Description
ARTIST STATEMENT
Concurrent with my career in nonprofit and public media, I have been making independent documentary work about gender, sexuality, and subculture for almost two decades. My vision has always stemmed from a desire to use media as a tool for community empowerment, and I am eager to continue moving the needle.
In my independent career, I have produced two feature documentaries, many shorts, and conspired with women and queers for several decades. I’ve featured the avant garde subculture within D.C.’s drag scene, and made several portraits of gender and sexuality in work and in the underground arts.
I seek to raise new awareness around gender and sexuality, and am grounded in my participation in and love for my queer, women’s, and artistic communities. Making media is, for me, an act of affirmation, and an offer of steely hope in spite of all we are currently facing in the world. I seek to illustrate the complexity and beauty in my communities, as a way of holding a mirror up to us all.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Emmy Award winning producer and director Amy Oden is best known for her person-first films.
Amy currently leads the video team at the AFL-CIO, where she advocates for working people across the United States. She recently served as senior director of the video team at the Human Rights Campaign, where her work won the 2025 social impact award at TribecaX, and screened at Sundance.
Amy’s independent work has been supported by the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation, the International Documentary Association, and the Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund. She has been involved with WIFV for over twenty years, and served on the board from 2021-2024. Amy also worked as a senior producer and manager of multiplatform strategy at PBS’s Maryland Public Television for seven years, where her work earned three Emmy Awards.
Amy holds a BA in Journalism from the University of Maryland and an MA from George Washington University. Her work has won Communicator, Emmy, Davey, Tribeca, and W3 Awards.
© Amy Oden