Ric Esther Bienstock

Ric Esther Bienstock is a Canadian documentary filmmaker best known for her investigative documentaries. She was born in Montreal, Quebec and studied at Vanier College and McGill University. She has produced and directed an eclectic array of films from investigative social issue documentaries like Sex Slaves, an investigation into the trafficking of women from former Soviet Bloc Countries into the global sex trade and Ebola: Inside an Outbreak which took viewers to ground zero of the Ebola outbreak in Zaire - to lighter fare such as Penn & Teller’s Magic and Mystery Tour.

She was the 2015 recipient of the prestigious Gordon Sinclair Award for Broadcast Journalism from the Canadian Academy of Cinema and Television and was honoured with the Birks Diamond Tribute to the Year's Women in Film at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.

She has garnered dozens of awards for her films including a U.S. Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Journalism, two Edward R. Murrow Awards, an Alfred I. Dupont-Columbia Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism [1], a Scripps Howard Award for International Reporting, 2 Geminis, a Genie, a British Broadcast Award, a Royal Television Society Award, an Overseas Press Club of America Award, a Gracie Award, 2 Cine Golden Eagles, 2 Gold Hugos, a Distinguished Documentary Achievement Award from the IDA, 2 Hot Docs Awards, a Gold Worldmedia Award, 2 Amnesty International Awards, 3 Canadian Screen Awards including the Donald Brittain Award for Best Social Issue Documentary and a Cable Ace Award among others. She was also nominated for a BAFTA in the U.K.