Linda Himelstein is an award-winning author, journalist, and documentary film producer. Her expansive career has included more than two decades reporting and writing stories for some of the nation’s most influential media outlets. She is the author of the critically acclaimed nonfiction narrative, The King of Vodka: The Story of Pyotr Smirnov and the Upheaval of an Empire, which won the Saroyan International Prize for Writing and was a finalist for the James Beard Award. In addition, Linda’s foray into documentary filmmaking began with the 2015 Oscar-nominated investigative feature, The Hunting Ground, which chronicled the epidemic of sexual assaults on college campuses.
DOCUMENTARY FILMS
As an investigative producer, Linda has taken her journalism skills to documentary filmmaking.
From Emmy Award-winning director and producer Erika Cohn, Belly of the Beast chronicles a shocking pattern of involuntary, illegal sterilizations of women in California prisons. Linda served as an investigative producer on this searing documentary, which premiered opening night of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival in 2020. Featuring an original song written and performed by Grammy winner Mary J. Blige, the film follows the heart-wrenching story of one courageous inmate and a dogged legal team as they uncover the abuses and wage a battle for legislative, legal and moral justice.
The Hunting Ground
In 2013, Linda joined the Oscar-winning team behind The Invisible War to work on a groundbreaking film that, for the first time, exposed the culture of sexual assault on American college campuses. The movie, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 2015, has been shown in theaters and on college campuses around the globe, at the White House, and on CNN.
The Great American Lie
Linda began work in 2015 on the third film from acclaimed filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom, The Great American Lie. The documentary examines how social and economic inequality is preventing large swaths of society from achieving the American dream. The film premiered in April 2019 as an official selection at the San Francisco Film Festival.
ARTICLES
Hotel Buffets, A Culprit of Food Waste, Get Downsided
—The New York Times
BOOK
James Beard Award Finalist & Winner of the Saroyan international prize in writing
"A colorful chronicle of the rise of a business. Ms. Himelstein, a veteran journalist, keeps her narrative moving neatly along, distilling complex matters of commerce into a clear and readable form.
—The Wall Street Journal, Joseph Tartakovsky
Himelstein makes Russian history and even current politics come alive through an unlikely narrative thread — the creation of a fortune and the eventual demise of a vodka-producing family.
—USA TODAY, Steve Weinberg
Himelstein brings thorough research and strong writing to bear on a fascinating subject.
—Business Week