A radical truth teller who believes that love and compassion are our best hope, Sabaah Folayan made her directorial debut at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival with the feature length documentary Whose Streets?. Nominated for Peabody , Gotham and Critic’s Choice awards, the film chronicles the experiences of activists living in Ferguson, Missouri when Michael Brown Jr. was killed.

Whose Streets? was distributed theatrically by Magnolia Pictures, and supported by the Sundance Documentary Film Program, Tribeca Film Institute, the Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation among many others.

Sabaah uses written and visual media to bring a hopeful yet unflinching perspective to the urgent questions of our time. Born in Los Angeles, raised on Maui and educated in New York City, the challenge of thriving in vastly different environments has made Sabaah an expert at the art of resilience. She attended Columbia University as a premedical student and graduated with a degree in biology.

Outside-the-box thinking and passion for social good then drew her to the non-profit and grassroots sectors where she honed strategic planning and community organizing skills before becoming a filmmaker. Having gone from homelessness to global recognition, Sabaah’s outlook on social change is heartfelt, experience based, and fearlessly inclusive.

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Film

Whose Streets?

Program Affiliation

Documentary Lab

Cohort Year

2015-2016

Website

whosestreetsfilm.com