Kimberlee Bassford

KIMBERLEE BASSFORD, DIRECTOR, PRODUCER, WRITER, and CO-EDITOR, is an award-winning independent filmmaker from Hawai‘i who has a passion for social issue and cultural stories. She was a producer on UNNATURAL CAUSES (2008), a four-hour national PBS documentary series and public engagement campaign that investigates our disturbing socioeconomic and racial disparities in health. She was also a producer on the three-hour PBS documentary series THE MEANING OF FOOD (2005), which explores the social significance of food in the United States.

Bassford had her directorial debut with CHEERLEADER (2003), a short documentary that follows a squad of young, bright-eyed California cheerleaders on its quest for the national cheerleading championships. The film aired on HBO Family and won the Student Academy Award in Documentary and CINE Golden Eagle. It also screened in film festivals in the US, Canada, Europe and New Zealand, including the Cannes Film Festival as part of the Kodak Emerging Filmmaker Showcase. The film has educational distribution through Documentary Educational Resources.
Bassford is a graduate of Punahou School and holds a B.A. in psychology from Harvard University and a master’s journalism from the University of California, Berkeley. She owns Making Waves Films LLC, a documentary production company in Honolulu. (06/09)

Patsy Mink: Ahead of the Majority
A film by Kimberlee Bassford, 2008, 56 min., Color/BW
In 1965, Patsy Takemoto Mink became the first woman of color in the United States Congress. Seven years later, she ran for the US presidency and was t...