Sara Maamouri

The Bay Area's most colorful documentary film editor

Sara Maamouri is an award-winning documentary film editor, born & raised in Tunisia & based in San Francisco.

Her films have screened at TIFF, DOC NYC, Hot Docs, and festivals across four continents, earning a Peabody Award, an Emmy nomination, Webby Awards, and international jury prizes. Recent work includes For Our Children, now on Netflix, and Traces of Home, winner of the Grand Jury Prize at DOC NYC.

She edits in Arabic, Italian, Spanish, Greek, Turkish, and Farsi, and works with filmmakers around the world as a freelance editor and story consultant.

Traces of Home

Editor, Writer

DOC NYC, 2025

A filmmaker retraces her parents’ displaced childhoods across Mexico and Palestine, uncovering an intergenerational search for home and belonging.

Grand Jury Prize, U.S. Competition — DOC NYC
Premio Corazon, Best Documentary — San Diego Latino Film Festival

Prodigal Daughter

Editor, Additional Writer, Co-Producer

LA Latino International Film Festival, 2024

Filmmaker and artist Mabel Valdiviezo reunites with her family in Peru after 16 years of silence, confronting a troubled past as an undocumented immigrant in the United States.

Best Documentary — Arizona International Film Festival

For Our Children

Editor, Writer

San Francisco International, 2022

Wanda Johnson and Angela Williams, mothers of young Black men victimized by police brutality, build community of support, mutual aid, and healing.

Webby Award — Best Documentary
Webby Award — Best Editing

Sharp Edge of Peace

Editor

Hot Docs, 2024

Intimately follows the women on the Afghan government negotiating team as they try to broker a shared political structure with the Taliban.

Clarissa's Battle

Editor

Human Rights Watch NYC, 2022

Social Justice Warrior Clarissa Doutherd leads a tenacious battle to build a coalition fighting for child care and early education funding.

The Judge

Editor

TIFF Docs, 2017

Follows the Middle East’s first woman judge to a Shari’a court.

Peabody Award
Emmy Nomination

We Are Not Princesses

Editor

Doc NYC, 2018

Antigone, the rebellious heroine of the ancient Greek tragedy, brings together a group of Syrian women in a refugee camp in Beirut.

Grand Prize — FIFA 38, Montreal

A Dangerous Idea

Editor

Santa Fe Film Festival, 2016

Reveals how scientists and policymakers have promoted the myth of the gene in America and rolled back gains on race, class, and gender equality

Revolution in Four Seasons

Editor

Hot DOCS, 2016

The cycle of hope, upheaval, and uncertainty that followed the Arab Spring in Tunisia.

Twice Upon A Time

Editor

Lebanese Film Festival, 2016

Remembering a refugee childhood through the eyes of a younger generation.

Best Documentary — Lebanese Film Festival

Amal's Garden

Editor

Dubai International Film Festival, 2012

Rebuilding a house, discovering a family. A beautifully expressive film that shows much more than it tells.

Music's Gonna Get You Through

Editor

PBS, 2010

A New Orleans jazz camp where young visually impaired musicians find their voice.