Mimi Chakarova grew up in a village in southwest Bulgaria. When Communism collapsed, she and her mother immigrated to the United States. Chakarova picked up her first camera in Baltimore – no one back home believed the harsh reality of poverty in America. By 8th grade, Chakarova was working three jobs that didn’t require English. Four years later, she graduated early from high school and, at 17, moved to San Francisco. She rented a tiny studio in the Tenderloin for $525 a month and enrolled at City College of San Francisco. Without the resources to study filmmaking, she chose documentary photography instead. Chakarova eventually found her way to making films and hasn’t stopped since.
As an independent filmmaker, Mimi Chakarova covered global issues examining conflict, corruption and the sex trade. Her first film “The Price of Sex,” a feature-length documentary on the trafficking of women, was awarded the Nestor Almendros Award for courage in filmmaking at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival in New York. She was also the winner of the prestigious Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting and a Dart Awards Finalist for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma.
Chakarova went on to direct, shoot and produce five other feature-length documentaries and over 30 award-winning short films, completed by her own production company, A Moment in Time Productions. "Men: A Love Story" premiered at the Telluride Film Festival; “Letters,” a collaboration with Grammy-winning artist Kris Davis, premiered at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin. Chakarova is the founder and creative director of "Still I Rise Films," a documentary series about resilience and rising above the odds. In 2021, she set up a fellowship program for women filmmakers and visual artists in need of support and mentorship.
Mimi Chakarova is the recipient of the Dorothea Lange Fellowship for outstanding work in documentary photography and the Magnum Photos Inge Morath Award for her work on sex trafficking. Other awards include a People's Voice Webby and a nomination for a News and Documentary Emmy Award.
Chakarova's work has appeared in National Geographic, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, The Sunday Times Magazine, London, CBS News' "60 Minutes," CNN World, BBC World, Al Jazeera English, The Atlantic Monthly, Ms., PBS' FRONTLINE/World and the Center for Investigative Reporting among others.
Capitalism, God, And A Good Cigar: Cuba Enters The Twenty-first Century, published by Duke University Press, features over 75 of Chakarova's documentary photographs of Cuba.
Mimi Chakarova taught visual storytelling at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism for 14 years. She also taught reporting classes at Stanford University's African and African American Studies and Comparative Studies for Race and Ethnicity and has lectured extensively in universities throughout the world.
Mimi Chakarova received her BFA in Photography from the San Francisco Art Institute and her MA in Visual Studies from the University of California, Berkeley.
LECTURES, Exhibits & Awards
Filmmaker Panel – Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival 2023 – Directors Talk Documentary Style
Panelists Janek Ambros (Ukrainians In Exile), Mimi Chakarova (The Block), Nina Nawalowalo (A Boy Called Piano), and Jaime Sunwoo (Handwritten) will join SDFF Co-Director Jane Winslow in an insightful conversation about the variety of stylistic elements they used to craft their films; from animation, live action and performative elements, to rich audio beds with narrations that tell vibrant and personal stories. To illustrate their thoughts, we will show clips from their films that will give you a taste of their stylistic choices and excite you about seeing the films during the festival.
Saturday, March 17, 3 PM at Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Sebastopol, CA
In 2017, Mimi Chakarova donates her entire "Price of Sex" photo collection to the Global Reporting Centre at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. The Lobby Gallery of UBC’s Liu Institute for Global Issues along with The Global Reporting Centre features Chakarova's "Price of Sex" photo exhibit and a free public film screening that year.
Guest Speaker: "International Human Rights," UC Berkeley's School of Law, 2015 & 2016 spring semesters.
Guest Speaker: "A Filmmaker Looks at Women and War," University of Chicago Human Rights Center, Social Sciences Building, October 15, 2014.
As part of its 20th Anniversary celebration, the Human Rights Center at the UC Berkeley School of Law presents Envisioning Human Rights, a collection of world-class human rights photography. The exhibition features the work of Mimi Chakarova, Nic Dunlop, Stephen Ferry, Stephen Goldblatt, Ken Light, Susan Meiselas, Thomas Morley, Gilles Peress, Sebastião Salgado, and Jean-Marie Simon. The Envisioning Human Rights photographs is shown and auctioned to benefit the work of the Human Rights Center.
