Deborah Shaffer’s credits read like a road map of social and political activism. —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
I’m often asked if I want to make fiction films, as if that were a higher calling. It’s not that I don’t want to, but rather that I find real life so vivid, challenging and compelling. I hope to continue making documentaries as our world evolves ever more rapidly. While the technology and economics of documentaries have been revolutionized, the human drama and need to hear and tell stories have not. —Academy Award winning filmmaker Deborah Shaffer
QUEEN OF HEARTS: AUDREY FLACK
Director / Producer 2019
Intimate portrait of Audrey Flack, trailblazing octogenarian artist, returning to work on canvas for the first time in decades.
VERY SEMI SERIOUS: A PARTIALLY THOROUGH PORTRAIT OF NEW YORKER CARTOONISTS
Executive Producer 2015
An offbeat documentary about humor, art and the genius of the creators of the single panel cartoon.
TO BE HEARD
Director / Producer 2010
Three at-risk teens from the Bronx share their stories of friendship, love and struggle in a radical poetry class.
ASYLUM
Executive Producer 2003
A Ghanaian woman’s terrifying flight from sexual violence and struggle for political asylum in the US.
FROM THE ASHES: 10 ARTISTS
Director 2001
Artists in downtown Manhattan pick up the shattered pieces of their lives and reconsider their work after September 11.
FROM THE ASHES: EPILOGUE
Director 2002
One year later, the artists are in their studios.
DANCE OF HOPE
Director 1989
The wives, mothers and sisters of the disappeared courageously struggle for the truth and justice in Chile.
FIRE FROM THE MOUNTAIN
Director 1987
Nicaraguan author Omar Cabezas’ personal memoir of revolution and reconstruction.
WITNESS TO WAR: DR. CHARLIE CLEMENTS
Director 1984
Odyssey of conscience of former Air Force pilot in Vietnam turned pacifist physician in a war zone of El Salvador.
THE WOBBLIES
Director / Producer / Editor 1979
Members of radical labor union IWW tell their own irrepressible story in words, graphics and song.