Deirdre Haj is the current Executive Director of Film Streams in Omaha, a position she has held since May 2021. Prior to joining Film Streams, Haj served as the Executive Director of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, North Carolina, a role she held from January 2010 to May 2021.
During her tenure at Full Frame, Haj oversaw the development of the festival into a prestigious, Oscar-qualifying event, as well as establishing year-round programming and community engagement initiatives. She also prioritized equity, diversity, and inclusion across the organization and its programming.
Some of Haj's notable achievements at Full Frame include the creation of the School of Doc filmmaking course for teens, the Teach the Teachers documentary literacy program for educators, and the Speakeasy Conversations series, which features panels and discussions on various topics, including the lack of diversity in the documentary filmmaking field.
In addition to her work at Full Frame, Haj served as a Senior Advisor for Television and Film at Duke University from 2016 to 2021. Prior to her roles at Full Frame and Duke, Haj worked between Hollywood studios and government agencies, focusing on the representation of public health issues on screen.
Haj is also the founding Vice President of the Film Festival Alliance and is married to Joseph Haj, the Artistic Director of The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
She has been featured in various publications and interviews, including "Brave New World" in Real Screen, "We Need to Stop Patting Ourselves on the Back" in Filmmaker Magazine, "Notes from North Carolina" in Documentary Magazine, and "Documentary Has a Race Problem" in Indiewire, as well as being interviewed by Papagena Robbins for Synoptique and Jehane Noujaim for A&E IndieFilms.
