Sasha Wortzel is an artist and filmmaker whose work blends the archival and the imaginary. Wortzel’s films, installations, sculptures, and performances investigate the ways the past and power haunt and inextricably shape the contemporary American landscape. Her work expands upon documentary practice by blurring the lines between cinema and visual art, past and present, fiction and nonfiction. Moving image spills into sculpture, installation, performance, and sound art. She approaches her work through rigorous research, often reworking found footage, text, and materials, wherein gaps in the archive become creative departure points for reimagining historical events.

Wortzel’s films have been screened at the Museum of Modern Art’s DocFortnight, True/False Film Festival, DOC NYC, BAMcinématek, Blackstar, New Orleans Film Festival, Berlinale, and Sharjah Film Platform. Their work has been exhibited at the New Museum, Brooklyn Museum, The Kitchen, New York; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC; Krannert Art Museum, Champaign; and SALTS, Birsfelden. Wortzel has been supported by the Sundance Institute, Art Matters, Field of Vision, Queer/Art/Mentorship, a 2018 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in film/video, and an Ellies 2020 Creator Award. Wortzel has participated in residencies including the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Workspace Program, Abrons Arts Center, Watermill Center, New York; AIRIE (Artists in Residence in the Everglades) and Oolite Arts; Miami Beach. Wortzel’s film This is an Address (2020) is distributed by Field of Vision. Happy Birthday Marsha! (2018; co-director Tourmaline) won special mention at Outfest and is distributed by Frameline. Their work is in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum and Leslie Lohman Museum of Art. She has been featured in publications including The New York Times, Artforum, Art in America, and New York Magazine. Wortzel received an MFA in Integrated Media Arts from Hunter College.