Fritzi Horstman

Fritzi Horstman is the Founder and Executive Director of the Compassion Prison Project an organization dedicated to bringing compassion, childhood trauma awareness and creative inspiration to all men and women living behind bars. She is currently directing “Step Inside the Circle,” a documentary about childhood trauma behind bars. The PSA created from some of the footage from the documentary has already received over 2 million views across all platforms. She produced HBO’s “The Defiant Ones” directed by Allen Hughes which premiered July 9, 2017 and has garnered several awards including IDA Best Limited Series, NAACP Outstanding Director in a Television Movie or Special, Grammy for Best Music Film and was nominated for five Emmy Awards including Best Documentary. Her first feature, “Take A Number,” which she wrote, produced, and directed, debuted at the Slamdance festival in 1997. She served as a co-producer and post producer on numerous features and documentaries for Paramount Network Television, Universal Television , VH1, UPN, Lifetime, Showtime, FX Networks, the CW and CBS including the acclaimed “The Day Reagan was Shot,” “Our America,” which premiered at Sundance 2002, “Edge of America,” which premiered at Sundance 2004 and “Lila and Eve” which premiered at Sundance 2015. She directed several shorts and documentary shorts, one of which, “Downtown,” won an award at the USA Film Festival. She directed a documentary on James Joyce entitled “Joyce to the World,” featuring Brian Dennehy, Frank McCourt and Finnoula Flanagan. Fritzi is passionate about equality, civil rights, education and stories about justice. It is her life’s work to makes sure these stories get told. Fritzi studied at New York University’s summer film program and received a Bachelor of Arts in Film and English from Vassar College.