JESSICA CONGDON

Jessica Congdon is an award-winning film and commercial editor and director. Her most recent editing work is Amazon Prime’s Power of a Dream about the WNBA’s political activism in 2020. She was an editor on the 8-part HBO series Eyes on the Prize, the third installment of the definitive Civil Rights series. She co-edited Cirque du Soleil: Without a Net which premiered at DOC NYC. Prior to that was a four-part documentary series on ESPN entitled 37 Words about the history of Title IX. She edited the Apple TV+ mental health docu-series The Me You Can’t See featuring Oprah Winfrey and Prince Harry.

Her work includes the documentary The Way I See It about President Obama’s official photographer Pete Souza, directed by Dawn Porter and released by Focus Features in Fall 2020. She also worked with Dawn Porter on the documentary John Lewis: Good Trouble, released by CNN Films. She co-wrote and edited the 2019 Peabody and Emmy award-winning film Dolores about Latina civil rights icon Dolores Huerta with director Peter Bratt. The film premiered in the documentary competition at Sundance 2017 and was released by PBS’ Independent Lens.

She produced, co-wrote & edited the documentary films The Great American Lie, The Mask You Live In and Miss Representation with Jennifer Siebel Newsom. The films premiered at Sundance in 2011 and 2015, and have screened in over 49 countries. Prior to that, she co-directed and edited the documentary Race To Nowhere with Vicki Abeles, about America’s over-achievement education culture.

Other editing work includes the documentaries Ahead of the Curve, directed by Jen Rainin; Speed and Angels and The Bronzer, directed by Peyton Wilson; Motherland and Desert Runners by Jennifer Steinman; the narrative feature Big Girls Don’t Cry directed by Maria von Heland and distributed by Columbia Tri-Star; and Sundance 2003 award-winner Dopamine directed by Mark Decena and distributed by Sundance Films. 

She directed the short documentary film Empire on Main Street which received the audience and jury award for best documentary short at Sonoma International Film Festival 2018, has been an official selection at 21 film festivals nationally and internationally, and won best documentary at the American Pavilion at the Cannes Film Festival.

Other directing work includes commercial campaigns for Google and eBates, as well as the food / travel documentary series lost in taste. Jessica was a founding member of Umlaut Films in San Francisco, and her work has received AICE editing awards, the One Show Award, and Cannes Lions awards.