Vivian Kleiman

Vivian Kleiman is a Peabody Award winning documentary filmmaker. Other honors include a National Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Research and an Academy Award nomination for Documentary Short.
Kleiman directed and produced the feature documentary, which chronicles the lives of five queer comic book artists as they journey from the margins of the DIY underground comix scene to mainstream acceptance. The film premiered in June 2021 at Tribeca Film Festival, Sheffield Doc/Fest, and AFI DOCS. It also took home the Documentary Feature Grand Jury Prize at LA's Outfest, and the NLGJA: Association of LGBTQ Journalists Award for Excellence in Documentary Journalism. No Straight Lines was broadcast on the National PBS award-winning series Independent Lens January 2023.
In 2019, Kleiman was awarded a Eureka Fellowship of the Fleishhacker Foundation for visual artists of all media.
Also an educator, she served as Adjunct Faculty at Stanford University's Graduate Program in Documentary Film and Video Production from 1995–2004.
Kleiman was a long time collaborator with Black gay filmmaker Marlon Riggs. They founded in 1991, which creates and distributes films about the experiences of African Americans. Directed by Riggs, their 1992 film Color Adjustment screened at the Sundance Film Festival and received the International Documentary Association's IDA Award, the Erik Barnouw Award from the Organization of American Historians and the George Foster Peabody Award in 1993.
In 2024 she created outthevote.com - a social media campaign designed to encourage queer students on college campuses to vote.
Currently, Kleiman is completing a short film deconstructing a deeply entrenched legend about Denmark during World War II that have masked a more nuanced wartime experience - both its bravery and its blemishes.

WWW viviankleiman.com

Selected filmography

As consultant or writer

Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics & Men, Story Consultant, 4 part series, Showtime, 2019

Strike Anywhere Films - feature-length documentary, Writer, 2018' - Consulting Producer, 85 minutes, PBS, 2011.
' - Consulting Writer, one hour, PBS, 2005.- 100-minutes, PBS, 2002.

As executive producer

Pool Stories, work in progress Last Day of Freedom, animated documentary/transmedia project. KQED Truly California, 32 minutes, 2015. Academy Award nominated' PBS, ITVS, one hour, 2012.
', 74 minutes, 2007. ' PBS, ITVS
' PBS, ITVS, one hour, 2007. ' PBS, ITVS, one hour, 2006.
' PBS, POV and ITVS, one hour, 2000.

As producer

' PBS, ITVS, one hour, 1998.

' PBS, ITVS, one hour, 1996. Color Adjustment PBS, POV, 90 minutes, PBS, POV series, 90-minutes, 1992 Routes of Exile: A Moroccan Jewish Odyssey 1982

As director/producer

' Commissioned by the Family Acceptance Project, 21 minutes, 2013
* Audience Award, LA Outfest; Best Documentary Short, Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival' Commissioned by the Family Acceptance Project, 16 minutes, 2011Profiles of Change Commissioned by Rubicon Programs, 8 minutes, 2011
' PBS, 3 x 60 minute series, 2005 16 minutes, 1992.Out For The Count Commissioned by Lavender Message Project, 14 minutes, 1992.Ein Stehaufmannchen Commissioned by Shana Films, 40 minutes, 1991.

Selected awards

George Foster Peabody Award
Grand Jury Prize, Best Feature-Length Documentary, OutFest Film Festival, Los Angeles, 2021.
Eureka Fellowship, The Fleishhacker Foundation
National Emmy Award Nomination for Outstanding Individual Research
Outstanding Documentary Award, International Documentary Association
Erik Barnouw Award, Organization of American Historians
National Owl Award, AARP
Prized Pieces, National Black Programmers Association
Crystal Heart Award, Heartland Film Festival=

Additional Experience

As member of the board of directors

San Francisco Jewish Film Festival
Film Arts Foundation
AIVF
Encampment for Citizenship, founded by Eleanor Roosevelt
Signifyin' Works, founded by Marlon T. Riggs

As mentor

CAAM James T. Yee Mentorship Award