Lynne Sachs makes films, installations, performances and web projects that explore the intricate relationship between personal observations and broader historical experiences by weaving together poetry, collage, painting, politics and layered sound design. Strongly committed to a dialogue between cinematic theory and practice, she searches for a rigorous play between image and sound, pushing the visual and aural textures in her work with every new project. Lynne discovered her love of filmmaking while living in San Francisco where she worked closely with artists Bruce Conner, Ernie Gehr, Gunvor Nelson, Barbara Hammer, Craig Baldwin and Trin T. Min-ha. Her recent work embraces a hybrid form combining the non-fiction, experimental and fiction modes. In the words of NYC artist Kelly Spivey, “Lynne allows her real film ‘characters’ to explore storytelling from various subjectivities, various selves and other-selves, opening up, perhaps ironically, a more authentic portrayal of being alive during a specific time, in a specific situation or place. We learn that to burrow down into our ability to imagine another’s pain or joy, and then to perform these as part of our own exploration for the camera, yields a deeper intimacy than if we’d simply ‘told the truth.’ Lynne Sachs’s work can best be epitomized by her interests in intimacy, collaboration and space.” Lynne has made over 25 films which have screened at the New York Film Festival, the Sundance Film Festival and Toronto’s Images Festival amongst others. They have also been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney, Walker Art Center, Wexner Center for the Arts and other venues nationally and internationally. The Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema, Festival International Nuevo Cine in Havana and the China Women’s Film Festival have all presented retrospectives of Sachs’ films. Lynne received a 2014 Guggenheim Fellowship in the Creative Arts. She lives in Brooklyn, New York and teaches part-time in the Art Department at Princeton University.
Her films and art work are distributed by: Icarus Film, Canyon Cinema, Film-Makers' Cooperative, Cinema Guild, and Court Tree Collective Gallery.
Education
1989 San Francisco Art Institute, M.F.A. Film
San Francisco State University, M.A. Cinema
1983 Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, B.A. History
1981-82 University of Paris (Sorbonne), History
Selected Lectures/ Artist Presentations
2018
Documentary Fortnight Festival of Non-Fiction Films, Museum of Modern Art; Film Forum, Los Angeles Amherst College; University of Buffalo Sebastapol Festival of Documentary Film Punto de Vista Int’l Festival of Documentary Film, Pamplona, Spain Echo Park Film Center, Los Angeles Filmoteca Español, Madrid Oberhausen Film Festival, Germany European Media Arts Festival, Germany Symposium on Black Feminist History, Carter Woodson Institute for African-American Studies, University of Virginia; University of Pennsylvania; Smith College; Mount Holyoke College; University of North Carolina; Dennison College; Amherst College; University of Buffalo; Tisch School of the Arts, New York University; Princeton University, Lewis Center for the Arts; National Gallery of Art.
2017
Documentary Fortnight Festival of Non-Fiction Films, Museum of Modern Art; Pittsburgh Filmmakers and Center for the Arts; Indie Memphis; Wexner Center for the Arts; SF Cinematheque; Kino Palais, Buenos Aires
Maine Int’l Film Fest; Anthology Film Archives.
2016
“Cool Worlds and Sacred Pictures” Museum Mumok, Vienna, Austria screening; Vermont College of Fine Art Lecture; Exploded View Cinema, Tucson, AZ; Panel on “Collaborative spirit and tradition of Canyon Cinema”, Museum of Art and Design, NYC; Fusion Film Festival Panelist on Women in Experimental Film, NYU.
2015
San Francisco State University Dep’t of Cinema; California College of the Arts; Muhlenberg College; School of Visual Arts; Haverford College; Hunter College CUNY; Museum of the Chinese in America, San Francisco; Union Docs Collaborative; University of Pennsylvania; Visible Evidence Conference, Toronto.
2014
Wellesley College; First Person Cinema Series, University of Colorado, Boulder; Virginia Commonwealth University Visiting Artist in Kinetic Imaging; Southern Illinois University; “Four Artists”, School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston; RIDE (Risk/Dare/Experiment) Lecturer at Pratt Institute; Keynote Lecture, La Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar y el Festival Encuentros del Otro Cine (EDOC), Coloquio Internacional de Cine Documental, Quito, Ecuador; Antioch College, Ohio; Museum of Reclaimed Urban Spaces; St. Mary’s College of Maryland; Tsinghua University, Beijing, China; New York University, Shanghai.
