christinadbartson

CHRISTINA D. BARTSON

ABOUT

Christina D. Bartson is a filmmaker, researcher, and archivist based in London with roots in the American Midwest. Her work explores the political economy of media and how narratives of conflict, social movements, and land are mobilized—and often metastasized—through archival materials.

Instagram

cdbartson@gmail.com

Education

M.A.
Media, Culture, and Communication
Focus: Ethnographic Cinema, War Media
New York University

B.A.
Media Studies
Minors: Journalism, Philosophy
Emerson College

Awards

British Film Institute, Doc Society Fund, 2026

Arts Council England Grant, 2026

British Film Institute Travel Grant, 2025

Arts Council England Grant, 2025

Field of Vision Mentorship Program Mentee, 2025

Field of Vision Grant, 2024

NBCU Original Voices Accelerator Fellowship, 2024

Global Research Initiatives Fellowship, New York University, 2024

Moore Research Fellowship, Swarthmore College, 2024

Diversabilities Scholar, New York University, 2022-2024

David & Clara Rothman Scholar, New York University, 2022-2024

Skills & Expertise

Archival Practice:
Cataloguing & Metadata (ISAD(G)-informed)
Audiovisual Archives
Collection Processing & Arrangement
Preservation & Rehousing
Digitisation Workflows
Archival Research

Project Management:
Workflow Design
Volunteer & Team Coordination
Reporting & Documentation Budgeting & Scheduling

Technical:
FileMaker
Adobe Creative Suite
Premiere Pro

Additional:
FOIA Requests
Rights & Clearances
Grant Writing
Public Programming & Exhibition

Last Updated 24.10.31

WORK

1. THE CONTRACT

IN PRODUCTION

Director, editor, archival research: Christina D. Bartson
Producer: Joi Lee
Consulting Producer: Elijah Stevens
Composer: Nicolas Bavière

I am currently directly an entirely archival film about the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, developed with mentorship through Field of Vision.

Supported by:

BFI Doc Society Grant 2026
Arts Council England Grant 2025, 2026
Platform London
Sheffield DocFest MeetMarket 2026

Presented project research December 2025 at the National Archives as part of the symposium Talking Records: Pollution in the Archive. Lecturing at the 2026 Petrocultures conference.

2. ALSO RESISTERS

2025
Director, producer, editor, archival: Christina D.Bartson
Narration: Sonia Desai Rayka
Composer: dani derks
Consulting producer: Colleen Cassingham
Consulting editor: Elisa Correa

Also Resisters considers solidarity across generations and geography. Adapted from a 1968 essay by the gay American socialist David McReynolds, the archival film takes the images and sounds of the American war in Vietnam to reflect on the feedback loop between militarism aboard and at home — and the people who resisted it.

Supported by:

If/Then Shorts | Field of Vision
NBCUniversal Original Voices Accelerator Fellowship
Global Research Initiatives Fellowship (New York University)
The Margaret W. Moore and John M. Moore Research Fellowship (Swarthmore College)

Screenings:

Big Sky Film Festival, World Premiere 2025
Mimesis Film Festival, Official Selection 2025
Mountainfilm, Official Selection 2025
Sarajevo Film Festival, Official Selection 2025
The Smalls, Official Selection 2025
Kino Short of the Week, 2025
DOC NYC, Official Selection 2025
SFFILM, Official Selection, Doc Stories 2025
Istanbul Experimental Film Festival, 2026

Interviews/press:
Kino Interview with Christina D. Bartson
Voices for Peace and the Power of Art (We Balkans)
Doc Stories announces festival lineup (Deadline)
DOC NYC reveals 16th annual festival lineup (Variety)

3. EYES OF GHANA

2025

Director: Ben Proudfoot
Executive Producers: Barack & Michelle Obama

Breakwater Studios

Role: Archival Researcher

In this love letter to cinema, we witness Ghanaian cameraman Chris Hesse, now in his 90s, pass on his legacy to the younger filmmaker Anita Afonu, captured by two-time Oscar winner Ben Proudfoot.

Toronto International Film Festival, World Premiere 2025
BFI London Film Festival, Grierson Award Nominee 2025
Calgary International Film Festival, Official Selection 2025

4. SALLY

2025

Director: Christina Costantini
Producers: Cristina Costantini, Lauren Cioffi, Dan Cogan, Jon Bardin, Eugen Bräunig

Story Syndicate, Ark Media, Muck Media, National Geographic

Role: Archival Researcher

Sally Ride became the first American woman to blast off into space, but beneath her unflappable composure was a secret. Sally’s life partner, Tam O’Shaughnessy, reveals their hidden romance and the sacrifices that accompanied their 27 years together.

Sundance, World Premiere 2025
Winner of Alfred P. Sloan Award

Nominated for three Emmy Awards: Outstanding Science and Technology Documentary, Outstanding Direction: Documentary, and Outstanding Art Direction

Nominated for Best Writing by the International Documentary Association

5. DYNASTY: THE MURDOCHS

2026

Story Syndicate

Multi-part documentary series on the Murdochs. Premiered on Netflix March 2026.

