BIO

RIC ESTHER BIENSTOCK O.C.

DIRECTOR/PRODUCER/WRITER

Ric Esther Bienstock is an acclaimed Emmy Award-winning Canadian filmmaker best known for her investigative documentaries.  From sex trafficking to the human organ trade, from corruption in the world of Boxing to Ebola, Bienstock’s hallmark is gaining unprecedented access to major international stories.  Her films and series, including Enslaved: The Lost History of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, The Accountant of Auschwitz, Tales From the Organ Trade, Sex Slaves (aka The Real Sex Traffic), Ebola: Inside an Outbreak (aka The Plague Fighters), Boxing: In and Out of the Ring, Penn & Teller’s Magic and Mystery Tour and Ms. Conceptions, have screened at over 80 international festivals and she has produced and directed for most major broadcasters around the world.

In 2024 Bienstock received the U.S. Emmy Silver Circle Honour, awarded “to honor those who have made significant and impactful contributions to the industry.” In 2020 Bienstock was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada for “her commitment to raising awareness of global events and conflicts through film”.  This is Canada’s highest civilian honour.  In February 2015, she was awarded the Gordon Sinclair Award for Broadcast Journalism. This award is presented to a broadcast journalist for an exceptional body of work and a significant contribution to the international profile of Canadian television journalism. 

In 2014, Bienstock was selected by a jury of journalists specializing in the arts, culture and entertainment to be honoured at the Toronto International Film Festival with the Birks Diamond Tribute to the Year’s Women in Film as one of Canada’s leading women filmmakers. 

Bienstock most recently completed producing, executive producing and directing segments of a 6-part documentary series (4 parts for BBC) entitled Enslaved: The Lost History of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, featuring and executive produced by actor and human rights activist Samuel L. Jackson. The series won the inaugural Buzzie Award for Best History Program from the World Congress of Science and Factual Producers.  The series was nominated for 2 NAACP awards and garnered three Canadian Screen Awards including Best History Program.

Bienstock produced the critically acclaimed The Accountant of Auschwitz, which premiered at Hot Docs Film Festival in 2018 and was voted #1 Audience Favourite in its program section and #2 Audience Favourite overall. The film garnered four Canadian Screen Awards including Best History Program.   It was released theatrically across Canada to rave reviews and record-breaking box-office numbers.  The film was chosen by Telefilm to be part of a select group of films screening across the US and UK under the “Canada Now” banner and was featured internationally on Netflix.

Her feature length documentary, Tales From the Organ Trade, tackles the international black-market trade in human organs. Narrated by David Cronenberg, the film was produced for HBO (U.S.) and Shaw Media and Canal D in Canada.  The film screened at over 40 festivals and garnered thirteen awards including the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award, the Scripps Howard Award for International Coverage of a story, four Canadian Screen Awards including the Donald Brittain Award for Best Social/Political Film, the Canadian Association of Journalists Broadcast Feature Award and 2 Amnesty International Awards. Bienstock also received two Emmy Award nominations – for Outstanding Investigative Journalism and Outstanding Writing.

Bienstock produced, directed and wrote Sex Slaves (aka The Real Sex Traffic) (CBC, PBS Frontline, Channel 4), an exposé into the trafficking of women from the former Soviet bloc into the global sex trade.  Bienstock went under-cover and gained unprecedented access to the traffickers, brokers and brothels.  Sex Slaves garnered an Emmy Award as well as an Edward R. Murrow Award, British Broadcast Award and a BAFTA nomination, among others. 

Other films she produced, directed and wrote include the 3-part series Penn & Teller’s Magic and Mystery Tour (CBC, TLC, Channel 4), which takes the Vegas magician-comedians on a wild and unpredictable adventure to Egypt, India and China, The Money Shot (from the Series “The Sexual Century) (History, TLC, ITV) a revealing romp through the hard-core pornography industry and how it is penetrating mainstream culture.  She also produced and directed an unprecedented behind the scenes look inside the world of professional boxing with Boxing: In and Out of the Ring (A&E, Channel 4, TVOntario, SKY UK), the highly acclaimed Ebola: Inside an Outbreak (aka The Plague Fighters) (PBS Nova, CBC, Channel 4) a ground-zero investigation of an Ebola outbreak in Zaire, for which she was honored with a Dupont-Columbia Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism) and Ms.Conceptions (CBC, TLC) an entertaining look at single mothers by choice and the sperm industry which screened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York as part of their prestigious film series and won the IDA Award for Distinguished Documentary Achievement in Los Angeles. She also produced and co-directed The Good Nazi, a film about a Schindler-type Nazi officer who turned his back on his dark ideology and risked his life to save hundreds of Jews.

Bienstock co-produced the headline-grabbing documentary The Lost Tomb of Jesus. Executive produced by James Cameron, the film made front-page news across the globe. Bienstock’s producing credits include The Age of Anxiety (CBC), Impact of Terror (CNN, CBC), Finding Atlantis (National Geographic U.S. & International, Discovery Canada), Science of the Soul (History U.S.) and Deadly Currents (BBC, Discovery Channel, CBC) among others.  She also served as on-location director for the Emmy-winning The Plague Monkeys (A&E, Channel 4, CBC)

Her work has garnered numerous awards including a U.S. Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Journalism, two Edward R. Murrow Awards, a Dupont-Columbia University Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism, a British Broadcast Award for Best Documentary, a Royal Television Society Award, a nomination for a British Academy Award (BAFTA), two HOT DOCS Awards, twoGemini Awards, a Genie, a Cable Ace Award, two Gold Hugos from the Chicago Film Festival, two Cine Golden Eagles, a Distinguished Documentary Achievement Award from the IDA in Los Angeles, a Gracie Award for Outstanding Documentary, 3 Gold World Medals from the New York Festivals, the Grand Prix at the Nyon International Film Festival in Switzerland and two Overseas Press Club of America Awards for her investigative documentaries.

She speaks three languages, none of which her children listen to.