BERNARDO RUIZ is a three-time Emmy®-nominated documentary filmmaker and a 2024 Documentary Film Fellow at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. He is a voting member of the documentary branch of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Ruiz has directed and produced five feature-lengh documentaries, as well as a host of non-fiction television for broadcasters, streamers, and social media platforms.

Born in Guanajuato, Mexico to Mexican and American parents, Ruiz came to the U.S. at age 6 and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. During the handycam craze of the 1980s, he made Super8mm films. Ruiz later studied photography with Joel Sternfeld at Sarah Lawrence College,  where he also studied writing with the novelist Jerome Badanes.

EL EQUIPO (THE TEAM), is Ruiz’s most recent feature documentary, his fifth documentary as director. El Equipo was nominated for 2024 News & Documentary Emmy® Award in the “Outstanding Crime and Justice Documentary” category and was awarded the Jury Prize for best documentary feature at the 2023 Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival.  It was named a "Top 20 Audience Favorite" at the Hot Docs Canadian International Film Festival and was awarded “The Golden Owl” for best investigative or research-driven documentary at the 2023 Bergen International Film Festival in Norway.

Previous credits as director include THE INFINITE RACE (ESPN’s 30 for 30, 2020), the James Beard Broadcast Award nominee HARVEST SEASON (Independent Lens, 2018), KINGDOM OF SHADOWS (PARTICIPANT MEDIA, POV, 2016), and  REPORTERO, (POV, 2013).

Ruiz has also created a variety of commissioned work & nonfiction programming (including docu-series) for outlets as varied as pre-Meta Facebook, Disney+, ESPN, HBO, VICE and PBS. He wrote, directed and produced ROBERTO CLEMENTE (American Experience, 2008) which was awarded the NCLR (now UnidosUS), “Alma” Award for “Outstanding Made for Television Documentary." He also created, directed and executive produced the two part bilingual PBS series, THE GRADUATES/LOS GRADUADOS (Independent Lens, 2013). Edutopia called it “a winner that should be seen by as many students, teachers and parents as possible.”

Over the course of two elections cycles, Ruiz has directed and produced two one hour films on the Latino electorate, working in collaboration with journalists and filmmakers, for PBS. 2020’s LATINO VOTE: DISPATCHES FROM THE BATTLEGROUND garnered 1.8 million unique viewers during its inital streaming window. The Boston Globe called it an “absorbing and essential film.” “Deep, thoughtful…a great documentary,” wrote veteran Univision anchor Jorge Ramos of the film. The most recent film, LATINO VOTE 2024 is streaming on YouTube, along with a set of digital shorts executive produced by Ruiz.

Ruiz frequently serves as a mentor to emerging makers and has recently worked with Firelight Media, DCTV and the the Future of Science Fellowship to support new documentary makers. In the fall of 2015, Ruiz was a filmmaker-in-residence at the Investigative Reporting Program (IRP) at the U.C. Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Previously he served on the board of the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP), working on behalf of independent filmmakers.

For full credits: IMDB