Samira Goetschel

Samira Goetschel is an Iranian-born American award-winning filmmaker and a human rights activist. An alumnus of NYU Film School, her graduating film, Clown de la Vie, won Best Short Film at the New York State Film Festival and was a finalist at the Student Academy Awards. She earned her Master of Arts degree at Columbia University. Samira's first documentary, Our Own Private Bin Laden, was named Best Foreign Documentary and Best Film of the Festival at the 2006 European Independent Film Festival in Paris, and won the Audience Award at the International Film Festival in Seoul in 2007. Samira's most recent film, CITY 40, which investigates Russia's largest secret nuclear city was nominated for several awards including: an Emmy Award for Outstanding Investigative Documentary (2017); a Matter of Act Amnesty International Film of the Year Award; the Human Rights Activist of the Year Award (The Hague, 2017); and a Grand Jury Award at the Sheffield International Documentary Film Festival in the UK (2016). CITY 40 is available worldwide on Netflix. Samira's work is concerned with identity politics and politics of fear in societies where the power structure maintains order and control over the population. Her films attempt to disrupt the normative "story" of totalitarian governments with alternative histories and lived experiences of marginalized individuals that remain untold. Her aim is to highlight people's experiences of silence, resistance, and solidarity in films that ultimately empower the individual while creating common space for the audience's critical engagement and reflection on issues that impact their lives and society at large. Samira has served as the head of jury in documentary category in international competitions and as a judge for the Emmy Awards. Her articles have been published in The Guardian and The Huffington Post. She is a member of the International Criminal Court Alliance in Los Angeles (ICCA).