[2] Bickford is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and began her career as a production assistant to Robert Altman in Paris on the 1987 film Beyond Therapy.
Bickford optioned the film rights to the British television mini series about the heroin trade in the UK & Pakistan[4] and spent four years researching the war on drugs in the US, South America, and Mexico for a US adaptation.
The film, Traffic, won four Academy Awards for Best Director for Steven Soderbergh, Best Supporting Actor for Benicio Del Toro, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Editing.
Del Toro and Bickford worked with Terrence Malick on the script for Part 2[6] and spent years traveling around the world interviewing the last living members of the Cuban Revolution and researching the life of Che Guevara.
[15] In the 1970s, her father represented contemporary artists introduced to him by Bickford's godfather, Klaus Kertess, and traded art for fees most notably with Brice Marden, David Novros, Joanna Pousette-Dart, and Lynda Benglis.