"The Price of Sex" screens at the International Film Festival & Forum on Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland on March 8th, 2014. A debate with Madeleine Rees, secretary general of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom; Daniela Misail-Nichitin, founder and vice-president of the International Center “La Strada”, Moldova; Mariana Katzarova, International expert on human rights and anti-trafficking, former Adviser on Trafficking to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights; Moderator: Fabienne Bugnon, Deputy secretary general, Department of Security and Economy, Republic and Canton of Geneva follows the screening.
In 2013, Mimi Chakarova presents a series of lectures and screenings at universities throughout Ukraine on behalf of the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv; City University of London's International Reporting Masters Course; Stanford University's History Department; and the Police Academy and the National Police Directorate in Oslo, Norway.
Mimi Chakarova's "The Price of Sex" is a 2012 Dart Awards Finalist for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma.
Mimi Chakarova is the winner of the 2011 Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting presented at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Kiev, Ukraine. Judge Ginger Thompson of the New York Times is captivated by Chakarova’s documentary: “Her attention to detail and dignity in her portrayals of victims, and the breathtaking courage she showed during her forays into the criminal underworld should serve as the professional standard to which all investigative reporters aspire.”
The U.S. Department of State has requested copies of THE PRICE OF SEX to use for training at the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons as well as embassies around the world.
THE PRICE OF SEX is nominated for the 2012 American Library Association Notable Videos for Adults.
THE PRICE OF SEX screens at The Frontline Club in London. FRONTLINE champions independent journalism by bringing together the key players and thinkers in politics and the media and giving viewers an opportunity not only to hear from experts but to ask questions and contribute to the discussion.
THE PRICE OF SEX premiers in New York at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival at Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater. Chakarova is awarded the 2011 Nestor Almendros Award for courage in filmmaking. The event is presented in association with the International Center of Photography and the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma.
THE PRICE OF SEX screens at the AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Festival. Chakarova participates in REVERSE ANGLE, WHEN THE FILMMAKER IS IN THE FILM
– Steve James, Filmmaker (HOOP DREAMS, STEVIE, AT THE DEATH HOUSE DOOR, THE INTERRUPTERS)
– Chico Colvard, Filmmaker (FAMILY AFFAIR)
– Mimi Chakarova, Filmmaker (THE PRICE OF SEX)
"How to Collaborate and Investigate Across Borders:” The 2011 Investigative Reporters & Editors Conference, Orlando, FL.
– Mimi Chakarova, independent journalist
– David Kaplan, Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project
– Ron Nixon, The New York Times
– Oriana Zill, Frontline
As part of the Erasmus Mundus Visiting Scholar Program, Chakarova presents a series of lectures on her investigative and documentary work for graduate students from around the world at City University London, England; Aarhus University and the Danish School of Media and Journalism in Europe.
FiftyCrows Gallery – Social Change Photography, Solo Exhibit
49 Geary, San Francisco, CA, April 8 - May 15, 2010
Featured Speaker – Selling Bodies, Stealing Lives: The Global Sex Slavery Crisis in the 21st Century
2010 Sex Trafficking Conference, South Texas College
Keynote Speaker, 2010 Stop Traffic Now Conference, The University of Missouri, Columbia
FOTOWEEK DC 2009, Iraqi Voices - Curated by Lucian Perkins and featuring the work of ten renown photographers, Iraqi Voices provides a human face to the Iraqi population largely ignored by the media's coverage of the war in Iraq. Work by Andrea Bruce, Mimi Chakarova, Lori Grinker, Amro Hamzawi, Chris Hondros, Farah Nosh, Robert Nickelsberg, Moises Saman, Peter Van Agtmael, and members of Associated Press, Washington DC
MOMENTUM 2009 Speaker, Conflict plenary, Sponsored by the Tides Foundation, San Francisco, California
2009 IRE Conference Speaker, "Covering Invisible Populations," Sponsored by the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, Baltimore, Maryland
Featured Speaker: Slavery in the 21st Century, 2009 Sex Trafficking Conference
South Texas College, April 2009
NOMINEE FOR THE 29th ANNUAL NEWS & DOCUMENTARY EMMY® AWARDS
THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF TELEVISION ARTS & SCIENCES
New Approaches to News & Documentary Programming: Arts, Lifestyle & Culture
2008 WEBBY AWARDS People's Voice Winner, Online Film & Video, News & Politics: Individual Episode
"Dubai: Night Secrets," reported and produced by Mimi Chakarova.
