Sara Newens
History
Sara Newens is a Los-Angeles based filmmaker and Emmy-award winning editor who began her career working for CBS News in New York City. Her first documentary feature, Top Spin, was acquired by First Run Features and received rave reviews from the LA Times and Wall Street Journal during its festival run and theatrical release.
She also served as Editor/Writer for Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering’s feature, On The Record, which premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and distributed by HBO Max. She recently completed a second collaboration with Dick and Ziering as Supervising Editor on the HBO documentary series Allen v. Farrow. She is also known for cutting several fiction shorts and co-editing the critically acclaimed indie feature Freeland, as well as directing and editing the award-winning documentary short, Footprint, featured in The New York Times Op-Docs series.
A graduate of the MFA Documentary Film and Video Program at Stanford University, she continues to create original work through her production company Wild Pair Films, co-owned by Mina T. Son. Currently, they are developing their next feature entitled Racist Trees, which chronicles a historically Black neighborhood in Palm Springs fighting for the removal of a wall of trees that many residents believe were originally planted as a totem of segregation. In addition, she helms the LA chapter of Video Consortium, a global organization for nonfiction storytellers and video journalists.
Editor
Brooke Shields, ’80s icon and household name, was a child model before she came to prominence in Louis Malle’s controversial film "Pretty Baby" at age 12. With a series of provocative Calvin Klein jeans ads and leading roles in 1980s teensploitation hits "The Blue Lagoon" and "Endless Love," Shields’ early career was defined by a sexuality that she could neither claim nor comprehend.
Editor
Can a tree be racist? A few years ago, debate on this issue reached as far as Fox News. The focus was a row of tamarisk trees along a huge golf course in Palm Springs, which screened off the neighborhood of Crossley Tract. This is a historically Black neighborhood, named after its founder Lawrence Crossley, who was one of the first Black residents to settle in the largely white tourist paradise, established on indigenous land over a century ago.
Producer
Can a tree be racist? A few years ago, debate on this issue reached as far as Fox News. The focus was a row of tamarisk trees along a huge golf course in Palm Springs, which screened off the neighborhood of Crossley Tract. This is a historically Black neighborhood, named after its founder Lawrence Crossley, who was one of the first Black residents to settle in the largely white tourist paradise, established on indigenous land over a century ago.
Director
Can a tree be racist? A few years ago, debate on this issue reached as far as Fox News. The focus was a row of tamarisk trees along a huge golf course in Palm Springs, which screened off the neighborhood of Crossley Tract. This is a historically Black neighborhood, named after its founder Lawrence Crossley, who was one of the first Black residents to settle in the largely white tourist paradise, established on indigenous land over a century ago.
Editor
Jerry Lewis’s patented form of slapstick made him a 20th-century comedic icon. But former co-stars directors say he was a bully who sexually harassed—and in at least one case, sexually assaulted—women with impunity.
Editor
Forced to go legal, an outlaw pot farmer fights to preserve her way of life.
Thanks
As the pressures of daily life mount in a rapidly changing city, some residents turn to dance roller skating as an activity for release, creating a style unique to Los Angeles.
Editor
The haunting story of music executive Drew Dixon as she grapples with her decision to become one of the first women of color, in the wake of #MeToo, to come forward and publicly accuse hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons of sexual misconduct. A gripping and profound examination of race, gender, intersectionality, and the toll sexual abuse takes on survivors and on society at large.
Writer
The haunting story of music executive Drew Dixon as she grapples with her decision to become one of the first women of color, in the wake of #MeToo, to come forward and publicly accuse hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons of sexual misconduct. A gripping and profound examination of race, gender, intersectionality, and the toll sexual abuse takes on survivors and on society at large.
Editor
An older professor longing for motherhood must recalibrate her path to pregnancy when she realizes one of her favorite students is a potential sperm donor.
Editor
A bio-hacker seeks to cure himself by swapping his microbiome with a donor's, a controversial and dangerous technique.
Writer
A bio-hacker seeks to cure himself by swapping his microbiome with a donor's, a controversial and dangerous technique.
Sound
Three teenagers battle their way through the world of competitive ping pong with their hearts set on the Olympics.
Camera Operator
Three teenagers battle their way through the world of competitive ping pong with their hearts set on the Olympics.
Co-Producer
Three teenagers battle their way through the world of competitive ping pong with their hearts set on the Olympics.
Editor
Three teenagers battle their way through the world of competitive ping pong with their hearts set on the Olympics.
Director
Three teenagers battle their way through the world of competitive ping pong with their hearts set on the Olympics.
Director
With hard work and family sacrifice, a young table tennis champion works towards becoming one of the top players in the world.
Consulting Editor
After experiencing flashbacks surrounding her years at a behavior modification school in rural Utah, a filmmaker seeks answers from those responsible for her mistreatment only to find that she already possesses the truth.
