Directing
Ry Russo-Young turns the camera on her own past to explore the meaning of family. In the late 70s/early 80s, when the concept of a gay family was inconceivable to most, Ry and her sister Cade were born to two lesbian mothers through sperm donors. Ry’s idyllic childhood was threatened by an unexpected lawsuit which sent shockwaves through her family’s lives and continues to reverberate today.
A short film exploring the annual Esprit gathering, where transgender women in their senior years who have been closeted their whole lives gather for a week of shared experience and understanding in a logging town in Northern Washington.
An investigation into abuse and missing children at an Indian residential school in Canada ignites a reckoning on the nearby Sugarcane Reserve.
"The Pearl" explores the raw emotional and physical experience of being a middle aged to senior transgender woman against the backdrop of post-industrial logging towns in the Pacific Northwest. The film leans into the struggle of those who were reared and successful as men and have reached middle age or later with a burdensome secret that they can no longer keep.
Haunting and deeply human, Boone tells the story of three young goat farmers as they transition with the seasons and come to terms with the physical and emotional grit required to live in deep relationship with the land. This experiential film is a visceral meditation on the sacrifice and struggle of a lifestyle born of self reliance; a sensual homage to the heart and soul of a farmer.
Nigel and Dayna are a happy couple with a young family when they encounter a nightmare scenario: their baby, Emily, experiences a frightening seizure. But what comes next is truly Kafkaesque. After Emily is rushed to the hospital and stabilized, a doctor claims that her episode could only be the result of severe abuse, and prosecutors arrest Nigel.
