Jessica Sanders director of AFTER INNOCENCE

Jessica Sanders came Center Stage with Mark Gordon to talk about her documentary AFTER INNOCENCE

AFTER INNOCENCE tells the dramatic and compelling story of the exonerated - innocent men wrongfully imprisoned for decades and then released after DNA evidence proved their innocence. The film focuses on the gripping story of seven men and their emotional journey back into society and efforts to rebuild their lives. Include are a police officer, an army sergeant and a young father sent to prison and even death row for decades for crimes they did not commit.

The film premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Prize, and also won top awards at the Seattle Film Festival, Boston Independent Film Festival, Nantucket Film Festival, Newport Beach Film Festival, and Full Frame Documentary Festival. The film was released theatrically by New Yorker Films before being broadcast on Showtime. AFTER INNOCENCE was shortlisted for the 78th Academy Awards.



Jessica Sanders is an Academy Award-nominated filmmaker, a director, producer and writer who works in documentary, dramatic films and commercials. Sanders directed, produced and wrote AFTER INNOCENCE, a feature documentary film that tells the compelling story of innocent men wrongfully convicted, cleared by DNA evidence and their dramatic struggle to reenter society after spending decades in prison. The film premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Prize, and also won top awards at the Seattle Film Festival, Boston Independent Film Festival, Nantucket Film Festival, Newport Beach Film Festival, and Full Frame Documentary Festival. The film was released theatrically by New Yorker Films before being broadcast on Showtime. AFTER INNOCENCE was shortlisted for the 78th Academy Awards.
Sanders produced the film SING!, which was nominated in 2002 for an Oscar for Best Short Documentary. SING! is about a community children’s chorus, which amidst severe cutbacks in the arts, becomes one of the best choirs in the country. The film played theatrically and aired on PBS. Her previous film, LOS ANGELS, a narrative short film that she wrote, produced, and directed played at numerous festivals and received top awards at the Chicago International and New Orleans Film Festivals. Sanders was an Associate Producer on the 2003 Academy Award-winning documentary short film TWIN TOWERS, about the September 11 attacks, and was Series Associate Producer, Field Producer and Camera Operator on Dick Wolf’s CRIME & PUNISHMENT, the NBC documentary series featuring the district attorneys of San Diego prosecuting criminal trials.

Sanders filmed Al Gore in Nashville for THE CLIMATE PROJECT, a work in progress documentary for Producer Lawrence Bender and Paramount Vantage. Sanders recently completed KEEPERS OF THE NIGHT, a follow up to her Oscar Nominated film SING! featuring the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus in a new opera. Sanders is currently in post-production on THE MARCH, a feature documentary produced by Filmland and Conspiração Films following teens from around the world as they journey to Poland to retrace the infamous “March of Death” that thousands of Jews walked to their death during the Holocaust.

Sanders is directing and producing SAMBA, a feature documentary film following Rio de Janeiro’s top Samba Schools competing in Carnaval and the drug trafficking gangs that govern their communities. The film is Executive Produced by Lawrence Bender. Sanders worked on MY NAME IS BORAT, on the making of the BORAT film and the revolutionary scripted/documentary hybrid technique created by Sacha Baron Cohen and the filmmaking team. Sanders is writing her first screenplay MY DAILY ROUTINE, which was accepted into the Film Independent Screenwriter’s Lab.

Sanders and her work have been profiled on The Sundance Channel, MTV, MSNBC, CNN, Larry King Live, Dateline, Fox News, Court TV and NPR. She has been profiled in The New York Times, LA Weekly, Giant Robot Magazine, and Film Festival Magazine. She has lectured at various universities and conferences, including the National Innocence Network Conference, Tribeca Film Festival and Los Angeles Film Festival, and the California State Senate.

Sanders majored in Film Studies and English at Wesleyan University in Connecticut and graduated with honors. Sanders is an alumna of the Film Independent’s Producers & Screenwriters Lab and Tribeca Film Festival’s All Access Program. Sanders directs commercials for NonFiction Spots and is a DGA and WGA member.