Mitch McCabe

A native of metro-Detroit, Mitch McCabe is an award-winning artist, filmmaker and educator whose work spans narrative, nonfiction, and experimental film– and the many areas in between.

A 2019 recipient of the Sarah Jacobson Award, a fellow of the Flaherty Seminar and MacDowell, their work has been supported by MASS MoCA, Yaddo, Princess Grace Foundation, LEF Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, Djerassi Foundation, iPark Foundation, SPACE Gallery and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.

Their first film, PLAYING THE PART premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, won a Student Academy Award and screened at over a hundred festivals including New Directors/New Films, where Stephen Holden of New York Times called it “enthralling.” Their short films, SEPTEMBER 5:10PM, HIGHWAY 403, MILE 39 and TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN have screened at Sundance, New Directors/ New Films, New York Film Festival, two nominated for student Academy Awards. Their experimental “featurette” film THIS CORROSION premiered at the Haugesund Film Festival and Anthology Film Archive in New York. Their HBO documentary YOUTH KNOWS NO PAIN premiered at the Lincoln Center, was nominated for a WGA writing award at AFI-Silverdocs Film Festival and screened at IDFA, among other festivals. Justin Chang from Variety called the film a “lively, candid and thoughtful piece, which avoids the fashionable alarmism of so many social-issue docs..”

In 2019-2020, Mitch began exhibiting the first chapter of a five-part feature film, CIVIL WAR SURVEILLANCE POEMS. CIVIL WAR SURVEILLANCE POEMS – PART 1 has been screened at True/False Film Festival, Sheffield Doc Fest, Camden, Freep Film Festival and a dozen other festivals. The full feature film is a work in progress, expected completion for late 2022, early 2023.

They have worked extensively as cameraperson and producer of series for A&E, CBS, Discovery, OWN, TNT, Lifetime, Bravo and Spike. Their work as a director/producer in the branded content space includes clients like Verizon, Chrysler and Unilever.

As an educator, Mitch is currently an Assistant Professor at the Park School of Communications at Ithaca College. Formerly, they were a Visiting Professor of Film Production at Trinity College and an Assistant Professor at the BFA film Conservatory at SUNY-Purchase College. Over the years they lectured as a visiting artist and held workshops and seminars at dozens of universities and institutions, including Sundance Institute/Echo Park Film Center, New York University, Whitman College, Detroit Free Press, University of Montana, University of Iowa, Harvard College and Vassar College, among others. They received their BA from Harvard College and their MFA from NYU’s Kanbar School of Film and Television.