Lynne Sachs

Lynne Sachs

b. 1961 (age 65) Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.
Cinematographer Director

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

Filmography

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This Side of Salina
2025 Director
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Every Contact Has a Trace
2025 Director Writer
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Tomorrow Doesn't Exist
2025 Self
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★ 6.2
Contractions
2024 Director
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★ 5.8
Maya at 24
2021 Director
Epistolary: Letter to Jean Vigo
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★ 5.1
Epistolary: Letter to Jean Vigo
2021 Director
Film About a Father Who
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★ 6.4
Film About a Father Who
2020 Actress Director Writer Cinematographer
Girl is Presence
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★ 4.4
Girl is Presence
2020 Director Cinematographer
A Month of Single Frames
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★ 6.3
A Month of Single Frames
2019 Director Writer
Carolee, Barbara & Gunvor
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★ 6.1
Carolee, Barbara & Gunvor
2018 Director Cinematographer
The Washing Society
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★ 6.0
The Washing Society
2018 Director Writer
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★ 6.3
Tip of My Tongue
2017 Director
And Then We Marched
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And Then We Marched
2017 Director
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Starfish Aorta Colossus
2015 Director
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Every Fold Matters
2015 Director
Drift and Bough
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Drift and Bough
2014 Director Writer Cinematographer
Your Day Is My Night
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★ 6.3
Your Day Is My Night
2013 Director
Same Stream Twice
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★ 6.5
Same Stream Twice
2012 Director Cinematographer
The Task of the Translator
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The Task of the Translator
2010 Director Cinematographer
The Last Happy Day
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★ 5.2
The Last Happy Day
2009 Director Writer Cinematographer
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★ 5.4
Wind in Our Hair
2009 Director
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Cuadro por cuadro
2009 Cinematographer Director
The Small Ones
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★ 5.5
The Small Ones
2007 Director Writer
XY Chromosome Project
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XY Chromosome Project
2007 Director Cinematographer
Atalanta: 32 Years Later
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★ 5.5
Atalanta: 32 Years Later
2006 Director
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Notes on the Death of Kodachrome
2006 Self
Noa, Noa
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Noa, Noa
2006 Director Cinematographer
States of UnBelonging
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★ 4.7
States of UnBelonging
2005 Director Writer Cinematographer
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★ 6.5
Which Way Is East
2003 Self Writer Cinematographer Director
Investigation of a Flame
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★ 7.4
Investigation of a Flame
2003 Director Cinematographer
Tornado
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★ 4.0
Tornado
2002 Director Writer
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★ 7.2
Photograph of Wind
2001 Director Cinematographer
Window Work
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★ 5.3
Window Work
2000 Self Director Cinematographer
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A Biography of Lilith
1997 Director Writer
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★ 6.3
The House of Science: A Museum of False Facts
1991 Director Writer Cinematographer
Sermons and Sacred Pictures
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Sermons and Sacred Pictures
1989 Director Cinematographer
Following the Object to Its Logical Beginning
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★ 6.4
Following the Object to Its Logical Beginning
1987 Director Writer Cinematographer
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★ 4.9
Drawn and Quartered
1986 Self Director Cinematographer
Still Life with Woman and Four Objects
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★ 5.9
Still Life with Woman and Four Objects
1986 Director Cinematographer