Tracy Droz Tragos

Writer, Director & Producer

Tracy Droz Tragos is a writer, filmmaker, and mother of two teenagers, drawn to issues involving women, inequality, and rural America. At an early age, Tracy found solace in storytelling, watching Vietnam War movies and making a connection with the father she never knew, a U.S. Navy officer who died in Vietnam when she was a baby. 

Tracy’s past award-winning directing work includes RICH HILL, the Grand Jury Prize Winner for U.S. Documentary at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. RICH HILL was released theatrically in over 100-theaters and was broadcast on Independent Lens in January 2015. In 2018, Tracy completed THE SMARTEST KIDS IN THE WORLD, a feature documentary about the crisis in U.S. high school education, based on Amanda Ripley's New York Times bestseller. Tracy also produced and directed the HBO film ABORTION: STORIES WOMEN TELL about personal stories of unplanned pregnancies, resilience, and personal tragedy, which premiered at Tribeca in 2016 and had a theatrical release in 2017, followed by an HBO broadcast. This film was nominated for a Cinema Eye Honors award, as well as an Emmy for Best Social Issue Documentary.

BE GOOD, SMILE PRETTY, Tracy’s first film, is a powerful documentary about the profound and complicated feelings of loss caused by the deaths of American men in the Vietnam War, some 35 years later. The film aired on Independent Lens and won the 2004 Emmy for Best Documentary, as well as the Jury Award for Best Documentary at the Los Angeles Film Festival, and a Cine Golden Eagle Award. 
Most recently, Tracy produced and directed PLAN C, about a grassroots network fighting to expand access to abortion pills across the United States, keeping hope alive during a global pandemic and the fall of Roe v. Wade (2023 Sundance Film Festival and 2023 SXSW). PLAN C was voted one of the best documentaries by Video Librarian, a finalist for NIHCM Foundation’s TV Journalism Award and won GOLD at the 2024 Anthem Awards, as well as the 2024 Webby Award for public service, social impact and activism. The film screened in over 50 U.S. theaters, and is currently streaming on Starz. 

Tracy’s work has received support from the Sundance Institute, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the John Guggenheim Foundation, and ITVS. She is a Film Independent Documentary Lab and Sundance Lab alumna. Tragos was a filmmaker fellow in Sundance’s Women Filmmakers Initiative and the Sundance Screenwriting and Directing Labs for her debut narrative feature, THE MACROBIOTIC STONER. Tracy received her MFA in screenwriting from USC and her BA in creative writing from Northwestern University. She is an adjunct professor in documentary at the USC School of Cinematic Arts.