About this user
Jessica Sanders is an Academy Award-nominated filmmaker, a director, producer and writer who works in documentary, dramatic films and commercials. Sanders directed, produced and wrote AFTER INNOCENCE, a feature documentary film that tells the compelling story of innocent men wrongfully convicted, cleared by DNA evidence and their dramatic struggle to reenter society after spending decades in prison. The film premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Prize, and also won top awards at the Seattle Film Festival, Boston Independent Film Festival, Nantucket Film Festival, Newport Beach Film Festival, and Full Frame Documentary Festival. The film was released theatrically by New Yorker Films before being broadcast on Showtime. AFTER INNOCENCE was shortlisted for the 78th Academy Awards.
Sanders produced the film SING!, which was nominated in 2002 for an Oscar for Best Short Documentary. SING! is about a community childrens chorus, which amidst severe cutbacks in the arts, becomes one of the best choirs in the country. The film played theatrically and aired on PBS. Her previous film, LOS ANGELS, a narrative short film that she wrote, produced, and directed played at numerous festivals and received top awards at the Chicago International and New Orleans Film Festivals. Sanders was an Associate Producer on the 2003 Academy Award-winning documentary short film TWIN TOWERS, about the September 11 attacks, and was Series Associate Producer, Field Producer and Camera Operator on Dick Wolfs CRIME & PUNISHMENT, the NBC documentary series featuring the district attorneys of San Diego prosecuting criminal trials.
Sanders filmed Al Gore in Nashville for THE CLIMATE PROJECT, a work in progress documentary for Producer Lawrence Bender and Paramount Vantage. Sanders recently completed KEEPERS OF THE NIGHT, a follow up to her Oscar Nominated film SING! featuring the Los Angeles Childrens Chorus in a new opera. Sanders is currently in post-production on THE MARCH, a feature documentary produced by Filmland and Conspiração Films following teens from around the world as they journey to Poland to retrace the infamous March of Death that thousands of Jews walked to their death during the Holocaust.
Sanders is directing and producing SAMBA, a feature documentary film following Rio de Janeiros top Samba Schools competing in Carnaval and the drug trafficking gangs that govern their communities. The film is Executive Produced by Lawrence Bender. Sanders worked on MY NAME IS BORAT, on the making of the BORAT film and the revolutionary scripted/documentary hybrid technique created by Sacha Baron Cohen and the filmmaking team. Sanders is writing her first screenplay MY DAILY ROUTINE, which was accepted into the Film Independent Screenwriters Lab.
Sanders and her work have been profiled on The Sundance Channel, MTV, MSNBC, CNN, Larry King Live, Dateline, Fox News, Court TV and NPR. She has been profiled in The New York Times, LA Weekly, Giant Robot Magazine, and Film Festival Magazine. She has lectured at various universities and conferences, including the National Innocence Network Conference, Tribeca Film Festival and Los Angeles Film Festival, and the California State Senate.
Sanders majored in Film Studies and English at Wesleyan University in Connecticut and graduated with honors. Sanders is an alumna of the Film Independents Producers & Screenwriters Lab and Tribeca Film Festivals All Access Program. Sanders directs commercials for NonFiction Spots and is a DGA and WGA member.
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