Featured Speaker and Art Exhibit: "What We Leave Behind,” Sex Trafficking Conference: Addressing the Demand
South Texas College
Featured Speaker: World Slavery Awareness Week, Social Justice League
Washburn University, Sociology/Anthropology Department
Foreign Correspondent Training Course, Transitions Online
Prague, Czech Republic, July 2007
Photo Reportage of Sex Trafficking in Eastern Europe / Summer Research Grant
Townsend Center for the Humanities, UC Berkeley, June 2007
Keynote Speaker: "The Price of Sex," Human Trafficking Conference
South Texas College, April 2007
Panelist, "Why Should I Care? Bringing Remote Stories Home," Third Annual International Reporting Conference
Graduate School of Journalism, UC Berkeley, April 2007
Guest Speaker and Photography Judge, Wisconsin News Photographers Association
Milwaukee Art Museum, March 2007
Keynote Speaker, Women and War Conference
South Texas College, April 2006
What's On Her Mind? Sex Trafficking of Young Women in Eastern Europe
Saint Mary's College of California, November 2005. Sponsored by the Women's Studies Program, the Women's Resource Center, and Amnesty International
Capitalism, God, and a Good Cigar: Cuba Enters the 21st Century
Photography exhibit and book party, September 7 – December 15, 2006
Center for Latin American Studies, University of California, Berkeley
2005 Magnum Photos Inge Morath Award
Photography Visiting Lecturer, California College of the Arts
Oakland, California, 2004-05
Visiting Lecturer, University of Beijing
School of Journalism and Communication, March 2005
World Affairs Council of Northern California
Photographs of Kashmir, San Francisco, January 31–March 31, 2005
Don't look back: Photographs of Eastern Europe
Townsend Center for the Humanities, UC Berkeley, 2004
2004 Distinguished Faculty Mentor Nominee
UC Berkeley
Visiting Lecturer, University of Kashmir, India
The 2003 Dorothea Lange Fellowship
for outstanding work in documentary photography
Photo Alliance
Photography Lecture, San Francisco Art Institute, October 2002
The SoHo International Art Exhibition
Agora Gallery, West Broadway, New York, July 26 – August 15, 2002
Stanford University, African & African-American Studies Winter 2002 Lecture Series
January 18, 2002: A Documentary Photographer's Journey
The Swedish American Museum Center
Silent auction for Sarah's Circle, a drop-in center, safe refuge and fresh start for women who are homeless, transient and of low income. Chicago, Illinois, October 2001
The Center for Photography
“The Distance Between Us” Solo Exhibit
Graduate School of Journalism, University of California, Berkeley, April 9–May 4, 2001
Bechtel International Center
Solo Exhibit and Lecture
Stanford University, April 5–May 1, 2001
TD An Installation Space
Solo Photography Exhibit, Mimi Chakarova: Recent Work
South Park, San Francisco, February 15–March 22, 2001
PRESS
Hosted by journalist Julia Macfarlane and former Chief of MI6 Sir Richard Dearlove, One Decision Podcast interviews Mimi Chakarova about the international impact of human trafficking.
Mimi Chakarova writes about why she decided to set up a fellowship program for women filmmakers in Women and Hollywood, titled “How Women Inspired Me to Pay It Forward and Become a Mentor.”
No Film School speaks with Mimi Chakarova about what it really takes to get more women behind the camera and why Chakarova decided to set up a new fellowship program at Still I Rise Films.
Mimi Chakarova on how to find beauty in the mess we make – a monthly interview series for the Video Consortium.
Mimi Chakarova talks with the Kitchen Sisters about "The Price of Sex," "Men: A Love Story" and her new online film series, "Still I Rise." Listen to Mimi Chakarova: Love, Art and Anger.
Chakarova's feature documentary film MEN: A Love Story has its world premiere at the 2016 Telluride Film Festival. Learn more about the film on BBC World.
IN THE RED, Mimi Chakarova's 2015 film, is featured in The Chronicle of Social Change. The documentary has its debut at the historic Grand Lake Theater in Oakland, CA.
The New York Times Live lists Mimi Chakarova as one of five fearless female undercover reporters.
Mimi Chakarova writes about her undercover work on trafficking for Al Jazeera English, June 2015, as well as in its latest digital magazine issue on "Endangered Journalism."
Mimi Chakarova talks about her film and personal journey on BBC World Service's Outlook program – featuring life-story interviews with former presidents, musicians, and many other inspiring people with extraordinary personal stories – reaching 43 million listeners worldwide.
