SABRINA SCHMIDT GORDON
DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER
PRODUCE • DIRECT • EDIT • ENGAGE
Sabrina’s directing debut was the Emmy-nominated BaddDDD Sonia Sanchez, which she
co-directed, co-produced, and edited, winning the Best Film Directed by a Woman of
Color award at the African Diaspora International Film Festival in 2016. She is also the co-
producer and editor of DOCUMENTED, the story of Pulitzer Prize-winning undocumented
journalist, Jose Antonio Vargas. The film had record viewership on CNN, and was
nominated for the NAACP Image Award for Best Documentary Film. Sabrina produced and
edited Mrs. Goundo’s Daughter, the gripping story of an undocumented young mother’s
fight for asylum to protect her baby daughter from ritual genital cutting. It toured with the
Human Rights Watch Film Festival, and was screened at a congressional hearing on
women and asylum in partnership with the Tahirih Justice Center. Other credits include
Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes which she produced and edited, Cooked, The New
Black, and Wilhemina’s War. Sabrina’s television credits include America by the Numbers,
the acclaimed PBS series hosted by Maria Hinojosa. Her episode, “The New Mad Men”
which she edited, won the Imagen Award for Best National Informational Program.
Sabrina produces, directs and edits content for many video journalism platforms and
organizations. Among these are The New York Times, The Atlantic, New York Magazine,
Frontline, American Masters, The Ford Foundation, the Center for Constitutional Rights,
Witness, Agricultural Missions, the National Campaign to Restore Civil Rights, and more.
She also produces and consults on engagement and impact campaigns for documentary
films and other media projects. Sabrina has a Masters in Journalism and teaches at
Columbia University, the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, and serves
on many media panels and juries. She is an honors graduate from New York University.
SABRINA SCHMIDT GORDON is an award-winning
documentary filmmaker and impact strategist from NYC.
Her editing debut won an Emmy for WGBH’s Greater
Boston Arts series and she has continued to distinguish
herself as a producer, editor, and director. She was selected
for the prestigious Women at Sundance Fellowship in
2017, and in June 2018 was invited to become a member
of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She
produced QUEST, a feature documentary about a North
Philadelphia family premiered at the Sundance Film
Festival in 2017 and received critical acclaim on the
festival circuit and beyond. It was selected as a New York
Times Critic’s Pick, a Rolling Stone Top 10 documentary of
the year, and an Independent Spirit Award nominee for
best documentary. VOGUE Magazine interviewed Sabrina
to discuss the making of the film in Quest, a Documentary
Disrupts American Narratives About Race.