Sweet Crude director Sandy Cioffi is a Seattle-based film and video artist. She has produced and/or directed several films, including the critically acclaimed Crocodile Tears, Terminal 187 and Just Us.

Sandy has worked with human rights organizations in global hot zones before, during and after conflict. She first ventured into video production as a volunteer for Witness for Peace during the Contra War in Nicaragua. She traveled with students from the U.S. to film South Africa’s transition from Apartheid in 1995. She used film as a documentation and verification tool to provide video evidence regarding compliance with the Good Friday Peace Agreement during the 1998 Marching Season in Northern Ireland. Sandy has worked extensively with the Hate Free Zone in Seattle, producing films about treatment of immigrants post-September 11^th. She was Seattle Director for the video documentation of the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride in 2003.

In 2005/2006, Sandy made three trips to the volatile Niger Delta in Nigeria, documenting conditions there and interviewing the region’s key stakeholders, including leadership of the armed resistance movement. Beyond the making of Sweet Crude, she has been active in political advocacy for the Delta’s people, appealing to national media, U.S. legislators and NGOs to raise visibility of the humanitarian and global economic issues.

Sandy has been a frequent guest on National Public Radio and often called upon as a speaker to address independent media trends. She has recently been interviewed on Marketplace, Democracy Now and ABC Nightline to discuss the current situation in the Niger Delta.

As an artist, Sandy created media design for live performance at the Annex Theater, Hugo House, The Seattle Repertory Theater and On the Boards.

As an educator, Sandy has worked extensively with young people – as an artist-in-residence at many middle and high schools in Washington State, and through the mentor/apprentice film program at the Langston Hughes Cultural Arts Center. She is currently a tenured professor in the Film and Video Communications Department at Seattle Central Community College.

Read Sandy’s director’s statement to get the back story on Sweet Crude.

Visit Sandy's website.