Sabaah Folayan

Sabaah Folayan is an award-winning storyteller who uses written and visual media to bring a fresh perspective to the urgent questions of our time. A Los Angeles native, she has thrived in vastly different environments, from South Central LA to the Upper West Side. Her outlook on social change is both inclusive and unapologetic. She attended Columbia University as a premedical student and graduated with a degree in biology. Outside-the-box thinking and passion for social good then drew her to community organizing. She honed strategic planning skills in the non-profit and grassroots sectors before becoming a filmmaker. Sabaah made her directorial debut at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival with Whose Streets?, which chronicles the experiences of activists living in Ferguson, Missouri when Michael Brown, Jr. was killed. The film has been supported by the Sundance Documentary Film Program, Tribeca Film Institute, Ford Foundation, MacArthur, and others. Following the film's release, she plans to continue writing, directing, and producing documentary and narrative work that challenges the status quo. She is especially interested in creating episodic content for digital and television broadcast.