Sara Lafleur-Vetter is a filmmaker and a photojournalist with a passion for telling stories of the underdog and the underbelly of society. She believes in the power of film and photography to better the world. Lafleur is inspired by and committed to the #decolonizedocs movement and believes media makers have a duty to flip the script of structural inequality, racism, sexism, and heteronormativity. She is humbled and grateful to work in documentary film and is learning everyday about how to use her privilege to amplify the voices that need to be heard.
Lafleur holds a Master’s in Journalism specializing in Documentary Film from the Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She’s engaged to a wonderful man named Leaf, and hopes to live long enough to tell really good stories. She also recently welcomed her first child into the world - Sierra - and she is learning how life begins again once you become a parent.
At present, Lafleur is working on a feature-length film about several Indigenous activists who were transformed by their experience at Standing Rock. The Sacred & The Snake focuses on how the experience of collective trauma, cultural self-discovery, and non-violent direct action catalyzed an array of other resistance movements across the country. While much of the public accepts the media narrative that Standing Rock was a failure, these protagonists defiantly show otherwise. The resistance camps lit a fire in each one of them and set them on a new path, while reawakening a global awareness of the environment and Indigenous sovereignty.
Awards
IDA’s Pare Lorentz Award, 2018 BAVC National MediaMaker Fellow, 2018 Berkeley Film Foundation Saul Zaentz Award, 2017 Spike Lee Student Filmmaker Award, 2015 Dorothea Lange Fellowship, 2015
Clients
The Guardian, Center for Investigative Reporting, Fusion, AJ+, The New York Times, Outside Online, KQED, KPFA, East Bay Express, San Francisco Magazine, CNN Traveler Magazine, African Development Bank, Fodor’s, St. Petersburg Times (Russia)
Homebase
South Lake Tahoe, CA