hello, my name is sylvia:

I’m a feral learner who lives for love and art — and the life long practices of embracing uncertainty, cultivating solidarity, and challenging the status quo.

Sylvia Saether is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, and thinker who makes films and hosts the podcast We Don't Know — all in service of the same questions: challenging how power moves and shapes, how we learn and unlearn by way of seeing and listening, and how we stay present while keeping our eyes and hearts wide open to all the horror and beauty of this world.

Her films have received honors including Best Short Film at Napa Valley Film Festival, Best Narrative Short at LACMA Young Directors Night, and an Emerging Cinematography Award nomination at Camerimage. She has been selected for the American Film Institute Directing Workshop for Women+, Film Independent Directing Lab, Sony Television Diverse Directors Program, Ryan Murphy's HALF Program, and the MIA Roma Co-Production Market. Her feature King of Norway was selected for the AFI Alumni Script Reading Series and the Film Independent Directing Lab.

Sylvia is also an editor, photographer, educator and advisor, specifically to artists, nonprofit leaders, and cultural organizations. She is American-Norwegian, and when in America, she moves between the East and West Coasts, and when in Europe, typically between Paris and Norway. Managed internationally by Anonymous Content.

Photo Credit: Van Nessa Manlunas.