2013
Museum of Modern Art, Documentary Fortnight 2013; Ann Arbor Film Festival; Images Film Festival, Toronto; “Things that Quicken the Heart” Chris Marker Symposium (Lecture) at University of Pennsylvania Maysles Cinema Fiction-Non Series, New York Porter Visiting Artist at UC Santa Cruz “Taking a Documentary Detour”, Dep’t Film & Media, UC Berkeley “The Experimental Documentary: Reality and Performance”, BorDocs Foro Documental, Tijuana, Mexico; Center for History Media and Culture, NYU; Asian and Pacific American Institute Lecture Series, NYU; “Documentary as Social Practice”, New School for Social Research, Graduate Program in Media Studies; “Social Issue Documentary”, School of Visual Arts; “Reality & Performance” Artist Lecture Downtown Community TV.
2012
Art@Rennaisance (a former hospital) in Greenpoint, New York Public Library Chinatown Branch; Proteus Gowanus Inter-disciplinary Gallery in Brooklyn; Tulane University Artist Lecture; American Corner at Corvinus University, Budapest, Hungary; University Settlement House Five Show run, Nov. 2012.
2011
“The Deconstructive Impulse: Women Artists Reconfigure the Signs of Power (1973 – 1991)” SUNY Purchase; National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. (two programs of films); “Artists in Conversation”, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio, Fall 2011.
2010
SF Cinematheque and Pacific Film Archive Retrospective; Migrating Forms Film Festival; Punto de Vista Film Fest; European Media Arts Festival; Massachusetts College of Art Film Society; Univ. of Chicago; California College of Art; UC Berkeley; Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Walker Art Center; International House, Univ. of Pennsylvania
2009
Tulane University “Women Representing” Conference, invited guest artist; University of Pennsylvania; Buenos Aires Film Fest; Hallwalls Art Center, Buffalo; SUNY Buffalo; University of Maryland Performing Arts Center, Washington, DC; ; Fondacion d’Arte Contemporaneo, Uruguay.
2008
Museo Nationl de Artes Argentina & Uruguay; University of Southern California;
2007
Buenos Aires In’t Film Fest invited guest; Cornell; Harvard; UC Davis; Brown Univ.; CalArts; Rutgers
2006
Makor 92nd St Y, California College of Art, UC Berkeley, SF State University, Ocularis, Cinema Project, Portland; Chicago Filmmakers, GeorgetownUniversity; Ziethgeist Theatre Experiments, New Orleans.
2005
Margaret Mead Film Festival, Cooper Union, SF Art Institute
2004
Berks Filmakers Albright College, Columbia Univ. Inst. for Art and Diplomacy; Univ Utah
2003
Hallwalls Art Center, Buffalo, American University, Georgetown, Rochester Inst. of Technology
2002
Museum of Fine Arts Boston; Mass College of Art; Vassar; Ithaca College; SUNY Binghamton;Cornell; Catholic Univ.; College Art Association “The Internet & Exile”; UCLA; CalArts
2000
Sarah Lawrence; Syracuse, Univ. of Maryland Baltimore; Delaware Art Museum
1999
University of Michigan, Humboldt State University, Adelphi University
Grants, Scholarships & Awards
2017
Brooklyn Arts Council Grant
2015
Women in the Arts & Media Coalition, Collaboration Award with Lizzie Olesker
Fandor.com Film Initiative Award
2014
Guggenheim Fellowship, Film-Video,
New York State Council for the Arts Grant for Electronic Media finishing funds, 2012
2012
MacDowell Colony Artist Residency, Selected as Elodie Osborn Fellow 2006-07
2008
Experimental Television Center, finishing funds,1997; residency, 1999; finishing funds
New York University Adjunct Faculty Grant, 2005,2007, 2008. 2011.
2006
New York Public Library Artist Commission
National Video Resource, Technical Assistance Award, 2005,2006.
