
Lynne Sachs
- Known for
- Directing
- Born
- 10 August 1961 · Memphis, Tennessee, USA
Lynne Sachs makes films, performances, installations and web projects that explore the intricate relationship between personal observations and broader historical experiences by weaving together poetry, collage, painting, politics and layered sound design. Since 1994, her five essay films have taken her to Vietnam, Bosnia, Israel and Germany — sites affected by international war–where she tries to work in the space between a community’s collective memory and her own subjective perceptions. Strongly committed to a dialogue between cinematic theory and practice, Lynne searches for a rigorous play between image and sound, pushing the visual and aural textures in her work with each and every new project. Since 2006, she has collaborated with her partner Mark Street in a series of playful, mixed-media performance collaborations they call The XY Chromosome Project. In addition to her work with the moving image, Lynne co-edited the Millennium Film Journal issue on “Experiments in Documentary”. Supported by fellowships from the Guggenheim, Rockefeller and Jerome Foundations and the New York State Council on the Arts, Lynne’s films have screened at the New York Film Festival, the Sundance Film Festival and Toronto’s Images Festival as well as a five-film survey at the Buenos Aires Film Festival. The San Francisco Cinematheque recently published a monograph with four original essays in conjunction with a full retrospective of Lynne’s work. In 2012, Lynne began a series of live film performances of Your Day is My Night at St. Nick’s Alliance in Greenpoint, at Proteus Gowanus in Brooklyn, at Maysles Cinema and at the University Settlement. She then screened the completed hour-long hybrid video at the Museum of Modern Art, the Vancouver Film Fest, Union Docs, the New Orleans Film Fest and other venues in Mexico, Argentina and Ecuador. Lynne teaches experimental film and video at New York University and The New School and lives in Brooklyn.
Known for
Acting 8
- 2026Tomorrow Doesn't Exist as Self (Voice)
- 2025Every Contact Leaves a Trace as Self
- 2020Film About a Father Who as Self
- 2016Film Hawk as Self
- 2005States of UnBelonging as Self
- 2000Window Work
- 1994Which Way Is East: Notebooks from Vietnam
- 1991The House of Science: A Museum of False Facts
Production 6
- 2025Films For Freedom · producer
- 2025Every Contact Leaves a Trace · producer
- 2024Contractions · producer
- 2021E•pis•to•lar•y: letter to Jean Vigo · producer
- 2014Your Day Is My Night · producer
- 2005States of UnBelonging · producer
Directing 51
- 2025Films For Freedom · director
- 2025Every Contact Leaves a Trace · director
- 2025Visit to Bernadette Mayer’s Childhood Home · director
- 2024This Side of Salina · director
- 2024Contractions · director
- 2023The Jitters · director
- 2022Swerve · director
- 2021Figure and I · director
- 2021Maya at 24 · director
- 2021E•pis•to•lar•y: letter to Jean Vigo · director
- 2020Girl Is Presence · director
- 2020Film About a Father Who · director
- 2019A Month of Single Frames · director
- 2018¡Despertar! · director
- 2018A Morning with Jack Waters · director
- 2018The Washing Society · director
- 2018Carolee, Barbara and Gunvor · director
- 2017And Then We Marched · director
- 2017Tip of my Tongue · director
- 2017A Year in Notes and Numbers · director
- 2016Day Residue · director
- 2015Starfish Aorta Colossus · director
- 2014Drift and Bough · director
- 2014Your Day Is My Night · director
- 2012Same Stream Twice · director
- 2011Sound of a Shadow · director
- 2010Wind in Our Hair · director
- 2010The Task of the Translator · director
- 2009Cuadro por cuadro · director
- 2009The Last Happy Day · director
- 2009Georgic for a Forgotten Planet · director
- 2007XY Chromosome Project · director
- 2006Noa, Noa · director
- 2006Atalanta: 32 Years Later · director
- 2006The Small Ones · director
- 2005States of UnBelonging · director
- 2002Investigation of a Flame · director
- 2002First Steps in a Terra Incognita · director
- 2002Tornado · director
- 2001Photograph of Wind · director
- 2000Window Work · director
- 1997A Biography of Lilith · director
- 1994Which Way Is East: Notebooks from Vietnam · director
- 1991The House of Science: A Museum of False Facts · director
- 1989Sermons and Sacred Pictures · director
- 1988The Randy Band Film · director
- 1987Following the Object to Its Logical Beginning · director
- 1986Fossil · director
- 1986Still Life with Woman and Four Objects · director
- 1986Drawn and Quartered · director
- 1983The Tarot · director
Writing 7
- 2025Every Contact Leaves a Trace · writer
- 2020Film About a Father Who · writer
- 2019A Month of Single Frames · writer
- 2018The Washing Society · writer
- 2009The Last Happy Day · writer
- 2005States of UnBelonging · writer
- 1994Which Way Is East: Notebooks from Vietnam · writer
Camera 5
- 2025Every Contact Leaves a Trace · director of photography
- 2020Girl Is Presence · director of photography
- 2020Film About a Father Who · director of photography
- 2009The Last Happy Day · director of photography
- 2005States of UnBelonging · director of photography
Editing 3
- 2019A Month of Single Frames · editor
- 2009The Last Happy Day · editor
- 2005States of UnBelonging · editor
crew 1
- 2018¡Despertar! · cinematography
Sound 1
- 2005States of UnBelonging · sound editor





