Elise Pearlstein
Senior Vice President
Participant Media’s Documentary Films
As senior vice president of Documentary Film at Participant Media, Elise Pearlstein manages the company’s slate of feature documentaries from development to release.
Prior to joining Participant as a full-time employee, Pearlstein produced four feature documentaries for the company, including “Food, Inc.,” “State 194,” “Last Call at the Oasis,” and “Misconception.” Pearlstein’s additional credits as a producer include “Protagonist,” released theatrically by IFC Films, “The Living Museum” for HBO, “The Guide,” and the three-minute “Meet Mr. Toilet” which has received over one-million views on-line. She also co-produced and co-wrote “Smoke and Mirrors: A History of Denial,” a feature documentary about the tobacco industry’s manufacturing of doubt that was short listed for the 2000 Academy Awards.
Pearlstein created her first film in 1998, a portrait of the iconic Los Angeles hot dog stand Pink’s, and went on to produce and write long-form documentaries for Bravo, MSNBC, Discovery, NBC News and ABC News. From 2000 to 2005, working with executive producer Craig Leake, Pearlstein produced and wrote prime-time documentaries for Tom Brokaw and the late Peter Jennings. She is a member of the Documentary Branch of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and served on the board of the International Documentary Association.