Maggie Bowman is a documentary film producer and director who joined the staff of the International Documentary Association in early 2020 to lead programming for IDA’s Getting Real. She has since transitioned into leading the organization’s advocacy work. Recently, she co-directed We Are Witnesses: Chicago—a series of short films about Chicagoans who have been touched by the criminal justice system. The series is a collaboration of The Marshall Project, Kartemquin Films and Illinois Humanities. It premiered on television, radio and print outlets in Chicago, as well as being a featured installation in the Envisioning Justice art exhibit. As Series Producer for Hard Earned, she led the team at Kartemquin that made the six-hour series about American families working low-wage jobs. Hard Earned won a duPont-Columbia Award in 2016, following domestic and international broadcasts on Al Jazeera. Previously Bowman produced Election Day, which follows a dozen American voters on November 2, 2004. She was a Fellow at the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley and was the inaugural Artistic Fellow at Kartemquin, where she provided mentorship and creative guidance to filmmakers at various stages of the filmmaking process. Prior to her work in film, Bowman was a union organizer and consultant, working on campaigns with taxi drivers in the Bronx, nurses in Iowa, and home health aides in Brooklyn. She is an active member of the Documentary Producers Alliance.
