Ryan S. Porush is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, producer and writer based in Los Angeles. He has produced, filmed and edited documentaries and short films around the world, with an emphasis on telling longform, character driven stories that highlight overlooked communities in transition.
His first feature documentary film, THE PASSENGERS (2020), tells the story of the final community of Ethiopian Jews and its collective struggle to immigrate to Israel. The film won the Human Rights Jury Prize at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival. It is currently available on Amazon Prime Video and other streaming platforms.
In 2020, Ryan co-founded GigaWatts Media, a production company focused on telling under-explored stories of arts, culture and resiliency in the South LA community. GigaWatts recently completed two short documentaries with support from the GRoW Annenberg Foundation, and is developing one feature, one short and two longform audio/podcast documentaries.
Ryan received a B.A. from UC Santa Barbara and earned a Master’s in documentary journalism from New York University.
A SCHOOL GROWS IN WATTS, Ryan’s next feature film, tells the story of an innovative charter elementary school and a unique community-based approach to education.
His award-winning first film, TWO HUNDRED PERCENT (2016), won first place documentary at the Los Angeles Reel Film Festival. Also in 2016, Ryan associate produced and co-edited KINGS OF THE UNDERGROUND (2016), a six episode documentary series on VICE Sports about New York City’s street football leagues and the players that make up this unheralded subculture. He also served as 2nd Unit Director, Story Producer and Co-Editor on a 2020 reboot of this series, titled Showout, which is yet to be released.