New York State Council on the Arts, grant for film
2004
Jerome Foundation, grant for film
Rockefeller Foundation, media arts fellowship, 2001; Service award
2001
Trust for Mutual Understanding, media grant
2000
Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Grant
School 33 Public Art Space, juried invitational show of installation work, Fall, 2000, Baltimore.
Puffin Foundation artist grant for Catonsville Nine Project
1999
Maryland State Arts Council Mini-Grant, with the Catonsville Historical Society
1993
San Francisco Bay Guardian Outstanding Local Discovery Award
Western States Regional Media Arts Fellowship, Supported by the NEA
1990
Southeast Regional Media Arts Fellowship, NEA
Robert Flaherty Documentary Film Seminar, Scholarship
1987
Film Arts Foundation Development Grant, San Francisco
Pioneer Fund for Emerging Filmmakers, San Francisco
1985
Downtown Community Television Artist in Residence, New York
Lynne Sachs
Education 1989 San Francisco Art Institute, M.F.A. Film San Francisco State University, M.A. Cinema 1983 Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, B.A. History 1981-82 University of Paris (Sorbonne), History Selected Lectures/ Artist Presentations 2018 Documentary Fortnight Festival of Non-Fiction Films, Museum of Modern Art; Film Forum, Los Angeles Amherst College; University of Buffalo Sebastapol Festival of Documentary Film Punto de Vista Int’l Festival of Documentary Film, Pamplona, Spain Echo Park Film Center, Los Angeles Filmoteca Español, Madrid Oberhausen Film Festival, Germany European Media Arts Festival, Germany Symposium on Black Feminist History, Carter Woodson Institute for African-American Studies, University of Virginia; University of Pennsylvania; Smith College; Mount Holyoke College; University of North Carolina; Dennison College; Amherst College; University of Buffalo; Tisch School of the Arts, New York University; Princeton University, Lewis Center for the Arts; National Gallery of Art. 2017 Documentary Fortnight Festival of Non-Fiction Films, Museum of Modern Art; Pittsburgh Filmmakers and Center for the Arts; Indie Memphis; Wexner Center for the Arts; SF Cinematheque; Kino Palais, Buenos AiresMaine Int’l Film Fest; Anthology Film Archives. 2016 “Cool Worlds and Sacred Pictures” Museum Mumok, Vienna, Austria screening; Vermont College of Fine Art Lecture; Exploded View Cinema, Tucson, AZ; Panel on “Collaborative spirit and tradition of Canyon Cinema”, Museum of Art and Design, NYC; Fusion Film Festival Panelist on Women in Experimental Film, NYU. 2015 San Francisco State University Dep’t of Cinema; California College of the Arts; Muhlenberg College; School of Visual Arts; Haverford College; Hunter College CUNY; Museum of the Chinese in America, San Francisco; Union Docs Collaborative; University of Pennsylvania; Visible Evidence Conference, Toronto. 2014 Wellesley College; First Person Cinema Series, University of Colorado, Boulder; Virginia Commonwealth University Visiting Artist in Kinetic Imaging; Southern Illinois University; “Four Artists”, School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston; RIDE (Risk/Dare/Experiment) Lecturer at Pratt Institute; Keynote Lecture, La Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar y el Festival Encuentros del Otro Cine (EDOC), Coloquio Internacional de Cine Documental, Quito, Ecuador; Antioch College, Ohio; Museum of Reclaimed Urban Spaces; St. Mary’s College of Maryland; Tsinghua University, Beijing, China; New York University, Shanghai. 