A Film Screening with Alum Sarah Labowitz ’04

Oct 10, 2024

A white woman with a pink blazer and short hair speaks in front of the classroom.

Sarah Labowitz ’04 visited Grinnell to show her first feature-length documentary, Texas, USA (2023), and participate in a Q&A session with current students.

History major Sarah Labowitz ’04 wasn’t always a film producer.

After graduating from Grinnell, she had an interesting start in the workforce — she waited tables at a Washington, D.C. restaurant and moved from temp job to temp job.

“I so vividly remember the moment — four or five months after graduating — thinking, ‘Why did I not become an accountant? I was convinced I would never find a job and that I had no marketable skills,’” Labowitz told current students at a screening of her documentary film, Texas, USA (2023).

A movie poster with white, capital letters reading: "Texas, USA." An American and Texan flag fly in the middle of a dark blue/purple sky. — The *Texas, USA* poster for Labowitz’s first documentary.

But she quickly found out that was not true. “It turns out that liberal arts skills — especially critical thinking and writing — are a huge asset. The way I got started was by doing stuff.”

Luckily, her last temp job at Washington D.C.’s Fair Labor Association — a young and small organization at the time — became a permanent one. Though Labowitz dreamed of a bigger start at the Hill or a think tank, a family friend advised her to stick with the job, as she would likely be given more responsibilities and gain more skills than she would at a larger organization.

“I ended up meeting a bunch of people at the job, including Mike Posner, who would go on to become the Assistant Secretary for Human Rights at the State Department. Getting started in my career was a series of trying things on until I found people and organizations that I wanted to work with and who wanted to work with me,” she told a current political science student.

Eventually, Labowitz would forge her way into the realm of policy work and advocacy at the State Department, NYU Stern, the City of Houston, and the ACLU of Texas. But as she witnessed the consequences of state legislature losses in 2021, she began searching for a new way to fight for civil rights and civil liberties.

She turned to storytelling.

In a dark classroom, students watch the intro to the documentary, Texas, USA, on the projector. — Students and faculty watched a screening of *Texas, USA* to kick off the two-part event with Labowitz.

The Making of Texas, USA

A close up of a white woman with a pink blazer and short hair gesturing to an off screen audience. — Labowitz speaks to current Grinnell students about how she pivoted into film, how she approached the process, and some behind the scene details behind her documentary.

Labowitz called up her friend and documentary director, Andrew Morgan (The True Cost, 2015), to come and check out the Texas landscape himself.

“I had an idea and a strong persistence,” recalls Labowitz, who had never produced a film before Texas, USA. “I had a number of experiences doing hard things, and so I wasn’t intimidated by the process of getting started [in filmmaking]. Once I did, I realized the skills that were required here were skills I had. It was just a bit of a different context, but I had that willingness to start.”

In watching Labowitz’s first feature-length documentary, current students, staff, and faculty became acquainted with various faces within Texas’ political landscape: current Texas Governor Greg Abbott, former presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, U.S Representative Greg Casar, and local candidate Lina Hidalgo.

The documentary, described as “an underdog story,” follows these candidates — along with other activists and organizers — through the 2022 statewide elections. Throughout the film, these characters show their desire to “build a new, hopeful vision for democracy” against a growingly authoritative state.

Powerlines in a sunset background. White text hovers in the middle and reads, "Texas, USA."

At the end of the screening, students had a chance to eat from a pizza buffet and ask questions during Labowitz’s Q&A portion of the screening. One student was especially intrigued by the characters in the film and how Labowitz and her team inspired them out of their shells for filming.

“Adri Pérez [a trans advocate for the immigrant and LGBTQ+ community] was on my team at ACLU,” Labowitz recounts to current students. “I played a role in transferring those relationships of trust to Andrew [the director] early on, where he would sit down with them and describe the [documentary] process. But with some people, it took a really long time to build trust.”

One of the keys to making a successful documentary, says Labowitz, was filming hours and hours of footage, says Labowitz. The film, which was shot over a span of 10 months, gave Labowitz lots of room to work with, especially in her role of developing a storyline and deciding which characters to follow.

“Andrew talks about [editing] like cooking spinach, where you get to use only a small amount of footage,” remarks Labowitz. “I was asking myself, which characters, or who in the crowd, should we be following? How do we tell this character’s backstory? Editing was one of the pieces I enjoyed the most and where I felt like my Grinnell history major skills were really at play.”

In a funny turn of events, Labowitz went from being discouraged over her job prospects to then creating a new work opportunity in film — using the very same skills she once doubted she had.

About Sarah Labowitz

Sarah Labowitz ’04 is a policy expert and a non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where she researches and writes about disasters as a looming economic and climate shock. She also co-founded and co-directed the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights and was included in Forbes’ inaugural 30 Under 30 list for law and policy in 2012.

She is currently based in Houston, Texas. Her documentary film, Texas, USA (2023) is streaming on Apple, Google, Prime, and Peacock.