LIZ KAAR

Liz Kaar is an independent editor, director, and producer. She was born and raised in Minnesota and cut her filmmaking teeth in the great city of Chicago. She collaborated closely with Kartemquin Films, Chicago’s documentary powerhouse, for over a decade. She started as an intern there and soon discovered her love for small editing rooms, tackling the monster of long-form story structure, and the resulting trail of potato chip crumbs. Her editing projects have been honored with a variety of award recognition, including short-listed for the Academy Award, nominated for Emmy and IDA awards, and winning the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Journalism Award. 

Some recent documentary edits include Show Her the Money (SXSW EDU 2024), Body Parts (Tribeca 2022, Starz), Any Given Day (Hot Docs 2021, PBS) and The Dilemma of Desire (SXSW 2020, Showtime). She co-directed and edited Hard Earned, a six-part television series for Al Jazeera America about people living on low wages across the United States. She directed, produced, shot and edited Stranded by the State, a web series and TV mini series, co-produced by In These Times magazine and Kartemquin Films, about the human cost of the two-year Illinois budget impasse. In the past, she associate-produced and edited the music documentary Andrew Bird: Fever Year, and short film On Beauty.

Liz also works in the scripted world. She recently edited Kombucha! (Overlook 2024 / Chicago International Film Festival 2024), a short horror film about creepy Kombucha and what it really means to be “consumed by work”. It was picked up and developed into a feature, currently in post-production for a 2025 release. She also wrote and directed The Turkey (Wisconsin Film Festival 2022), a feature “weirdo” Thanksgiving comedy, that went on to capture the hearts of the midwestern festival crowd. You betcha.