Delaney Ruston

Delaney Ruston is a Berkeley born filmmaker, physician and advocate for social change. She is the founder of MyDocs Productions and the director, producer, and writer of Unlisted: A Story of Schizophrenia (2010), Hidden Pictures (2013), Screenagers (2016), and Screenagers Next Chapter: Uncovering Skills for Stress Resilience (2019). Delaney Ruston attended Cornell University, Stanford Medical School and did a Primary Care Medical Residency and Fellowship at UC San Francisco. During her Residency Ruston studied filmmaking and made her first award winning film, If She Knew (1998) about ethical issues in cross cultural medicine. She later directed the short film, Crossroads: The Intersection of Pain and Addiction (2002) about the risks of opioid painkillers. Ruston was accepted into New Voices (2003), a National Endowment For The Arts program for emerging filmmakers. There she produced the short film about her father, Unlisted (2004). This turned into the acclaimed feature documentary Unlisted: A Story of Schizophrenia (2010). Afterwards she directed the award winning documentary, Hidden Pictures (2013) about global mental health. Both films aired on national PBS, were seen in community screenings worldwide, and were the cornerstone of mental health advocacy campaigns. She spent from 2012 to 2014 as a Fulbright Scholar in Delhi, India where she created short films about community mental health workers. In 2013 The World Health Organization asked her to create a short film on global mental health to be used in their international awareness campaign. For her years of mental health advocacy, Ruston has received several awards including from Mental Health America, Harvard, and New York's Fountain House. Delaney went on to direct, produce and write the award-winning films, Screenagers (2016), about growing up in the digital age, and Screenagers Next Chapter: Uncovering Skills for Stress Resilience (2019) about the emotional wellbeing of today's youth. Since the release of the films, 5 million kids and adults have gathered for screenings in 95 countries. The Screenagers films have launched a movement working to ensure that kids are tech wise and lead balanced lives. As an internationally recognized expert on youth mental wellbeing in the digital age, Ruston is invited to speak at places such as the United Nations, Google, and The Aspen Institute. Ruston completed a Research Fellowship in Communication Science and Bioethics at UC San Francisco. She has been faculty at the University of Washington School of Medical and at the Stony Brook School of Medicine in New York. Ruston lives with her family in Seattle, Washington where she continues to create films and social movements, as well as provide primary care to the underserved and homeless which she has done for two decades. She speaks French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Hindi (current 2021).