Jeffrey M. Togman

Jeffrey M. Togman is an American filmmaker and political scientist. Togman's documentary We're Not Blood follows his own search for his birth parents, and explores broader issues of the politics of adoption in the United States. We're Not Blood had its world premiere at the San Francisco Documentary Festival, and its international premiere at the Portobello Film Festival in London. We're Not Blood was an official selection of the Atlanta International Documentary Film Festival, where it won the Best Dramatic Documentary Feature Award. Togman's first film Home tells the story of Sheree Farmer, a mother of six who is trying to leave public housing and buy her own home. The film had its world premiere at the SilverDocs AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival (now AFI Docs), where it won a Special Jury Recognition Award. The documentary was an official selection of the Margaret Mead Film Festival. The New York Times called Home a "marvelously revealing documentary about the psychology of poverty." The film aired nationally on the Sundance Channel, and is distributed by Magnolia Pictures and Netflix. Home has screened at the American Museum of Natural History, Princeton University, Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Kyoto University in Japan. Togman is a long-time member of the faculty at Seton Hall University, where he is associate professor of political science and film. His book "The Ramparts of Nations" is a comparative study of immigration politics in France and the United States over the second half of the twentieth century. After completing his bachelor's degree at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany, Professor Togman did his graduate work at New York University (NYU), where he studied political science, anthropology, and history, and earned a Ph.D. in Politics, as well as a Certificate In Digital Video Production.