2013 Museum of Modern Art, Documentary Fortnight 2013; Ann Arbor Film Festival; Images Film Festival, Toronto; “Things that Quicken the Heart” Chris Marker Symposium (Lecture) at University of Pennsylvania Maysles Cinema Fiction-Non Series, New York Porter Visiting Artist at UC Santa Cruz “Taking a Documentary Detour”, Dep’t Film & Media, UC Berkeley “The Experimental Documentary: Reality and Performance”, BorDocs Foro Documental, Tijuana, Mexico; Center for History Media and Culture, NYU; Asian and Pacific American Institute Lecture Series, NYU; “Documentary as Social Practice”, New School for Social Research, Graduate Program in Media Studies; “Social Issue Documentary”, School of Visual Arts; “Reality & Performance” Artist Lecture Downtown Community TV. 2012 Art@Rennaisance (a former hospital) in Greenpoint, New York Public Library Chinatown Branch; Proteus Gowanus Inter-disciplinary Gallery in Brooklyn; Tulane University Artist Lecture; American Corner at Corvinus University, Budapest, Hungary; University Settlement House Five Show run, Nov. 2012. 2011 “The Deconstructive Impulse: Women Artists Reconfigure the Signs of Power (1973 – 1991)” SUNY Purchase; National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. (two programs of films); “Artists in Conversation”, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio, Fall 2011. 2010 SF Cinematheque and Pacific Film Archive Retrospective; Migrating Forms Film Festival; Punto de Vista Film Fest; European Media Arts Festival; Massachusetts College of Art Film Society; Univ. of Chicago; California College of Art; UC Berkeley; Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Walker Art Center; International House, Univ. of Pennsylvania 2009 Tulane University “Women Representing” Conference, invited guest artist; University of Pennsylvania; Buenos Aires Film Fest; Hallwalls Art Center, Buffalo; SUNY Buffalo; University of Maryland Performing Arts Center, Washington, DC; ; Fondacion d’Arte Contemporaneo, Uruguay. 2008 Museo Nationl de Artes Argentina & Uruguay; University of Southern California; 2007 Buenos Aires In’t Film Fest invited guest; Cornell; Harvard; UC Davis; Brown Univ.; CalArts; Rutgers 2006 Makor 92nd St Y, California College of Art, UC Berkeley, SF State University, Ocularis, Cinema Project, Portland; Chicago Filmmakers, GeorgetownUniversity; Ziethgeist Theatre Experiments, New Orleans. 2005 Margaret Mead Film Festival, Cooper Union, SF Art Institute 2004 Berks Filmakers Albright College, Columbia Univ. Inst. for Art and Diplomacy; Univ Utah 2003 Hallwalls Art Center, Buffalo, American University, Georgetown, Rochester Inst. of Technology 2002 Museum of Fine Arts Boston; Mass College of Art; Vassar; Ithaca College; SUNY Binghamton;Cornell; Catholic Univ.; College Art Association “The Internet & Exile”; UCLA; CalArts 2000 Sarah Lawrence; Syracuse, Univ. of Maryland Baltimore; Delaware Art Museum 1999 University of Michigan, Humboldt State University, Adelphi University Grants, Scholarships & Awards 2017Brooklyn Arts Council Grant 2015Women in the Arts & Media Coalition, Collaboration Award with Lizzie OleskerFandor.com Film Initiative Award 2014Guggenheim Fellowship, Film-Video,New York State Council for the Arts Grant for Electronic Media finishing funds, 2012 2012MacDowell Colony Artist Residency, Selected as Elodie Osborn Fellow 2006-07 2008Experimental Television Center, finishing funds,1997; residency, 1999; finishing fundsNew York University Adjunct Faculty Grant, 2005,2007, 2008. 2011. 2006New York Public Library Artist CommissionNational Video Resource, Technical Assistance Award, 2005,2006.New York State Council on the Arts, grant for film 2004Jerome Foundation, grant for filmRockefeller Foundation, media arts fellowship, 2001; Service award 2001Trust for Mutual Understanding, media grant 2000Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist GrantSchool 33 Public Art Space, juried invitational show of installation work, Fall, 2000, Baltimore.Puffin Foundation artist grant for Catonsville Nine Project 1999Maryland State Arts Council Mini-Grant, with the Catonsville Historical Society 1993San Francisco Bay Guardian Outstanding Local Discovery AwardWestern States Regional Media Arts Fellowship, Supported by the NEA 1990Southeast Regional Media Arts Fellowship, NEARobert Flaherty Documentary Film Seminar, Scholarship 1987Film Arts Foundation Development Grant, San FranciscoPioneer Fund for Emerging Filmmakers, San Francisco 1985Downtown Community Television Artist in Residence, New York