Nancy Schwartzman

Nancy Schwartzman is an American documentary filmmaker, human rights activist, member of the Directors Guild of America, and The Academy.

Personal life
Schwartzman was raised in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. She attended Harriton High School and the Shipley School and graduated from Columbia University in New York City in 1997.

Films
Before becoming a documentary filmmaker, Schwartzman worked as a production assistant for Killer Films and received credit for Todd Solondz's Happiness and Todd Haynes' Velvet Goldmine. Schwartzman also worked on the social media advertising campaigns for the documentary films The Invisible War and Girl Model.

The Line (2009)
Schwartzman "explores the issue of consent, the burden of blame and the trouble society has defining the two" in her first film, The Line. The short documentary was used by a White House campaign and its impact campaign was supported by partnerships with Men Can Stop Rape, Hollaback, Planned Parenthood NYC, The Pixel Project, the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, and AEquitas.

The film was completed in July 2009. It has also been screened at multiple festivals, most notably in the International Women's Film Festival, Israel; Muslim Women and Sexuality Conference, Turkey and Istanbul; Sex:: Tech Conference, San Francisco; and Men's Gender Equity and Anti-Violence conference.

The film was marketed through the Line Campaign, including a group blog – whereisyourline.org, now defunct – which encouraged discussion about issues related to sexual violence. The blog was maintained by female students.

xoxosms (2011)
Schwartzman's second documentary, xoxosms, followed the life and love of two modern young people, exploring the positive impact of social networking technology. xoxosms was produced by Cinereach and premiered on PBS POV in July 2013. It was also featured on the BBC Radio 4 Digital Human series.

Roll Red Roll (2018)
Roll Red Roll, Schwartzman's first feature-length documentary, examined the cultural factors at play behind the Steubenville, Ohio, high school rape case. It premiered in 2018 at the Tribeca Film Festival and Hot Docs. Roll Red Roll won seven documentary feature awards and was nominated for the Cinema Eye Honors Spotlight Award. It was streamed on Netflix. Roll Red Roll‘s impact campaign was supported by the Fledgling Fund, Bertha Foundation, Perspective and the Ford Foundation.

Schwartzman wrote in her director's statement for PBS: "Watching and studying the police interviews, the story shows clearly that rapists and bystanders are not “monsters”, they are us—our sons our fathers, our coaches, our friends. When we turn them into 'monsters'—it makes rape hard to “see” and eradicate".

"Anonymous Comes to Town" (2019)
Schwartzman also released a companion short film to Roll Red Roll, "Anonymous Comes To Town", co-produced with the Tribeca Film Institute and Gucci's Chime for Change, with The Guardian.

Angeline (2019)
Schwartzman directed the short documentary Angeline, which tells the story of a woman who found out, at the age of 30, that she had been lied to about her genetic identity after taking a 23andMe DNA test. The documentary was released in 2019.

Victim/Suspect (2023)
Schwartzman's 2023 documentary film, Victim/Suspect, premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2023. It was followed by a release on Netflix on May 23, 2023. The documentary was nominated for the U.S. Documentary Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and the F:ACT Award at CPH:DOX.

The documentary follows Rachel de Leon, a journalist at The Center for Investigative Reporting, as she follows and investigates legal cases across the United States involving women who report their sexual assaults to the police. Leon uncovers stories of women doubted by officers, manipulated into recanting their accounts of sexual assault, and charged by police for supposedly making false rape accusations, despite being truthful.

Victim/Suspect has been described as "unquestionably important" and illuminating of "a horrific reality that has upended many women’s lives."

Sasha Reid and the Midnight Order
In 2024, Schwartzman directed and produced Sasha Reid and the Midnight Order revolving around Dr. Sasha Reid and her society of young women solving cold cases, diving into the minds of killers, and protecting the vulnerable. Produced by XTR, the series premiered July 9, 2024, on Freeform.

Media
In response to a spike in street violence in NYC, Schwartzman founded NYC – safestreets.org. The initiative was noted in the New York Times, New York Daily News, Village Voice, and others. Schwartzman was also a founding editor and Creative Director of the print edition of Heeb magazine.

Circle of 6 app
In 2011, Schwartzman created the app "Circle of 6," which now has over 350,000 users in 36 countries. The free anti-violence app won the 2011 White House Apps Against Abuse Contest.