Deborah Shaffer documentary footage of Chile, El Salvador and Nicaragua

Award-winning independent documentary filmmaker Deborah Shaffer began her career in the 1970s when her involvement with the anti-war movement connected her to the Newsreel Collective, a group focused on making documentaries surrounding the Vietnam War and the political protests of the 1960s and 1970s[1]. After working with the Newsreel Collective, Shaffer and several other women in Newsreel who were inspired by the feminist movement, founded Pandora Films in 1971, an all-women's cooperative filmmaking group centered on women's issues, sexual education, and reproductive rights. In order to address a need for more access to comprehensive sexual education in high schools, Pandora Films producedHow About You?, a sexual education film for teenagers and directed by Shaffer[2]. In 1975, Shaffer became aware of Latin American issues while working as a producer on Jorge Reyes' documentaryAvenue of the Americasabout Allende's leadership in Chile. Before beginning her work with Reyes, Shaffer had little experience with Latin America, but she learned Spanish specifically to work on the film[3]. Reyes' documentary opened Shaffer's eyes to the pressing issues in Latin America, and a meeting with Joyce Horman, the widow of disappeared journalist Charles Horman, cemented her interest in producing documentaries about Latin America[4]. She produced her first documentary film on Latin America,Nicaragua: Report from the Frontabout the US-contra funded efforts in Nicaragua during the Sandinista Revolution in the 1970's and 1980's.

In the 1980s, Deborah Shaffer was asked by producer David Goodman to direct a documentary film about Dr. Charlie Clements, an American physician providing medical care to the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front in the Salvadoran Civil War[5]. Clements, after flying over 50 missions in the US Air Force during the Vietnam War, decided the war was immoral and refused to fly further missions in support of the US invasion of Cambodia[6]. Upon his discharge from the military, Clements trained as a physician and traveled to El Salvador, where he worked as a medic in rebel-held territories during the decade long Salvadoran Civil War. In 1983, Dr. Clements published his autobiographyWitness to War, focusing on his involvement in the US Air Force, his personal change and military discharge; and the beginnings of his work in El Salvador. Shaffer's 1985 documentaryWitness to War: Dr. Charlie Clements, released by Skylight Pictures, contains interview footage with Dr. Charlie Clements, shots of his work in El Salvador and the work of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, in addition to archival footage of the Vietnam War and Dr. Clements past solidarity work in the United States[7].Witness to War: Dr. Charlie Clements, won an Academy Award (Best Documentary—Short Subjects) in 1986 and was aired on PBS Television[8].

Fire from the Mountain, a full length documentary feature, recounts the experience of Sandinista Omar Cabezas, and is titled after Cabezas' autobiography of the same name. The film contains interviews with Cabezas as he describes his personal journey from student and activist to guerrilla fighter in Nicaragua during the 1970s; footage of Nicaragua before and after the 1979 insurrection; and audio of Cabezas reading from his autobiography.Fire from the Mountainwas screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 1988, and was nominated for an Emmy[9].

Shaffer's 1989 documentaryDance of Hope, a collaboration with Lavonne Poteet, spans the time just before and after the 1988 Chilean plebiscite that removed Augusto Pinochet from power.Dance of Hopeexamines the lives of eight Chilean women and members of the Association of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared.Dance of Hopecontains footage from protests orchestrated by the women's group, in addition to personal interviews from both supporters and detractors of the Pinochet regime, interspersed with footage of the 1988 plebiscite that ousted Pinochet. The film also contains footage of an Amnesty International concert, where Sting and Peter Gabriel performed "They Dance Alone," a song written by Sting; and inspired by/dedicated to the women of the Association of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared.Dance of Hopewas screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 1989 and won the Prix d'Or prize at the International Festival of Audiovisual Programs[10].

Shaffer has been awarded both a Guggenheim Fellowship and an Irene Diamond Lifetime Achievement Award for her documentary filmmaking and contribution to the field of global human rights issues. Her 2010 film,To Be Heard, is a collaboration of several filmmakers and profiles three teenagers growing up in the Bronx as they spend four years learning to write poetry and participate in spoken word events[11].

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