Maisie Crow

Maisie Crow is an American documentary filmmaker, photojournalist, and journalist based in Austin and Marfa, Texas. Beginning her career as a photojournalist, she has evolved into a documentary filmmaker known for character-driven work on social justice subjects, particularly reproductive rights and U.S.-Mexico border issues. Her feature documentary Jackson won the News & Documentary Emmy Award for Outstanding Social Issue Documentary. Her second feature, At the Ready (2021), premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival. Her third feature, Zurawski v Texas (2024), co-directed with Abbie Perrault, premiered at the Telluride Film Festival and was executive produced by Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, and Jennifer Lawrence. She was also co-owner and editor of the Big Bend Sentinel, a weekly newspaper in Marfa, Texas, from 2019 to 2025.

Early life and education Crow was born and raised in Corpus Christi, Texas. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin, where she contributed to The Daily Texan, and a master's degree in photojournalism from Ohio University, where she was named runner-up for the College Photographer of the Year award. In 2009, she received the Ian Parry Scholarship for Love Me, a long-term documentary photography project documenting a young woman living in a cycle of generational poverty in Ohio, which she has described as "the first time my work was recognized on such a large scale." Her multimedia work has been recognized by World Press Photo, the Overseas Press Club, and the Society of Professional Journalists.

Short documentaries Crow's short documentary A Life Alone (2009), a portrait of a widowed farmer confronting solitude after 63 years of marriage, received a News & Documentary Emmy Award nomination in 2010.

Her short film Half-Lives: The Chernobyl Workers Now (2011) documented survivors and workers still dismantling the Chernobyl plant 25 years after the disaster. The film won the Overseas Press Club Award for Best Use of Online Video in 2012 and was recognized by the World Press Photo Multimedia Contest, Pictures of the Year International, and Best of Photojournalism.

The film had its world premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival in June 2016 and screened at over 40 festivals, including the Human Rights Watch Film Festival. It won 15 festival awards including Best Documentary at the New Orleans Film Festival, Indie Memphis, the Portland Film Festival, and the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival.

At the Ready (2021) Crow's second feature, At the Ready, follows three Mexican-American high school students at Horizon High School in El Paso, Texas who participate in a law enforcement training program, aspiring to careers in border patrol, customs enforcement, and law enforcement. The film's subjects — Cristina, Cesar, and Kassy — navigate the tension between their career ambitions and the national debate over immigration and policing. One of the film's subjects, identified as Kassy during production, came out as transgender, a fact noted in the film's end credits.

The film premiered in the U.S. Documentary Competition at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2021 and opened theatrically on October 22, 2021. Writing in The Hollywood Reporter, Daniel Fienberg reviewed the film positively at Sundance. The film is listed in the International Documentary Association project database and streams on Max.

The Pink House at the Center of the World (2022) Crow contributed video reporting to This American Life's episode 774, "The Pink House at the Center of the World" (2022), documenting the staff of the Jackson Women's Health Organization as they reacted to the Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization overturning Roe v. Wade. The episode won a Peabody Award in 2022.

Zurawski v Texas (2024) Crow co-directed Zurawski v Texas (2024) with Abbie Perrault. The film follows three women who were denied medically necessary abortion care under Texas's abortion ban and subsequently sued the state with the Center for Reproductive Rights. The documentary was executive produced by Hillary Clinton, Chelsea Clinton, and Jennifer Lawrence.

The film had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival in 2024, where it played to a capacity crowd of approximately 700 people and received standing ovations. The Los Angeles Times described it as "the film that landed hardest" of those screened at the festival. It won the Artemis Rising Foundation Award for Social Impact, which carries a $15,000 cash prize, at the Hamptons International Film Festival. The film also won both the Jury Prize and the Audience Award for Best Southern Feature at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival. The film was longlisted for the 2025 Grierson Awards for Best Crime and Justice Documentary and was named one of the best documentaries of 2024 by Variety, IndieWire, and The Hollywood Reporter. The film opened theatrically on October 25, 2024. The Center for Reproductive Rights has cited the film in its advocacy work.

The Big Bend Sentinel In April 2019, Crow and her husband Max Kabat purchased the Big Bend Sentinel, a weekly newspaper serving Marfa and surrounding Big Bend communities, as well as its sister publication the Presidio International.

Teaching Crow has taught photojournalism and video storytelling as an adjunct professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, and the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. She has also served as a Hearst Visitor at Pennsylvania State University's Bellisario College of Communications.

Filmography

Feature documentaries Year Title Director Producer Notes 2016 Jackson World premiere Los Angeles Film Festival 2016; News & Documentary Emmy Award for Outstanding Social Issue Documentary (2018); 15 festival awards 2021 At the Ready U.S. Documentary Competition, Sundance Film Festival 2021; streams on Max 2024 Zurawski v Texas Co-directed with Abbie Perrault; world premiere Telluride Film Festival 2024; Artemis Rising Foundation Award, Hamptons International Film Festival; Jury Prize and Audience Award, Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival

Short documentaries Year Title Director Notes 2009 A Life Alone News & Documentary Emmy Award nomination (2010) 2011 Half-Lives: The Chernobyl Workers Now Overseas Press Club Award for Best Use of Online Video (2012) 2013 The Last Clinic Published by The Atavist Magazine; News & Documentary Emmy Award nomination (2014); National Magazine Award finalist

Television and multimedia contributions Year Title Role Notes 2022 "The Pink House at the Center of the World" (This American Life, Episode 774) Video reporter Peabody Award (2022)