Mary Patierno is an award-winning, documentary filmmaker and editor whose most recent film is Requiem for a River a portrait of the Rio Grande in New Mexico, the history, the people and the challenges this storied river faces during the time of climate change and search for environmental justice and equity. Her most previous work was the Ford Foundation funded, Nothing Without Us: The Women Who Will End AIDS, was released in November 2017 and has screened at DocNYC, Hot Docs and documentary festivals throughout the country. Her documentary, Vieques: Worth Every Bit of Struggle, won Best Documentary at the New Vision Award (2005) from New Screen TV. Previous work includes The Most Unknowable Thing was selected as part of The New Documentaries (2000) series at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. It was nominated for a 2000 International Documentary Association (IDA) Achievement Award and was awarded Outstanding Documentary Feature at Outfest'99 in Los Angeles, the Reelings'99 Film and Video Festival in Chicago, and The Miami Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. It also won Best Documentary Short and the Audience Award at Reel Affirmations Film and Video Festival in Washington, DC.
She is also one of the founders and former executive director of Dyke TV. Her collaborations include Abigail Child (Acts & Intermissions, A Shape of Error, On the Downlow and Surf and Turf), Starfish Media Group (Revisiting Haiti and Heroin, USA), Tania Cypriano (Grandma Has a Video Camera), Diller + Scofidio, Asia Society, Unilever, 651/Brooklyn Academy of Music, Vanguard Films, Univision, University of Massachusetts and USAID.
