Episode 2: Ronit Bezalel

Ronit Bezalel is a writer, photographer, and filmmaker based in Chicago, Illinois. Her work focuses on the underdog, the marginalized, and those living outside the mainstream.

Bezalel began her career at the National Film Board of Canada, where she directed the documentary When Shirley Met Florence. After moving to Chicago in 1994 to study film at Columbia College Chicago, she embarked on a 20-year project documenting the demolition of the Cabrini-Green public housing development and the displacement of a Black community from the city's North Side. Her two award-winning films on this subject, Voices of Cabrini: Remaking Chicago's Public Housing and 70 Acres in Chicago, have screened worldwide and served as catalysts for discussion on affordable housing issues. For this work, she was named one of Newsweek magazine's "Top 10 Women of the 21st Century."

Ronit's photography has been featured in Modern Luxury Magazine, Block Club Chicago, Chicagoist, Gaper's Block, Hyde Park Herald, and Windy City Times. She has also exhibited at The Center for Photojournalism, Chicago Fine Arts Salon, Everybody's Coffee, R. Public House, and the PO Box Collective Gallery in Chicago.

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