Norah Shapiro

Minneapolis-based, Emmy Award winning filmmaker Norah Shapiro left a decade-long first career as a public defender to work in documentary filmmaking and has combined her passion for justice and storytelling ever since. Her most recent film, Time for Ilhan, about the political rise of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, premiered at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival, and is currently available on multiple streaming platforms. Time for Ilhan won multiple audience awards, was nominated for a 2018 NAACP Image Award for Best TV Documentary, and received a 2018-2019 Daytime EMMY Award for Outstanding Directing Special Class. Time for Ilhan also conducted an ambitious grass roots social impact campaign in diverse communities throughout the U.S., and its’ educational and community distribution is available through Good Docs.  Ms. Shapiro is currently directing and producing Magic & Monsters (now in post-production), a story about the long-buried sexual abuse scandal at America’s preeminent children’s theater and the survivors who came forward to hold their abusers and the institution that harbored them accountable. Magic & Monsters received the 2020 IDA Enterprise Development and Production Grant support. She is also currently producing Mister Backlash, a feature documentary about Public Safety in Minneapolis. Norah is a 2021 (& 2012) McKnight Media Artist Fellow. Her past work has also received support from the Tribeca Film Institute, Catapult Film Fund, Jerome Foundation, Hot Docs, Gotham and others. She is a founding member of the Minneapolis Chapter of Film Fatales.