Mandy Jacobson was a storyteller of uncommon depth and courage. A documentary filmmaker who worked between New York and South Africa for more than two decades, she dedicated her life to illuminating the human spirit through stories often left untold. 

With boundless compassion and conviction, Mandy brought to life narratives that explored justice, memory, trauma, and hope, from the liberation struggles of Nelson Mandela’s generation to the intimate testimonies of Bosnian women in Calling the Ghosts, a landmark documentary that earned her two Emmy Awards and helped catalyze international legal recognition of rape as a war crime. 

Her commitment to social justice went beyond filmmaking. Mandy believed in the power of storytelling not just as a record of events, but as a transformative act,  one capable of shifting public perception, healing wounds, and preserving legacy. Her films didn’t just inform; they provoked conversation, built bridges, and helped shape a more inclusive historical narrative.

As co-founder and CEO of Indelible Media and Executive Producer of the African Oral History Archive (AOHA), Mandy’s vision extended well beyond the screen. Under her leadership, AOHA collected and preserved over 200 in-depth interviews with African leaders, activists, and citizens,  from Luanda to Lisbon, offering an invaluable, living record of Africa’s complex and transformative 20th century. She believed that history was not singular, and through her work, she invited multiple voices into the archive, building a space for reconciliation, dialogue, and cross-cultural reflection.

Her career also included celebrated work on Facing the Truth (with the Bill Moyers team), which won a Peabody Award for its exploration of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Road to Riches, which examined Black economic empowerment in post-apartheid South Africa; and numerous other powerful projects from Bangladesh, Cuba, Rwanda, and beyond. Her work was featured by CNN, NBC Dateline, CBS Sixty Minutes, Discovery, TLC, and PBS. 

Mandy’s accolades reflect a career marked by excellence: member of the USA National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences; Jury Chair of the Joris Ivens Competition at the Amsterdam International Documentary Festival (IDFA, 1999); recipient of the South African Minister of Arts and Culture Achievement Award (2001); and participant in the prestigious Sundance Producers Lab (2007) with her feature film on Miriam Makeba.

Above all, Mandy Jacobson believed that every life mattered, every story had value, and that truth, when told with empathy, could change the world.

Thank you, Mandy, for showing us the beauty of resilience, the necessity of truth, and the transformative power of the human spirit. Your legacy lives on in the voices you lifted and the lives you touched