Correspondent Confidential is a series, produced for VICE by Carrie Ching, of illustrated documentary shorts narrated by award-winning journalists. In the first episode, photojournalist Mimi Chakarova talks about her journey deep into the underworld of international sex trafficking. To read a review in the New York Times, click here.
HER WAR, Chakarova's film on homeless women veterans, is the lead piece for KQED's "Life After War" program, airing on Friday, July 26 at 7:30 PM. Chakarova writes "The Aftermath of Military Sexual Assault," addressing the process of making the film in Skid Row, Los Angeles and the reasons behind why thousands of women veterans end up on the streets. A review in the San Francisco Chronicle can be viewed here.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime interviews Mimi Chakarova about her work on trafficking and corruption.
HER WAR, Chakarova's latest film produced for the Center for Investigative Reporting's I Files, takes us to a forgotten war zone - LA's Skid Row, where an increasing number of female veterans live on the streets. In recent years, the number of homeless women vets has doubled, making female vets the fastest growing segment of the homeless population in the U.S. In May 2013, HER WAR is adapted for the stage by Tides Theater in San Francisco. The play premieres on Friday, May 31st with a run of nine performances.
WOMAN OF THE WEEK: MIMI CHAKAROVA | The Women in the World Foundation
Mimi Chakarova on CNN | Connect The World
Undercover Filmmaker | CNN Freedom Project
Mimi Chakarova on BBC World
"Slavery 2012" Podcast | The Commonwealth Club of California
Interview with Mimi Chakarova | United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking
Embassy of the United States of America: Mimi Chakarova | Ottawa
My Defining Moment: Mimi Chakarova | CBC
Video Interview with Mimi Chakarova | Reeling the Reel
Interview with Mimi Chakarova | Channel Guide Magazine
"The Price of Sex" Podcast | Human Rights Watch
"The Price of Sex" Is a Work of Art | Huffington Post
The Price of Sex on CNN
Ten Years Underground: A Photojournalist's Quest to Expose the Sex Trade | Her Circle e-zine
The Price of Sex: An Investigation of Sex Trafficking | USAID Impact Blog by Mimi Chakarova
Mimi Chakarova is interviewed on NPR's Talk of the Nation about her film "The Price of Sex."
Listen to "Human Trafficking And The Terrible 'Price Of Sex'."
Read "The Human Rights Watch Film Festival Digs Deep, Asks the Hard Questions" review of THE PRICE OF SEX
in the Huffington Post, June 15, 2011.
NPR's Snap Judgment radio story features Mimi Chakarova and the backstory of her documentary THE PRICE OF SEX.
Exposing the Sex Traffickers – investigative journalist and filmmaker Mimi Chakarova’s chilling documentary on the seamy
networks that traffic young girls from Eastern Europe to the West is profiled by Stephen Handelman in The Crime Report:
Inside Criminal Justice.
Mimi Chakarova talks to SF360.org about a new perspective on journalism and international crime.
An interview with Mimi Chakarova in F8 Magazine about her social documentary projects. To see the full spread of
the interview and her portfolio, view the magazine online.
An interview with Mimi Chakarova on Captive Daughters about her sex trafficking work in Eastern Europe: "It was my obligation to return and expose something that many chose to ignore or were too afraid to acknowledge as a post-communist plague in our society."
IRAQ: LIVING IN HIDING, PBS' Frontline/World "Conflict Zones" Series, MAY 2009
Chakarova's multimedia piece explores a secret network of shelters in Baghdad for victims of rape, abuse and reprisal killings six years after the US invasion.
Women's eNews features Mimi Chakarova as "JOURNALIST OF THE MONTH," spotlighting her work on sex trafficking.
THE INVESTIGATORS: BEHIND THE VEIL, Center for Investigative Reporting
Lawlessness and sectarian violence quickly engulfed Iraq after the fall of Saddam, leaving women especially vulnerable.
Correspondents Anna Badkhen and Mimi Chakarova visit a secret women's shelter in Baghdad to document the stories
of rape victims and war widows.
FRONTLINE/World's first launch of a new web series, flashPOINT, features "The Price of Sex." Chakarova takes us to Moldova where she captures the lives of young women trafficked into the sex trade.
FRONTLINE/World's Rough Cut video, "Night Secrets," reported and produced by Mimi Chakarova, is an undercover story about prostitution in Dubai. September 2007
CBS News' "60 Minutes" reports on Dubai in A Visit To Dubai Inc., featuring some of Chakarova's photographs from "Night Secrets." October 14, 2007