Nancy Schwartzman

Filmmaker, Media Strategist & Activist

Nancy Schwartzman

Filmmaker, Media Strategist & Activist

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Biography

Nancy Schwartzman is a documentary film director, producer, and media strategist who uses storytelling and technology to create safer communities for women and girls. Roll Red Roll is her feature film debut, and goes beyond the headlines of the notorious Steubenville, Ohio high school sexual assault case to uncover the social-media fueled “boys will be boys” culture that let it happen. Roll Red Roll premiered in 2018 at the Tribeca Film Festival and Hot Docs, and has screened at over 40 film festivals worldwide and garnered 7 awards, including a Cinema Eye Nomination, the Adrienne Shelly Foundation’s Excellence in Filmmaking Award, Best Documentary at Florida Film Festival and “Best of Show” at Bend Film Festival. The film opened theatrically at the Film Forum in New York City and the Laemmle Monica Film Center in Los Angeles to uniformly positive reviews with 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. It was a Critic’s Pick in the New York Times and reviewed in The New Yorker, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, the Chicago Tribune, the Guardian, and the Los Angeles Times amongst others. Nancy appeared on CNN’s Amanpour, BBC Women’s Hour and People TV.

Roll Red Roll is designed to have a robust impact campaign focusing on engaging men and boys into the solution to end violence against women, as well as engaging communities, schools and parents. The impact campaign is supported by the Fledgling Fund, Bertha Foundation, Perspective and the Ford Foundation.

Nancy released a companion short film Anonymous Comes To Town in April 2019 on the Guardian, in partnership with Tribeca Film Institute and Gucci’s Chime for Change. Her first film, The Line (2010), a short documentary examining consent was used by the White House for a campaign around sexuality, and her follow-up film xoxosms (2013), was on PBS/POV and BBC exploring love between two teenagers, bridged by technology.

A globally recognized human rights activist, Nancy is a tech founder and created the Obama/Biden’s White House award-winning mobile app Circle of 6 designed to reduce sexual violence among America’s youth and college students. Over 350,000 people in 36 countries use Circle of 6 and it is currently being adapted for journalists working in Mexico in partnership with Article 19 and the Guardian Project. She has presented her work at the White House, the United Nations, TEDxSheffield, CNN, Forbes, Good Pitch, DOCNYC and at over 60 colleges and universities. She has published Op-Eds in the Huffington Post and the Daily Beast. She is a graduate of Columbia University.