A moving image artist trained in photography and 16mm cinema, the films of Sasha Waters pursue ecstatic, metaphorical realism from the relations and materials of ordinary life. Creating across a range of forms – feminist experimental, essay, and biography – she works at the crossroads of intimate experience and social inquiry, crafting portraits of caretakers, artists, and other humans chasing wild dreams and radical futures. Sasha's latest film, Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World, is a portrait of the beloved American poet that premiered at the True/False Film Festival in 2026 and will be released by Kino Lorber in theaters before its national PBS broadcast.
Sasha's personal, experimental films, usually shot on a hand-cranked 16mm Bolex, embrace a personal, artisanal approach to craft. She has had solo retrospectives at Fisura Festival of Experimental Film, CDMX; the Library of Congress; The Brattle Theatre in Cambridge; Microscope Gallery in NYC; as well as screenings at Kassel Dokfest, Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin; Anthology Film Archives; Pacific Film Archive; the Brooklyn Museum; the Museum of the Moving Image; Union Docs; the Speed Art Museum and the Gene Siskel Film Center, among other international venues. Selected festivals include IMAGES in Toronto, the Telluride Film Festival, the San Francisco International Film Festival, the Rotterdam, Tribeca, Ann Arbor, Woodstock, Chicago Underground, Big Sky Documentary, Traverse Vidéo, and Palm Springs Film Festivals. She is a Professor in the Department of Photography + Film at VCU’s School of the Arts in Richmond, VA.
