to your work...
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