Astra Taylor is a writer and documentarian. She was named one of the twenty-five New Faces to Watch in independent cinema by Filmmaker Magazine in 2006. She co-directed The Miracle Tree, a short documentary about infant malnutrition in Senegal, and directed Žižek! (2003). Her latest film is Examined Life (2008), in which she accompanies some of today’s most influential thinkers on a series of unique excursions through places and spaces that hold particular resonance for them and their ideas. She is the co-founder of Hidden Drive productions.