Gabe Polsky


Gabe Polsky is an American film director, producer, and writer best known for the documentaries Red Army and In Search of Greatness. His work has premiered at major international festivals including the Cannes Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, the Telluride Film Festival, and the New York Film Festival.

Early life

Gabe Polsky was born on May 3, 1979, to Ukrainian immigrants in Illinois, and he was primarily raised in the Chicago area. He attended the Hotchkiss School. After graduating, he attended Yale University, where he played NCAA hockey. He competed on Team USA in hockey at the 1997 Maccabiah Games in Israel, winning a silver medal.

Career

In 2009, Polsky was among the producers on the Werner Herzog film Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. In 2011, he and his brother Alan Polsky were among the producers of Little Birds, an indie/drama film loosely based on the 1979 short story collection Little Birds by Anaïs Nin. Later that year, Polsky produced His Way, a documentary about film producer Jerry Weintraub that was released on HBO.
Polsky and his brother Alan co-directed and produced The Motel Life, based on the 2007 novel The Motel Life by Willy Vlautin. Polsky then wrote, directed, and produced Red Army, a documentary about the Soviet Union men's national ice hockey team, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.
Polsky and his brother Alan acquired the rights to the Einstein estate and the book Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson, and they were among the executive producers of the Genius series on National Geographic in 2017. Polsky wrote, directed, and produced the sports documentaries In Search of Greatness, Red Penguins, and the episode "Red Penguins: Murder, Money and Ice Hockey" in season 24 of Storyville.
With Liam Satre Meloy, Polsky directed Butcher's Crossing, an adaptation of the John Williams novel, Butcher's Crossing, starring Nicolas Cage alongside Fred Hechinger. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Polsky directed, wrote, and produced the documentary The Man Who Saves the World? in 2025.

Filmography