Sarah Hanssen

filmmaker - writer - educator 

                                                                                  













Sarah made her first moving image in 1995 while taking an undergraduate video production class with acclaimed experimental filmmaker Ken Jacobs. There she discovered that, contrary to the predominant perception, film could be a medium for individual, personal expression. Her films reflect the goal of rejecting the passive gaze cultivated through mass media, and challenging viewers to engage with motion pictures on a deeper level. She is particularly interested in the world of children and the care-taking obligations of women. Her work aims to highlight the often-overlooked instances of heroism, drama and intimacy within the domestic sphere. Today, in a culmination of all these interests and concerns, she is in production on the hybrid documentary memoir Two Things Are True about healing childhood sexual trauma through collaborative creative expression. (more).


Sarah is a lifelong educator with decades of experience in the classroom and presenting at conferences. After teaching at Pratt Institute for ten years, she is now a professor at CUNY's Bronx Community College. Her writing on film and film education has been published in numerous academic journals including: The Projector: A Journal on Film, Media, and Culture, Community College Journal of Research and Practice, International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (IJET), Journal of Media Education and The Curator






Sarah Hanssen © 2026