Commencement Speaker

After graduating from Gunston in 2003, Rita Baghdadi went on to graduate Summa Cum Laude with a degree in Film from Columbia College, Chicago before moving to Los Angeles in 2007 where she began her career in international film sales.

In addition to running her own company, Baghdadi is a member of Free the Bid, Brown Girls Doc Mafia, Film Fatales and the International Collective of Female Cinematographers. When she's not in the field, Baghdadi is dedicated to empowering girls and women through film training. She is an Advisor for the Sundance Co//ab Documentary Film Course, co-founder and organizer of the group Women in Documentary Filmmaking and an active mentor with Global Girl Media. 

Her character-driven work has been supported by Sundance, Tribeca, Netflix, BBC, CNN Films, A&E, International Documentary Association, Film Independent and Technicolor, and has screened in top festivals worldwide. 

Recently, Rita was hired to produce and direct City Rising. The film was earned three Emmy awards including Best Social Issue Film. Her documentary My Country No More won Best Feature at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival and was picked up for broadcast on Independent Lens in 2019. Baghdadi is also an accomplished director of photography, having shot on features including Served Like A Girl (SXSW 2017 / Independent Lens), Circus of Books (Tribeca 2019 / Netflix) and On the Record (Sundance 2020 / HBO Max) to name a few.

Baghdadi has directed and lensed commercial content for major brands including Beats by Dre, Gatorade and Bud Lite among others. Currently, Rita is in production on several new features including Sirens, a coming-of-age story about the first all-female metal band from the Middle East. 

This bio has been excerpted from http://www.ritabaghdadi.com/