Sarah Feinbloom is an award-winning director, producer and editor whose documentary production company SarafinaProductions http://www.sarafinaproductions.com creates content focusing on human rights and cross cultural understanding. Her award-winning documentary What Do You Believe? – the Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers (2003) aired on PBS stations and screened internationally at venues including the Mill Valley Film Festival, the Toronto Children’s Film Festival, the National Association of Multicultural Educators, and the American Academy of Religion. It was voted “One of Ten Best Videos for Young Adults in 2003” by the American Library Association, and has shown at over 2000 schools and colleges in the U.S. and internationally. What Do You Believe? received funding from The California Council For The Humanities, The Pacific Pioneer Fund, The Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund and The Paul Robeson Fund for Independent Media. As a companion to the film Sarah created curriculum and workshops on interfaith dialogue and religious diversity, and has been a featured presenter with the Ford Foundation Difficult Dialogue Series, the Graduate Theological Union’s conference Religious Pluralism in the 21st Century: Muslim Identities in the Diaspora, and for the Religions For Peace-USA Symposium: Beyond Bigotry: Recreating our Ethnic, Racial and Religious Harmony in a Post-September 11 World. She is currently working on a follow up film What Do You Believe Now? which catches viewers up on the the faith journeys of the teens she profiled 17 years later, This latest project received funding and sponsorship from The Hartley Film Foundation, and will be completed in the fall of 2018.
Sarah recently directed Earth Water Woman (2013) about Rastafarian women environmentalists in Trinidad, which premiered at the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival, and a documentary on LGBTQI activists in Jamaica called Many Loves, One Heart (2018) which is just beginning its festival run. Sarah’s film projects also include Youth to Youth (1992), which examines racism, rape, war, police brutality, and growing up with violence through the eyes of the youth. She has also led national workshops on violence prevention for schools, non-profits and public health organizations. Her film Daughters and Sons Preventing Child-Trafficking in the Golden Triangle (2005), which profiles a program that saves children from sex-trafficking, was featured on NPR, won the award for Best Short in Child Advocacy at the Artivist Film Festival, and helped raise over $250,000. Other credits include In Search of the Heart of Chocolate (2008), which premiered at the Palm Springs International Short Film Festival, and Which Way, Por Favor?(1998) an independent feature film about Mexico and spiritual seekers.
She founded her boutique educational distribution company GOOD DOCS http://www.gooddocs.net in 2014 order to support independent documentary filmmakers and to bring independent content to students, educators and communities. The company features over 35 award-winning titles, and has an extensive network of audiences especially on college campuses, with multiple screenings and filmmaker talks taking place year round. Sarah has a B.A. in Political Science from Barnard College, Columbia University and an M.A. in Education from Tufts University, and speaks French and Spanish. Prior to becoming a filmmaker, she taught high school social studies and coordinated social justice programs for organizations including the American Friends Service Committee and the San Francisco Volunteer Center.
LGBTQ+ Toronto Film Festival 