Amy Finkel

Amy Finkel is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, designer, photographer, and writer. She is the founder and creative director of Sailor Beware, an agency that specializes in photography, video work, and web design. She is a Part-Time Associate Teaching Professor at Parsons School of Design, and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at both NYU and CUNY Hostos Community College; she teaches classes in photography, documentary filmmaking, video editing, visual culture, design fundamentals like typography and color theory, studio art, and web design and development. She also creates photography curricula at Parsons. Amy received NYU’s Teaching Excellence Award in 2023.

Amy has served as a judge for IDA’s Documentary Achievement Awards, IFP, and New York Festivals. Amy also acts as a ‘Doctor’ for New York Foundation for the Arts’ “Doctor’s Hours for Filmmakers.” Amy holds an MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons, as well as a BA in Theater, English, and Music from Connecticut College. Amy’s documentary, Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart, was nominated for the Pare Lorentz Award by the IDA. Her first feature-length documentary, FUREVER, premiered at Hot Docs in 2013 and has since screened in over 50 film festivals worldwide. Its distributors are PBS and Gunpowder & Sky (FilmBuff/Cinetic). Amy’s photography appears in assorted publications. A native of Seattle, Amy now lives in New York’s Hudson Valley.