Micha Peled

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Micha Peled (Hebrew: מיכה פלד), also known as Micha X. Peled, is an Israeli filmmaker based in San Francisco. He is best known for his Globalization Trilogy — Store Wars: When Wal-Mart Comes to Town (2001), China Blue (2005) and Bitter Seeds (2011) — which explore how globalization affects workers, economies, and farmers around the world.

Born and raised in Israel, he moved to the United States by hitchhiking. In America he worked as an importer of hammocks and sheepskin jackets, tried prison guarding, and later became a freelance journalist. He was active in the Nuclear Freeze Campaign and served as executive director of the Media Alliance, a San Francisco-based media watchdog.

Peled directed his first television documentary and his first feature, Will My Mother Go Back to Berlin? in 1993. He followed with Inside God's Bunker (1994) and You, Me, Jerusalem (1995). In 1999 he founded Teddy Bear Films, a nonprofit to promote film making and storytelling.

Store Wars premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival in 2001, earning CINE Golden Eagle and Golden Gate awards. China Blue won an Amnesty International-DOEN Award in 2005. Bitter Seeds won the Green Screen Award and the Oxfam Global Justice Award in 2011. His work often focuses on conflicts within Jewish communities and the broader impacts of globalization.