Sally Rubin

Sally Rubin is an American documentary film director, producer, editor, and professor. She is best known for her work on the documentary films Mama Has a Mustache, Hillbilly, Deep Down, Life on the Line, and The Last Mountain.

Life and career Rubin was born in Newton, Massachusetts. She graduated from the Tufts University and Stanford University. She is a full-time documentary film professor at Chapman University.

Her documentary, The Last Mountain, about her father's death in a hiking accident, was broadcast on PBS nationally and had a broad festival run including the Mill Valley Film Festival. In 2010, she co-directed the feature documentary, Deep Down, along with Jen Gilomen. The film was funded by the Independent Television Service, the MacArthur Foundation, Chicken and Egg Pictures, and the Fledgling Fund, and tells the story of two friends in eastern Kentucky who find themselves divided over mountaintop removal coal mining near their homes. The documentary aired as part of PBS’ Emmy-winning documentary series Independent Lens in 2010-2011. Rubin and Gilomen received an Emmy Award nomination in the category of New Approaches in Documentary Filmmaking for Deep Down's Virtual Mine project.

In 2014, Rubin co-directed Life on the Line, along with Jen Gilomen, which premiered at the Santa Barbara Film Festival and aired nationally on PBS. She directed and produced the documentary film, Hillbilly, with Ashley York, about media stereotypes of Appalachia and their impact on the increasing political and cultural divide in the United States. The film premiered in 2018 at the Nashville Film Festival and played at DOC NYC, won the Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the Los Angeles Film Festival, won Michael Moore's award for Best Documentary at the Traverse City Film Festival, and played as the Opening Night Movie at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival. Hillbilly was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, was picked up by the Orchard/1091 Media for distribution, and was bought by Hulu and Al Jazeera.

In 2021, Rubin directed and produced the animated documentary short, Mama Has a Mustache, about youth and gender identity which premiered at Outfest and screened at Telluride's MountainFilm and the 65th annual San Francisco International Film Festival. In 2021, Rubin also co-directed Appalachian Futures, a piece commissioned by the Smithsonian.

Rubin is currently directing Taking the Reins, a feature-length documentary about the cowboy icon and American identity, with Kristy Guevara-Flanagan. The film is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Rubin associate produced the Frontline series Country Boys, directed by David Sutherland, and edited Robert Greenwald’s documentary Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers. She is currently a judge for the Emmy Awards and Peabody Awards.

Filmography Year Film Director Editor Producer 2004 The Last Mountain 2004 P.O.V. 2006 Frontline 2006 Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers 2007 The ACLU Freedom Files 2007 RiverWebs 2010 Independent Lens - Deep Down 2010 Deep Down: A Story from the Heart of Coal Country 2010 Breaking Through 2011 Among Giants 2011 Without a Home 2011 The Modern Man 2011 Blow! 2014 Life on the Line: Coming of Age Between Nations 2014 Culture Over Everything 2014 The Last Orchard 2016 After Coal: Welsh and Appalachian Mining Communities 2018 Hillbilly 2019 Relentless 2019 A Long Series of Right Now 2019 Slab City 2019 That Was Ray 2020 Les Mystères 2021 Above Snakes 2021 Bisbee Always Survives 2021 Mama Has a Mustache 2021 Appalachian Futures 2021 These Moments 2022 Uprooted 2022 Hurricane Hannah 2025 Dogshit