Sabaah Folayan

Sabaah Folayan made her directorial debut at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival with the feature-length documentary Whose Streets? Recently nominated for a Peabody Award, the film chronicles the experiences of activists living in Ferguson, Missouri when Michael Brown Jr. was killed. Whose Streets? was distributed theatrically by Magnolia Pictures, and supported by the Sundance Documentary Film Program, Tribeca Film Institute, the Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation among many others.

An award-winning storyteller and activist, Sabaah 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 drew her to the non-profit and grassroots sectors where she honed strategic planning and community organizing skills before becoming a filmmaker.