Hava Kohav Beller

Born in Germany, she was raised on a kibbutz in Israel, studying music and dance at the Juilliard School of Music and later studying film at the New School; her son is writer/editor Thomas Beller. She spent ten years making the documentary film _Restless Conscience: Resistance to Hitler Within Germany 1933-1945, The (1991)_, an examination of German resistance to Hitler, which also received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature. In 1993, President Richard von Weizsacker presented her with the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the country's highest civilian award. She then began working on a new documentary film, The Burning Wall (2002), focusing on dissent and opposition to the communist regime in East Germany from 1949-1989. This film was released to critical acclaim in 2002.