Tod Lending

Mr. Lending is a debut novelist and an Academy Award™-nominated and national Emmy-winning documentary producer, director, writer, and cinematographer. Over the past 38 years, his film work has broadcasted nationally on major US networks and internationally throughout Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. His films have been screened theatrically, awarded at national and international festivals, including the Sundance Film Festival, Kraków Film Festival,  screened at Lincoln Center and the White House. He is currently at work on his second novel, Displaced, set in 1982 Chicago—a crime story steeped in moral dilemmas while haunted by the lingering shadows of persecution.

Before turning to novel writing, Mr. Lending created nationally and internationally awarded documentaries that focused on longitudinal storytelling. While following his subjects over the course of years, his aesthetic placed the audience in the shoes of his subjects as their lives unfolded in real-time. His themes included studying the impact of generational poverty and violence in minority and non-minority families and communities. He has intimately followed the homeless, the physically and sexually abused, the incarcerated, addicted, refugees from war zones, and Holocaust survivors. While his stories capture the complexities of loss and trauma, they also reveal the remarkable human potential for finding hope and resilience in the most
unlikely places.

His feature-length documentary, LEGACY, was nominated for an Academy Award® in 2001. This inspiring film chronicles the journey of an African-American family over a five-year period as  they overcome adversity and hardship. It also received critical acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival 2000, aired nationally on Cinemax/HBO, and was later released on PBS. The film’s impact extended beyond the screen, influencing federal housing legislation titled The Legacy Act, a federal law that provided low-income housing for grandparents raising their grandchildren.

Among his other acclaimed works, Mr. Lending directed the award-winning, nationally Emmy-nominated PBS series NO TIME TO BE A CHILD, exploring the effects of violence on children growing up in poverty and urban war-zone communities. His nationally Emmy-nominated and Henry Hampton award-winning documentary OMAR & PETE delves into the challenges faced by two ex-offenders from the day they’re released from prison as they struggle to reintegrate into society over the course of two years. ROSEVELT’S AMERICA follows a newly arrived Liberian refugee to the U.S., and survivor of political torture, as he strives to rescue his wife from the conflict-zones in Liberia while working and raising his three children in Chicago. In AIMEE’S CROSSING, Lending sheds light on the struggles of a female juvenile offender as she struggles for four years through numerous incarcerations and therapy while trying to develop the emotional tools she needs to survive and flourish.

THE PRINCIPAL STORY, filmed over a year, closely examines the struggles of two public school principals desperately trying to improve the quality of education in their underfunded schools located in economically challenged communities. ALL THE DIFFERENCE, filmed over five years, explores the challenges of getting low-income Black males to college by following two young Black men through their last year of high school, and all four years of college. Both of these films broadcasted nationally on the PBS Emmy-award winning series, POV. ALL THE DIFFERENCE had a special screening at the White House.

VEZO, a short film shot in Madagascar for the Sundance Institute, winner of the Hilton sustainability Award, is a tale about the lessons of environmental sustainability told from the perspective of an indigenous fourteen-year-old girl whose village was in danger of starvation from over fishing the area where they lived. SAUL & RUBY’S HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR BAND, distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Films and winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Miami Jewish Film Festival and Audience Award at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival.

Throughout his career, Mr. Lending has been a recipient of significant grants from esteemed foundations such as the Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Wallace Foundation, Sundance Film Institute, U.S. Office of Education supporting both his film productions and community engagement projects. National press has covered his work including the New York Times, Washington Post, Baltimore Sun, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, Crain’s Magazine, Chicago Magazine.

In addition to his filmmaking endeavors, Mr. Lending has also been actively involved in education as a University of Maryland Journalism Fellow; presented documentary filmmaking workshops at universities and colleges; served as an editorial advisor at the Sundance Institute; and has also contributed his expertise as a juror for prestigious awards and film festivals, including the News and Documentary Emmy’s, The Kraków Film Festival, Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival, Chicago International Films Festival, among others.