Ellen Perry began her directing career in the documentary genre. The Fall of Fujimori, her most recent film, premiered at Sundance in 2005 and began its theatrical release in 2006 at Film Forum in New York. It won awards in North America and Europe, was nominated by the Writers Guild for Best Documentary Screenplay and was an official selection at over 40 film festivals worldwide.
Perry's first feature documentary, Great Wall Across the Yangtze, aired nationally on PBS in 2000. The critically acclaimed film tells the story of the Three Gorges Dam under construction in China. Narrated by Martin Sheen, the film was four years in the making and was secretly shot without government permission. Perry penetrated China's heartland to reveal the profound changes the dam will bring to the local people and ecosystem. A TV Guide "Pick of the Week," Great Wall was screened at numerous festivals in America and abroad, including the Berkeley Film Festival, where it won the Grand Festival Award.
Perry is currently in pre-production on a feature-length fiction film, A Beautiful Story, which she co-wrote. An Atlanta native, she attended the University of Southern California School of Cinema and Television Production and resides in Los Angeles.