Kirby Dick

Renowned for shining a light on various taboo subjects largely ignored by the mainstream media, Kirby Dick was regarded as one of the most fearless investigative journalists of his generation. A graduate of three different art schools, Dick set the tone for his career with directorial debut, "Private Practices: The Story of a Sex Surrogate" (1986) and first began to attract awards attention a decade later with "Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist" (1997), an unflinching documentary based on the performance artist's extreme way of coping with cystic fibrosis. Dick earned his first Oscar nomination in 2005 for "Twist of Faith" (2004), a powerful expose of sexual abuse within the Catholic church, and went onto tackle subjects as varied as corruption within the ratings system on "This Film is Not Yet Rated" (2006), the hypocrisy of closeted politicians in "Outrage" (2009) and the rape epidemic in the US military on "The Invisible War" (2012). The latter was not only showered with accolades, but also prompted changes in the law, and Dick further cemented his status as an important documentary filmmaker with "The Hunting Ground" (2014), an alarming look at systematic sexual assault within US colleges.