Jody Hassett Sanchez

“In feature films, the director is god. In documentary films, God is the director.”

- Alfred Hitchcock

The daughter of a Naval carrier pilot, I’ve lost count of how many times we moved as I was growing up. I attended at least twelve schools before graduating from Smith College. Walking into yet another classroom as the new kid and trying to decipher the local culture helped prepare me for the life I’ve been blessed to live ever since.

My dream of being the first female Blue Angel was dashed when I found out I needed glasses in tenth grade but watching reruns of “The Mary Tyler Moore” show inspired me to explore another path. Journalism turned out to be the perfect vocation for a curious, peripatetic outsider.

I learned the art and the craft of journalism as a news producer at CNN and ABC. This serves me well today as a documentary film director and producer. I’m hardwired to make deadlines and can manage a multi-country shoot while staying on budget. My years of interviewing both heads of states and small-town heroes allows me to put almost anyone at ease on camera, despite the tough questions I am inclined to ask.

Yes, it was an adrenaline rush to report from Mongolia one week and a refugee camp in Macedonia the next, writing and editing along the way. But “parachute journalism” provides a limited take on any story. I was more interested in lingering in a location, collaborating with that community and exploring a story in-depth. Long-form documentary filmmaking was the logical next step.

I am drawn to stories about art, faith and the connection between beauty and justice.

As a filmmaker, I’m no longer inclined towards stories that only focus on the world’s problems and crises, contributing to our collective compassion fatigue. The films that we craft at Pointy Shoe Productions point to the possibility for hope or change.

I care deeply about the people we follow in our films. They are so much more than “characters” to me. I don’t forget that I am accountable to them in how I shape their stories in the edit room and on screen. I’ve spent more time working in Africa than anywhere else, which is why I started the Africa Film Project in 2009. It’s a weeklong documentary bootcamp to equip young filmmakers with the technical and editorial skills to bring their stories to international audiences.

My work has been supported and recognized by various fellowships and programs, including the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, The American Film Showcase, The Aspen Institute Religion & Society Program, The IFP Documentary Film Lab, The USC Getty-Annenberg Fellowship for Journalists in the Arts and Journalistes en Europe.

I’ve shared two national Emmy Awards and a Peabody with CNN and ABC colleagues as well as receiving the Religion News Writers Documentary of the Year Award, The Docs in Progress Social Impact and the Window to the World Award.

Pointy Shoe Productions’ films have screened at HOT DOCS, DOCS NYC, the Nantucket Film Festival and the Naples Film Festival among many others.

Musings: …..