Independent Productions
QUEEN OF HEARTS: AUDREY FLACK
Directed by Deborah Shaffer & Rachel Reichman; Produced by Davina Pardo, Deborah Shaffer, Amy Sultan;
Intimate portrait of Audrey Flack, trailblazing octogenarian artist, returning to work on canvas for the first time in decades.
75 minutes 2019
Audience and Arts & Culture Awards — Hamptons Doc Fest, Documentary Featrue Editing — Ashland Indepentdent Film Festival, DOC NYC, Full Frame, DOCAVIV & Sonoma Film Festivals
VERY SEMI SERIOUS: A PARTIALLY THOROUGH PORTRAIT OF NEW YORKER CARTOONISTS
Directed by Leah Wolchok; Produced by Davina Pardo; Executive Producers Regina Scully, Deborah Shaffer & Bruce Sinofsky
An offbeat documentary about humor, art and the genius of the creators of the single panel cartoon.
83 minutes Redora Films & HBO Documentaries 2015
Emmy Award — Best Arts & Culture Programming
Tribeca, AFI Docs, San Francisco & Montclair Film Festivals
TO BE HEARD
Directed & Produced by Roland Legiardi-Laura, Edwin Martinez, Deborah Shaffer, Amy Sultan; Executive Producers: Jim & Jill Angelo, Mary Jo Fifer
Three at-risk teens from the Bronx share their stories of friendship, love and struggle in a radical poetry class.
87 minutes The Odysseus Group & ITVS 2010
Audience Award & Grand Jury Prize — DOC NYC; Audience Award & Special Jury Prize — Seattle Film Festival; Best Documentary — San Diego Film Festival; Best Documentary — Victoria Film Festival
ASYLUM
Directed by Sandy McLeod; Produced by Gini Reticker; Executive Producers: Gini Reticker, Deborah Shaffer, Natalie Reuss & Sandy McLeod
A Ghanaian woman’s terrifying flight from sexual violence and struggle for political asylum in the US.
20 minutes Make-Do Productions 2003
Academy Award Nomination — Best Short Documentary; Honorable Mention — Sundance; Best Documentary — Aspen Shortsfest
FROM THE ASHES: 10 ARTISTS
Directed by Deborah Shaffer
Artists in downtown Manhattan pick up the shattered pieces of their lives and reconsider their work after September 11.
55 minutes ORF 2001
Sundance, Tribeca, Double Take Film Festivals
FROM THE ASHES: EPILOGUE
Directed by Deborah Shaffer & Michael Julian Berz
One year later, the artists are in their studios.
35 minutes ORF 2002
Tribeca Film Festival
DANCE OF HOPE
Directed by Deborah Shaffer; Produced by LaVonne Poteet & Deborah Shaffer
The wives, mothers and sisters of the disappeared courageously struggle for the truth and justice in Chile.
75 minutes Copihue Productions 1989
Sundance, London, Sydney Film Festivals; First Prize — Valladolid, Spain; Prix d’Or — FIPA, Cannes
FIRE FROM THE MOUNTAIN
Directed by Deborah Shaffer; Produced by Adam Friedson & Deborah Shaffer
Nicaraguan author Omar Cabezas’ personal memoir of revolution and reconstruction.
60 minutes Common Sense Foundation 1987
New York, Sundance, AFI Film Festivals; Blue Ribbon — American Film Festival; Emmy Nomination
WITNESS TO WAR: DR. CHARLIE CLEMENTS
Directed by Deborah Shaffer; Produced by David Goodman
Odyssey of conscience of former Air Force pilot in Vietnam turned pacifist physician in a war zone of El Salvador.
32 minutes Skylight Pictures & AFSC 1984
Academy Award — Short Documentary; New Directors/New Films; Blue Ribbon — American Film Festival; Grand Prize — USA Film Festival; Golden Gate Award — San Francisco Film Festival
NICARAGUA: REPORT FROM THE FRONT
Directed by Deborah Shaffer & Tom Sigel; Produced by Deborah Shaffer & Pam Yates
US secretly funds the contra army in attempt to destabilize new government.
