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Sarah believes in powerful, transformative storytelling through radical empathy and curiosity.
She is an award winning director and filmmaker, whose work challenges societal norms. Drawn by difficult and topical subjects, Sarah invites her audience to step outside themselves through character driven stories centered around the fight to recognize the humanity in us all. The San Francisco Chronicle has called her work “enchanting” while the San Jose Mercury News praised it as “intimate and edgy”. Sarah's first short film In Case We Get Found (2021) was inspired by her father's experience as a survivor of the Umpqua Community College mass shooting in 2015. Intimate and tense, the film follows three strangers trapped together during a mass shooting event and the unexpected conversation they have. The film won multiple awards including the Audience Award for Suspense at the McMinnville Short Film Fest. Her next film We're All Fine (2021) questioned the place of "artists" in a time of hardship and was made entirely on zoom during lockdown. It won multiple awards including Best Director at Couch Film Festival. Her web series pilot Friends Can't Kiss follows two queer couples struggling to understand their place in a heteronormative NYC and launched in Summer of 2021. It is screening throughout the U.S including Reeling Film Fest Chicago and Palm Springs Diverse Cinema where it won the audience award. Her most recent short film Counting tells the story of Em, a young actress whose struggles with severe OCD threaten to derail everything she has worked for. Counting was a selection of the Festival De Cannes Short Film Corner, nominated for Best Drama at McMinnville Short Film Festival and won Best Performance for lead actress Tori Ernst at the Oregon Short Film Festival. See the Counting page for upcoming screenings. Sarah is currently in post production for a horror short called Not Him and a short drama The Well both coming in 2022. Sarah's background is in opera and theatre directing. Recent highlights include directing a reading at Cherry Lane Theatre, the opera La liberazione di Ruggiero at La Mama Experimental Theatre, and a site specific world premier play called Baby Shower at a brewery in Brooklyn. She has directed operas throughout the United States for companies including The San Francisco Opera Guild, West Edge Opera, and Pittsburgh Festival Opera. MFA Directing The New School for Drama 2019 MM San Francisco Conservatory of Music 2012 Youtube Sarah produces and edits the Youtube Channel PC Builder which she took from 0 to 165,000+ subscribers. |
Sarah Young Photo by Alexandra Vaccino
Sarah on the set of "The Well"
Sarah at the Festival de Cannes 2022
"Counting" - Short Film 2022 Poster
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