Acclaimed Documentary Editor Lindsay Utz Signs First Look Directing Deal With This Machine

By Matthew Carey
Deadline
December 1, 2021

Award-winning documentary editor Lindsay Utz is turning her attention to directing. Utz, who edited 2020 Academy Award winner American Factory and this year’s Oscar contender Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry, has signed a first-look deal with This Machine to direct her own documentary films. This Machine, an Industrial Media company, is headed by filmmaker R.J. Cutler, who directed the Billie Eilish doc.

Utz’s credits include cutting Miss Americana, the 2020 film about Taylor Swift, Bully (2011), and Quest, a 2017 doc that earned her the Cinema Eye Honors Award for Outstanding Achievement in Editing. She has earned a pair of Primetime Emmy nominations, for her work on American Factory and Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry.

Cutler’s many credits include directing the 2020 documentary Belushi, The September Issue (2009), The World According to Dick Cheney (2013), and producing the seminal 1993 documentary The War Room, about Bill Clinton’s run for president.

“Films like The War Room are the reason I became interested in documentary filmmaking nearly two decades ago,” Utz said in a statement. “Getting to work with R.J. last year to craft Billie Eilish’s story was not only a thrilling artistic collaboration for me, but the beginning of a wonderful friendship with a filmmaker I admire deeply. I cannot imagine a better place to explore directing opportunities than with R.J., Elise [Pearlstein], Trevor [Smith] and the amazing team at This Machine.”

Cutler welcomed Utz’s move into the director’s chair.

“I’m so happy to continue collaborating with Lindsay – one of the documentary community’s most accomplished story-tellers,” he said. “Having distinguished her career as the editor of such films as American Factory, Quest and most recently on the Billie Eilish doc with me, she is now expanding into directing. We’re so excited to partner with Lindsay on this adventure, and can’t wait to work together on films and series to come.”