She received her undergraduate degree in political science from UC Berkeley at a moment when the campus was becoming a hub for political activism and discourse, an experience that clearly informed her approach to filmmaking. Deitch attended graduate school at UCLA and completed her thesis film WOMAN TO WOMAN: A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT HOOKERS, HOUSEWIVES AND OTHER MOTHERS in 1975. While at UCLA Deitch had the opportunity to collaborate with students enrolled in the University's Ethno-communications program including Charles Burnett and Duane Kubo, with whom she co-directed CITY CITY (1974), a film distributed by Visual Communications.