Sasha Waters Freyer

Sasha Waters Freyer, also known as Sasha Waters, is an American documentary and experimental filmmaker, and educator. She is professor of Photography and Film at VCU School of the Arts in Richmond, Virginia.[1] Waters Freyer has produced and directed 18 films, 14 of which originate in 16mm.[1] With the exception of her first documentary, Whipped (1998), she has edited all of her films,[1] including Garry Winogrand: All Things Are Photographable (2018).[2]

Education

Waters Freyer received her BFA in Photography from the School of Visual Arts in New York City[3] and her MFA in Film & Media Arts from Temple University in Philadelphia.[4]

Career

She began her academic career at the University of Iowa in 2000, teaching there until the end of 2012.[5] From 2013 to 2019, she served as Chair of the VCU School of the Arts Department of Photography + Film[6] where she is currently a professor.

Filmmaking

Waters Freyer co-produced her first film, Whipped (1998), with Iana Porter. It is a 16mm documentary portrait of three professional New York dominatrixes.[7][8] Whipped premiered at the and screened at the 1998 Chicago Underground Film Festival.[9]

Razing Appalachia chronicled a years-long struggle against the expansion of a mountaintop removal mine by Arch Coal in rural West Virginia.[10][11] Reviewing the documentary for The New Yorker when it aired on the PBS series Independent Lens in 2003, Nancy Franklin wrote that it was one of three "good examples of what makes public TV valuable. Each one is the product of an individual vision, and each one would be unlikely to air anywhere else."[12]

Chekhov for Children (2010) documents a full-length production of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya that was staged for one night in 1979 at Symphony Space on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Directed by Phillip Lopate, the play's cast and crew were made up entirely of ten- to twelve-year-olds. Waters Freyer made the film based on her experience of serving as the play's assistant director, at age ten. It includes archival footage.[13] Chekhov for Children premiered in the U.S. at the Telluride Film Festival[14] and at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.[15] It was listed as one of the "Best Undistributed Films" of the year in the IndieWire Annual Critics Survey, 2010.[16]

Her feature documentary Garry Winogrand: All Things Are Photographable[17] screened theatrically and at festivals around the world in 2018. It was called one of the year's best by The New Yorker's Richard Brody[18] and won a Special Jury Prize in the Documentary Competition at the 2018 South by Southwest Film Festival.[19] The film aired on the PBS series American Masters in April 2019.[20]

Since 2019, Waters Freyer has been working on a documentary on the artist Bruce Conner and his unfinished film on the gospel group The Soul Stirrers.[21][22]

Personal life

Waters Freyer has been married to artist, professor and recovery advocate John D. Freyer since 2003 and they have two children.[23][24]

Awards & honors

Filmography
  • Whipped (1998), co-produced with Iana Porter – documentary, 60 mins[8]
  • This Existence is Material (2003)
  • Razing Appalachia (2003) – documentary, 72 mins[10]
  • The Waiting Time (2005)
  • Her Heart is Washed in Water and then Weighed (2006)
  • This American Gothic (2008)
  • You Can See the Sun in Late December (2010)
  • Chekhov for Children (2010) – documentary[13]
  • An Incomplete History of the Travelogue, 1925 (2012)
  • Our Summer Made Her Light Escape (2012)
  • An Incomplete History of Pornography, 1979 (2013)
  • Burn Out the Day (2014)
  • A Partial History of the Natural World, 1965 (2015)
  • Garden of Stone (2015)
  • dragons & seraphim (2017)
  • Garry Winogrand: All Things are Photographable (2018) – documentary[34]
  • Respiration (2019)
  • Fragile (2022)

