Princess Hairston

Independent Filmmaker and Editor

Princess A. Hairston is a filmmaker and Emmy-nominated editor based in NYC. Hairston recently produced and edited Ladies First: A Story of Women in Hip Hop on Netflix. Hairston is co-director and producer on the feature doc titled Breaking the News with co-directors Heather Courtney and Chelsea Hernandez. Hairston also edited This World Is Not My Own, which had its world premiere at SXSW. Her editing work can be seen on Lularich, Pier Kids, Fresh Dressed and Capture with Mark Seliger. She is a recipient of the Pano x Ablecine 2023 Cinematographer’s Lab, a 2020 nominee for the Lynn Shelton Of A Certain Age grant, a 2018 Winner of the NYTVF + WEtv Producer Pitch and a 2018 recipient of the Karen Schmeer Editing Fellowship. Hairston is an inclusion activist within the film industry advocating for BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and disabled individuals to be a part of storytelling in key positions for documentary films. She is a member of the Alliance of Documentary Editors, ACROSS THE CUT, BIPOC Doc Editors, Ujima Entertainment Coalition and Brown Girls Doc Mafia.

Participating Sessions

Working Intersectionally – Race & Ethnicity

As documentary filmmakers strive to become accountable to the communities in which they film, filmmaking teams are becoming more diverse. These new alliances can be fraught with misunderstandings and may impede the progress of the project. In this workshop, we’ll develop best practices for working with people from a variety of backgrounds and cultures in ways that recognize and honor differences to produce meaningful content. We’ll hear from the directors...