FEATURED WORK

Cashing Out
Director/Producer

An Unlikely Last Resort for Getting Out of Prison
Director

ABOUT

I’m a documentary filmmaker and journalist based in New York.

My latest documentary short, “Cashing Out” (The New Yorker 2025), is currently on the shortlist for the 98th Academy Awards for Best Documentary Short Film. Released by The New Yorker, “Cashing Out” tells the story of a controversial industry that emerged in the early days of AIDS—in which thousands of queer people sold their life insurance policies to investors for quick cash—and my own unlikely connection to it.

My previous short doc, “CANS Can’t Stand” (The New Yorker 2023) follows a group of Black trans women fighting to repeal Louisiana’s controversial Crime Against Nature by Solicitation (CANS) law. Nominated for a 2024 GLAAD Media Award, “CANS Can’t Stand” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival Emerging Filmmaker Showcase and screened at film festivals like Outfest (Audience Award), NewFest (Audience Award), Provincetown (Special Jury Prize), Hot Springs, and the New Orleans Film Festival.

My work has been distributed by the New York Times, The New Yorker, and PBS, among other outlets. I currently oversee multimedia investigations at the Investigative Reporting Lab at Yale. Before working at Yale, I co-founded the Advocacy Video Project, an initiative that uses short documentaries to help New Yorkers win fairer criminal-legal outcomes.

I was born and raised in Florida and graduated from Yale with a BA in American Studies.

CONTACT

mattsnadel [at] gmail [dot] com