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Mike Attie

Directing

Biography

Mike Attie is a filmmaker and educator based in Philadelphia, PA. His recent shorts include ABORTION HELPLINE, THIS IS LISA (Sundance 2020, AFI Docs 2020 Grand Jury Short Award) and MOMENT TO MOMENT (FULL FRAME 2019, IFFB 2019 Special Jury Award). Mike's feature documentary, IN COUNTRY (co-directed with Meghan O'Hara), had its world premiere at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and international premiere at Hot Docs in Toronto. The film was supported by the Sundance Documentary Film Program, IFP and numerous Seattle arts foundations. Since the premiere IN COUNTRY received extensive press including an NYTimes Op-Doc and articles in Salon and the Atlantic. Mike's other award-winning short documentaries have shown at major film festivals including AFI/SilverDocs, San Francisco International and the Black Maria Film + Video Festival. Mike is a 2014 Sundance Documentary Film Program Fellow and was named as one of The Independent's "10 Filmmakers to Watch in 2014". Currently he is an assistant professor at the University of the Arts and program director of the Film major. Learn more here. Mike lives in Philadelphia with his wife, two children, two cats and various ailing houseplants.

Known For

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Once a notorious institution for people with disabilities, Pennhurst finally closed after decades of abuse in 1987. Now those doors are reopening, as a group of disabled performers reframe the narrative around the site's harmful history – as a haunted house.

The Haunting of Pennhurst

2026
An American Pastoral
7.0

In a quiet Pennsylvania town, a storm is brewing over the soul of its public schools. What begins as a debate over library books quickly reveals a deeper battle — one over religion, democracy, and the future of American education. Set in Elizabethtown, nestled in the heart of Lancaster County, An American Pastoral follows a high-stakes local school board race as it becomes a flashpoint for a national culture war. With far-right activists pushing a theocratic agenda and longtime public servants stepping down under threat, the town’s once-routine school board meetings erupt into scenes of conflict and division. This gripping documentary captures the voices of citizens fighting to protect their schools—and the fragile promise of secular democracy — one ballot at a time.

An American Pastoral

2024
In Country
7.2

War is Hell. Why would anyone want to spend their weekends there? Deep in the Oregon woods, the heat of a reenacted Vietnam battle sheds light on America's complicated relationship with war and its veterans.

In Country

2015
Abortion Helpline, This Is Lisa
7.0

At the Philadelphia abortion helpline, counselors field nonstop calls from women and teens who are seeking to end a pregnancy but can’t afford to, illustrating how economic stigma and cruel laws determine who has access to abortion in America.

Abortion Helpline, This Is Lisa

2019
The Field Trip
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A group of fifth graders learn what it takes to get ahead in the modern American workplace.

The Field Trip

2021
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HOLLYWOOD DOES ABORTION reveals how, from the 1970s to the present, film and television have too often relied on dangerously misleading distortions about abortions and the people who seek them. This provocative and lively feature length documentary explores the ways in which abortion narratives onscreen and public policy both mimic and influence one another. Extensive archival imagery spans five decades of television and film, ranging from Maude and Dirty Dancing to Jane the Virgin and Juno, and creates a historical timeline to support the “story” of the film. In Hollywood Does Abortion, leading directors, writers, showrunners, and cultural critics share their personal and political reactions to these seminal depictions through the lens of today’s post-Roe world. Today, we see how a wide range of diverse Hollywood creators are racing to tell stories that push back against the seismic shift in access to abortion.

Hollywood Does Abortion