Lauren holds a Masters of Journalism in documentary film from the U.C. Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Her thesis film, Dust Rising, won a Student Academy Award, was shortlisted for the BAFTA Student Film Awards, and screened in festivals across the U.S.
Lauren Schwartzman is a documentary film editor, director, and producer based in California, USA.
She was the Associate Editor for the documentary feature The Disappearance of Shere Hite (2023, Dir. Nicole Newnham) which premiered in competition at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. This was her second collaboration with Newnham and Editor Eileen Meyer. The film was acquired by IFC Films and Sapan Studios, and is a co-production of NBC News Studios and This Machine Filmworks, in association with TeaTime Pictures.
Lauren was the Associate Producer and Assistant Editor for the Oscar-nominated & Peabody-award-winning documentary Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution (2020, Dir. Nicole Newnham, Jim LeBrecht; Ed. Eileen Meyer, Andrew Gersh). The film was executive produced by President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama and premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award.
Before embracing film as the perfect marriage of all her interests, Lauren has variously been an environmental educator, Peace Corps Volunteer, trail crew leader, poet, and visual artist. These past lives inform her work in film.