New York City-based and founded in 2017 by industry veteran Beth Levison, Hazel Pictures produces timely, character-driven, and award-winning documentary films, successfully delivering them to screens big and small. We support projects that feature riveting subjects, compelling stories and strong creative teams. Dedicated to our filmmakers—from first timers to veterans in the field—we bring focus, passion and three decades of industry experience to elevate every stage of the filmmaking process—from development to distribution.

Beth Levison is a prolific, award-winning filmmaker based in NYC. A director and producer both, her producing practice focuses on independent documentary films and also includes fiction shorts and theater.

Her most recent producing effort, A PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY, about filmmaker Rachel Seed’s effort to piece together a portrait of her intrepid, photojournalist mother whom she never knew, premiered at the True/False Film Festival, was awarded the 2025 Independent Spirit Truer Than Fiction Award, and was acquired by Zeitgeist Films and Kino Lorber. GRAND THEFT HAMLET, which she executive produced—about two out-of-work actors who embark on the seemingly impossible task of mounting a production of Hamlet inside Grand Theft Auto—won the 2024 Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature at SXSW, was awarded two BIFA’s including the Raindance Maverick Award, and streams on MUBI; the film is directed by UK-based talents Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane.

Levison’s previous credits include THE MARTHA MITCHELL EFFECT, a 40-minute all-archival short about Watergate whistleblower and Republican cabinet wife Martha Mitchell that world premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, is available on Netflix, and was nominated for a 2023 Academy Award in the Best Documentary Short category; the film is directed by Anne Alvergue, co-directed by Debra McClutchy, and produced by Levison and Judith Mizrachy. Her previous film, STORM LAKE, which she directed alongside director/DP Jerry Risius and also produced, was nominated for a 2022 News & Documentary Emmy and a Peabody Award, shortlisted by the IDA as one of the best documentaries of the year, and broadcast nationally on PBS’ Independent Lens; it is about one family’s efforts to protect their Iowan farming town through their biweekly newspaper—come hell or pandemic. 

Levison’s other producing credits include WOMEN IN BLUE (2019 Tribeca Film Festival, Independent Lens 2020) about gender, violence and race in American policing; Emmy-nominated MADE IN BOISE (AFI DOCS 2019, Independent Lens 2019), about four women who carry babies for strangers in Boise, Idaho—the unofficial surrogacy capital of the U.S.; Emmy-nominated PERSONAL STATEMENT (PBS 2018); and previous to Hazel Pictures’ formation, 32 PILLS: MY SISTER’S SUICIDE (HBO 2017). She is an executive producer on LAND WITH NO RIDER (True/False Film Fest, 2025), the 2024, four-time IDA Award-nominated MY SWEET LAND (Sheffield DocFest, 2024), WITH PETER BRADLEY (PBS, 2024), and AFTER THE DELUGE, a fiction short starring Grace Rex and Trae Harris and penned by John Patrick Shanley. She has also consulted on many films, including Nira Burstein’s CHARM CIRCLE (Criterion Collection, 2023) and REMEMBER THIS (PBS’ Great Performances, 2023), starring David Strathairn in a tour de force, one man performance. 

Following a career in television, Levison shifted over to independent documentary film with her directorial/producorial debut, LEMON (PBS, 2011). She is the founder of Hazel Pictures, a co-founder of the Documentary Producers Alliance (DPA), producing faculty at Sarah Lawrence College, and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.