Filmmaker/ArtistIndividual
Leah Mahan is an independent documentary filmmaker whose work has been nominated by the Directors Guild of America for Outstanding Directorial Achievement. Sweet Old Song (2002) was featured on the PBS series P.O.V. and was selected by film critic Roger Ebert to be screened at his Overlooked Film Festival (“Ebertfest”). She spent a dozen years making Come Hell or High Water: The Battle for Turkey Creek (2013) and was invited to work on the rough cut at the Sundance Institute Documentary Editing and Story Lab. The film won the Audience Award for Documentary Feature at the New Orleans Film Festival and aired on the PBS World Channel in 2014. In 2015 Leah was a Storytelling Fellow at the Skoll Stories of Change lab at Sundance and traveled to Indonesia as a U.S. Film Envoy with the American FilmShowcase, a partnership between the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and USC's School of Cinematic Arts. Leah got her start in documentary filmmaking as an intern for filmmaker Henry Hampton on the PBS series Eyes on the Prize and her first film was Holding Ground: The Rebirth of Dudley Street (1996). Leah’s work has been supported by the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund, Independent Television Service, Ford Foundation and W.K. Kellogg Foundation. In addition to her independent filmmaking, Leah works with nonprofits on documentary storytelling strategy. After Hurricane Katrina, she worked with NGOs to create Bridge The Gulf, a community journalism project that lifts up the voices of Gulf Coast communities working towards justice and sustainability. She is currently a consultant to the Moving Forward Network on a project aimed at reducing harmful diesel emissions in frontline communities. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and two children.