Role: Archival Researcher

6. THIS IS NOT A HEARTBEAT

Director: Carin Jin-Yi Leong

Role: Archival Producer

Supported by:
U.F.O. Short Film Lab
Winner, Aesthetica Audible Listening Pitch 2025

World Premiere:
Aesthetica Film Festival 2025

THIS IS NOT A HEARTBEAT interrogates how science is translated, mythologized, and weaponized through the story of one misunderstood sound: the fetal heartbeat. At six weeks, the so-called ‘heartbeat’ is not the sound of a heart at all, but machine-generated audio. Yet this manufactured signal has become deeply emotional and politically charged, used to restrict abortion access across the U.S.

Blending poetic voiceover, archival footage, and experimental sound design, the film examines how ultrasound technology doesn’t just capture reality, it constructs it. The film asks: when machines mediate our view of the body, what are we really seeing, and who decides what it means?

7. Radical Nonviolence: 100 Years of the War Resisters League

Exhibition at Interference Archive
Brooklyn, New York

Role: Researcher, curator
Historians: Ruth Benn & Ed Hedeman
2024

War Resisters League and Interference Archive present a collectio of material from the archive documenting 100 years of war resistance.

8. AANIKOOBIJIGAN [ANCESTOR - GREAT GRANDPARENT - GREAT GRANDCHILD]

Sundance World Premiere January 2026
Winner of Audience Award

Directors: Adam Khalil, Zachary Khalil
Producers: Grace Remington, Steve Holmgren

Role: Archival Researcher

History, spirituality, and the law collide as one Michigan tribal organization fights to ensure that Native American ancestral remains are returned to their rightful place.

Supported by:

ITVS
Ford Foundation
International Documentary Association PareLorentz Grant
Firelight Media
UnionDocs

9. HELL’S ANGELS: KINGDOM COME

2024

VICE

Showtime

Role: Archival Producer

Multi-part documentary series on how the Hell’s Angels claimed their throne.

10. WATER INTO LAND

IN PRODUCTION

Lost Horizon Films

Directors: Kārlis Bergs,Andrew Siedenburg

Role: Archival Producer, Producer

Water Into Land charts the new environmental justice movement unfolding on Staten Island, New York City’s forgotten borough, centering the pivotal role of science, imagination, and dreams in a world teetering on the brink of environmental uncertainty. Through a constellation of gripping vignettes, the film unfurls a tapestry of characters — energetic environmental justice organizers, dogged climate scientists, and bureaucratic paper-pushers — whose lives intersect amidst the landscape of petrochemical plants, nuclear waste dumps, and sidewalk sinkholes dotting Staten Island’s North Shore.

Supported by:

Creatives Rebuild New York Grant
UnionDocs
Staten Island Urban Center

WATCH TEASER

11. WE ARE A WATERFRONT: WATER INTO LAND

2024

GOVERNORS ISLAND EXHIBITION

Role: Archival Researcher

We Are a Waterfront: Water into Land is a multimedia environmental justice art exhibition born out of the work of activists from Staten Island Urban Center and independent filmmakers of Lost Horizon Films. The exhibition centers snippets of film against visual art that provides neighborhood storytelling from various Staten Island-based artists and activists.

12. ANGOLA DO YOU HEAR US? VOICES FROM A PLANTATION PRISON

2023

Director, editor: Cinque Northern

MTV Films, Aubin Pictures, 1st Domino

Role: Associate Producer, Archival Researcher

SHORTLISTED

95th Academy Awards for Best Documentary Short Film
DOC NYC Short List Selection
IDA Documentary Awards Best Short Documentary Shortlist Selection

NOMINATED
Critics Choice Award for Best Short Documentary
SIMA Awards

WINNER

DC Shorts Film Festival Jury Award for Outstanding Documentary Short Film
DC Shorts Film Festival Audience Choice Award
SCAD Savanah Film Festival Jury Award for Powerful Storytelling

WATCH TRAILER

13. PRIMERA

2021

Director: Vee Bravo
HBO, Aubin Pictures

Role: Associate Producer

Primera tells the story of Angy and Felipe, two working-class parents who immerse themselves in Chile’s revolutionary path to a new constitution.

WATCH TRAILER

14. FINDING YOUR ROOTS

2022, 2023

PBS, McGee Media

Role: Associate Archival Producer

Television series about geneaology and world history with Dr. Henry Louis Gates.

15. NYCLU NYPD Police Misconduct Project

2018 - 2021

Role: Researcher

Project directors: Michelle Shamess and Christopher Dunn

New York Civil Liberties Union

The NYPD Misconduct Complaint Database shows the 43,144 active or former NYPD officers who have been named in misconduct complaints filed by the public since 2000 according to the investigation records at the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB). During that period, officers were named in 243,102 individual allegations of misconduct which occurred during 73,226 separate incidents.

Using publicly available CCRB complaint history data (available at NYC OpenData), the NYCLU built a search tool to make the information more accessible. Each row of the database represents a single NYPD officer, including the officer’s name, gender, race or ethnicity, employment status, and their misconduct complaint history. The database includes all CCRB investigations completed by July 17th, 2025.

VISIT THE PROJECT