She began her film career in 1987, shooting Ellen Bruno’s Samsara: Death and Rebirth in Cambodia, the first US movie filmed in Cambodia after the Vietnam War. In 1990 she won the Eastman Kodak Best Cinematography Focus Award for her work on Samsara. The film garnered accolades from the Student Academy Awards and the Sundance Film Festival where it received a Special Jury Recognition.
That same year, she was asked by Producer Christine Vachon to shoot her first dramatic film (Swoon) for Director Tom Kalin. The film won her the Sundance Award for Excellence in Cinematography in 1992. This collaboration was the start of a prolific working relationship with Killer Films, which includes projects like Postcards From America and I Shot Andy Warhol.
She has served on the juries of several important film festivals around the world. In 1997 she was invited to be on the jury of the Sundance Film Festival. In 2013, she was a member of the jury at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival. In 2015 she was on the Jury of the Belgrade Film Festival and the Camerimage. Always eager to share her vast knowledge and professional insight, she has guest-lectured at many film schools and festival panels, including SVA, NYU, BU University of Texas at Austin, Walker Art Center, Hamptons International Film Festival, Camerimage, Berlinale and Woodstock Film Festival, among others.
Over the course of her career, she has received many accolades including the Women in Film Kodak Vision Award in 1999 and was honored at the 2006 Gotham Award for her entire body of work. In 2003 she was the first film technician to receive the prestigious NY Women In Film and TV Muse Award, which traditionally is given to actresses. In 2009 she was a special Honoree at the Santa Fe Film Festival for her leadership and work in the field of cinematography.
In 2008, she released her directorial debut, The Betrayal (Nerakhoon), which she co-directed, co-wrote, co-produced and shot. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2009. In 2010, she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Exceptional Merit in Non-Fiction Filmmaking for the film.
