Sarah Hanssen

5/15-6/15 Floor 1, Room 2 & 3

Sarah Hanssen received her MFA at the Massachusetts College of Art. Her films have shown at festivals and screenings around the world. Sarah made her first moving image in 1995 while taking an undergraduate video production class with acclaimed experimental filmmaker Ken Jacobs. There she discovered that, contrary to the predominant perception, film could be a medium for individual, personal expression. Her films reflect the goal of rejecting the passive gaze cultivated through mass media, and challenging viewers to engage with motion pictures on a deeper level. She is particularly interested in the world of children and the care-taking obligations of women. Her work aims to highlight the often-overlooked instances of heroism, drama and intimacy within the domestic sphere. Today, in a culmination of all these interests and concerns, she is in production on the hybrid documentary memoir Two Things Are True about healing childhood sexual trauma through collaborative creative expression. She is a professor at the City University of New York and has published in numerous academic journals. She’s also the mother of three amazing children.