Her documentary style is influenced by her early work with small format video equipment, beginning with the Portapak and filming local Chicago communities.

[4] At the start, she worked for Jerry Temaner, one of the original founders of Kartemquin films, who ran a media production center at University of Illinois Chicago.

She met Jean Rouch, French anthropologist and filmmaker, at the Ninth International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences in 1973.

Hoffman conceptually became interested in cinéma vérité and the idea of shared anthropology- taking form in a collaborative approach to filmmaking with nontraditional documentaries, and often putting video equipment in the hands of the subjects.

[2] In 1996, Hoffman was Acting Director of The Documentary Center of Columbia College where along with Ronit Bezale she developed Voices of Cabrini.

[2] Judy Hoffman was the cinematographer for the films: Howard Zinn: You Can't be Neutral on a Moving Train, Sacco and Vanzetti, and Nelson Algren: The End is Nothing, The Road is All.

[11] Hoffman's inclination towards documentary led her to film a behind the scenes look at singer Britney Spears, in a piece called Stages: Three Days in Mexico, featuring cinematography by Albert Maysles in 2002.

[13] This committee is one of the many places where Hoffman has worked with her colleagues from Kartemquin films, including the founder Gordon Quinn and Peter Kuttner.