32 minutes Skylight Pictures 1983
Gold Dove — Leipzig Film Festival; Red Ribbon — American Film Festival
EL SALVADOR: ANOTHER VIETNAM
Directed & Produced by Glenn Silber & Tete Vasconcellos; Edited by Deborah Shaffer
Behind the lines with rebel forces, as US sends advisors to Salvadoran army and civil war heats up.
56 minutes Catalyst Media / PBS 1981
Academy Award Nomination; Blue Ribbon — American Film Festival; Golden Hugo — Chicago International Film Festival; Golden Dove — Leipzig International Film Festival; Gold Award — Bilbao International Film Festival
THE WOBBLIES
Directed & Produced by Stewart Bird & Deborah Shaffer
Members of radical labor union IWW tell their own irrepressible story in words, graphics and song.
89 minutes CEP 1979
New York, Rotterdam, Berlin Film Festivals; Red Ribbon — American Film Festival; Filmex — LA International Film Exposition
TV Films
DEFYING THE NAZIS: THE SHARPS WAR
Directed by Ken Burns & Artemis Joukowsky; Produced by Matthew Justus & Ken Burns; Interviews Directed by Deborah Shaffer; Executive Producer Ken Burns
On the precipice of World War II Waitstill & Martha Sharp, a Unitarian minister and his wife from Wellesley, Massachusetts, left their children home to rescue refugees in Europe.
80 minutes No Limits Media, Florentine Films, & WETA 2016
PBS
LADIES FIRST: WOMEN OF RWANDA
Directed by Gini Reticker; Produced by Colette Kunkel, Gini Reticker & Deborah Shaffer; Written by Deborah Shaffer
Women emerge from the devastation as leaders 10 years after the genocide.
45 minutes WNET 2004
Emmy Award; Cine Golden Eagle
ART:21 — ART IN THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY
Spirituality and Consumption Episodes
Directed by Deborah Shaffer; Produced by Susan Sollins
Profiles of contemporary artists including James Turrell, Ann Hamilton, Matthew Barney and Shahzia Sikander.
60 minutes (per episode) Art 21 2001
Gold Hugo — Chicago Film Festival; Emmy Nomination
JAZZMAN: CHARLIE HADEN
Directed by Deborah Shaffer; Produced by Natalie Reuss & Deborah Shaffer; Executive Producer Ulli Pfau
Legendary jazz bassist Charlie Haden.
9 minutes ZDF 1999
SECRETS UNDERGROUND
Secrets Underground: Directed; Produced & Written by Deborah Shaffer; Executive Producer Judith Vecchione; Narrated by Michelle Pfeiffer
Cave archaeologist Dr. Patty Jo Watson searches for clues deep underground.
54 minutes WGBH 1994
Christopher Award; Emma Award
CAMPAIGN FOR DEMOCRACY
Directed by Deborah Shaffer; Produced by Emma Freud
First post-Pinochet dictatorship elections in Chile.
40 minutes Channel 4, England 1990
Early Work
CHRIS AND BERNIEProduced & Directed by Bonnie Friedman & Deborah Shaffer
Two divorced single mothers join forces to care for their children, carve out careers and build their futures.
26 minutes Pandora Films 1974
Red Ribbon — American Film Festival; MoMA; Whitney
HOW ABOUT YOU?
Produced & Directed by Bonnie Friedman, Marilyn Mulford & Deborah Shaffer
A short film about birth control choices and sexuality for teens at a time when teens were counseled not to have sex.
25 minutes Pandora Films 1972
MoMA
MAKE-OUT
Geri Ashur, Andrea Eagan, Marcia Salo Rizzi, Peter Schlaifer, Deborah Shaffer
“A classic of early feminist cinema…” A young couple in a car, as we hear the young woman’s real thoughts on what is happening and why.
5 minutes Newsreel 1970
Restored by NY Women in Film & Television; The Film Society of Lincoln Center October 2011