Professor of Photography + Film
Sasha Waters has produced and directed nearly two dozen documentary, experimental, and short essay films, many of which originate in 16mm. Most recently, she is the producer, director and co-editor of Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World, a feature-length portrait of the beloved American poet. Mary Oliver had its World Premiere on Opening Night at the 2026 True/False Film Festival and was released in more than fifty theaters by Kino Lorber in advance of its premiere on the national PBS series American Masters. The Boston Globe described it as a “documentary about a great poet that feels like a great poem.”
Previously, Sasha’s research into the archives of photographer Garry Winogrand led to a feature documentary that challenged and changed the art historical understanding of his legacy. Garry Winogrand: All Things Are Photographable was called one of the year’s best by The New Yorker and won a Special Jury Prize at the SXSW Film Festival. Winogrand screened theatrically around the world and inspired Garry Winogrand Archive 1948-1984, her forthcoming book in collaboration with photographer Jeffrey Ladd and Artbook l D.A.P.
Sasha has had solo retrospectives of her short, 16mm experimental films at Fisura Festival of Experimental Film, CDMX; the Library of Congress; The Brattle Theatre, Cambridge, and Microscope Gallery in NYC, as well as screenings at Kassel Dokfest, Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin; IFF Rotterdam, the Telluride Film Festival, Anthology Film Archives; Pacific Film Archive; the Brooklyn Museum; Union Docs; the Speed Art Museum, the National Gallery of Art, and the Gene Siskel Film Center, among other international venues. She has received support from the Catapult Film Fund, Field of Vision, the NEA, the NEH, and the Jerome Foundation, and has been a Fellow in residence at MacDowell, Yaddo, Millay Arts, the Film / Video Studio at the Wexner Center, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.