References
  1. "Sasha Waters". VCU School of the Arts. February 10, 2020. Archived from the original on May 14, 2023. Retrieved June 2, 2023.
  2. Saperstein, Pat (February 12, 2019). "Garry Winogrand Documentary Casts New Light on Mid-Century Street Photographer". Variety. Archived from the original on May 17, 2023. Retrieved June 5, 2023.
  3. Waters Freyer, Sasha (July 29, 2021). "Interview with Sasha Waters Freyer". Medium (Interview). Interviewed by Marci Lindsay.
  4. Waters Freyer, Sasha (May 23, 2013). "Sasha Waters Freyer". videoart.net (Interview). Interviewed by Katya Yakubov. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017. Retrieved September 5, 2016.
  5. "Durham and Waters Freyer awarded AHI grants for 2012-13 | Gender, Women's and Sexuality Studies". clas.uiowa.edu. Retrieved June 22, 2023.
  6. Whitten, Rachael (January 16, 2018). "Q&A: Sasha Waters-Freyer". Richmond Magazine. Retrieved June 5, 2023.
  7. Alspector, Lisa. "Whipped". Chicago Reader. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
  8. Harvey, Dennis (March 20, 2000). "Whipped". Variety. Retrieved June 5, 2023.
  9. Reader, Chicago (August 13, 1998). "Chicago Underground Film Festival". Chicago Reader. Retrieved June 22, 2023.
  10. Nelson, Rob. "Razing Appalachia". Mother Jones. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
  11. Harvey, Dennis (June 19, 2002). "Razing Appalachia". Variety. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
  12. Franklin, Nancy (May 18, 2003). "The Vision Thing". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved June 5, 2023.
  13. Taubin, Amy (October 19, 2010). "Amy Taubin on Chekhov for Children". Artforum. Retrieved June 7, 2023.
  14. "The Telluride film festival announces lineup". tracking-board.com. September 3, 2010. Retrieved June 7, 2023.
  15. "Not Kidding". Daily Tiger (in Dutch). International Film Festival Rotterdam. February 1, 2011. p. 17. Retrieved June 5, 2023 – via Issuu.
  16. "IndieWire Best Undistributed Film Critics Survey, 2010" (PDF). haosfilm.com.
  17. Scott, A. O. (September 18, 2018). "Review: 'Garry Winogrand' Pictures an Artist and His World". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 5, 2023.
  18. Brody, Richard (September 15, 2018). "How Garry Winogrand Transformed Street Photography". The New Yorker. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
  19. Whittaker, Richard (March 13, 2018). "SXSW Film Awards Announced". The Austin Chronicle. Retrieved June 5, 2023.
  20. "Garry Winogrand: All Things are Photographable". PBS. March 13, 2019. Retrieved June 5, 2023.
  21. Baldwin, Brent. "Gospel Gold". Style Weekly. Retrieved June 7, 2023.
  22. "Trouble Don't Last: Bruce Conner and the Soul Stirrers (working title)". Catapult Film Fund. Retrieved June 7, 2023.
  23. "Personality: John D. Freyer". Richmond Free Press. March 16, 2018. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
  24. Adams, Amanda Dalla Villa. "Road to Recovery". Style Weekly. Retrieved June 22, 2023.
  25. "New Waves 2016". Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art. Archived from the original on April 27, 2016.
  26. "Filmmaker Sasha Waters Freyer receives 2016 Helen Hill Award". The Orphan Film Symposium. December 28, 2015. Retrieved June 5, 2023.
  27. "VMFA 2019–20 Fellowship Program Supports 28 Student and Professional Artists" (PDF) (Press release). Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. February 12, 2019. Retrieved June 5, 2023.
  28. "Sasha Freyer - Artist". MacDowell. Retrieved June 7, 2023.
  29. Seery, John (July 4, 2006). "American Gothic". HuffPost. Retrieved June 22, 2023.
  30. Ugincius, Leila. "VCU School of the Arts professors receive prestigious NEA grants". VCU News. Retrieved June 22, 2023.
  31. "VCUarts wins $15,000 grant from National Endowment for the Arts". VCUarts. June 16, 2020. Retrieved June 22, 2023.
  32. "Film/Video". Yaddo. Retrieved June 22, 2023.
  33. "VCCA Annual Report Fiscal Year 2016" (PDF). Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Retrieved June 27, 2023.
  34. Turan, Kenneth (October 4, 2018). "Review: 'Garry Winogrand: All Things Are Photographable' explores the artist who pushed his craft to its limits". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
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