Toby Perl Freilich co-produced and co-directed Moynihan, which had a t2018 theatrical debut at NYC’s Film Forum and a broadcast premiere on PBS’ American Masters series in March 2024. The film was an L.A. Times Critic’s Pick, which acclaimed it as “a sterling portrait of a singular American statesman. Produced with major support from the Ford Foundation’s JustFilms, Moynihan is a film biography of the late NY Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan through an exploration of his ideas.
Freilich wrote, directed, and produced Inventing Our Life: The Kibbutz Experiment, released theatrically in 2012. Variety called it “poignant… and thought-provoking.” It was hailed by The N.Y. Times as “fascinating,” and “excellent” by NPR, which remarked that “Freilich comes to her subject with a generous curiosity and a gift for digging beneath the usual debates.”
Freilich co-produced and wrote the documentary film, Secret Lives: Hidden Children and Their Rescuers, selected by Andrew Sarris as one of the ten best non-fiction films of 2003, featured on HBO/Cinemax, and winner of numerous festival awards. The film was nominated for a News and Documentary Emmy in the categories of Outstanding Achievement in Writing, and Outstanding Historical Programming.
Freilich is a contributing writer to the magazines, Tablet, Sh’ma, the Jewish Review of Books and The Forward, where she was awarded a Simon Rockower Award for Excellence.