Initially studying painting, she then switched to film-making and moved to New York University's bigger film department.
[4] Davis introduced Rinzler to the Hughes brothers who employed her as Director of Photography on Menace II Society and Dead Presidents.
[2][5] Rinzler then shot Steve Buscemi's directorial debut, Trees Lounge, and Tony Bui's award-winning film Three Seasons.
Rinzler won the Outstanding Cinematography For Nonfiction Programming (Single Or Multi-Camera) Emmy for Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues in 2004.
She was also nominated for the Outstanding Cinematography For Nonfiction Programming in 2013 for her work on Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence In The House Of God.