Adam Dietrich
Directing
Biography
Adam Dietrich is an award-winning filmmaker, producer, and creative leader with a deep commitment to storytelling and mentorship. As Co-Founder and Head of Production at Tree Fort Films in New York City, Adam has led a wide range of nonfiction projects—from independent documentaries to branded content for global clients like Barilla, Heineken, Crown Royal, and Philips. His work blends creative vision with strategic execution, delivering powerful stories that resonate with audiences. Beyond production, Adam is deeply invested in building creative communities. As the first Alumni Coordinator at the Murray Center for Documentary Journalism at the Missouri School of Journalism—where he earned his BJ in 2017—he supports emerging filmmakers through mentorship, career coaching, and release strategy. He organizes the annual alumni conference and runs programming to connect students with the broader documentary community. At the heart of Adam’s work is a passion for elevating authentic stories, fostering collaboration, and helping the next generation of storytellers succeed.
Known For
It’s 2017 in Bisbee, Arizona, an old copper-mining town just miles from the Mexican border. The town’s close-knit community prepares to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Bisbee’s darkest hour: the infamous Bisbee Deportation of 1917, during which 1,200 striking miners were violently taken from their homes, banished to the middle of the desert, and left to die. Townspeople confront this violent, misunderstood past by staging dramatic recreations of the escalating strike. These dramatized scenes are based on subjective versions of the story and “directed,” in a sense, by residents with conflicting views of the event. Deeply personal segments torn from family history build toward a massive restaging of the deportation itself on the exact day of its 100th anniversary.
Bisbee '17
Roxana follows a young mother’s return to the juvenile detention center she was once incarcerated in, now as a trained somatic therapist. Through an intimate look into the lives of incarcerated youth, we will see the consequences of childhood trauma.
Roxana
A series of racist acts prompts three Mizzou students to pick up cameras and take us inside the student movement that brought down their college president. From the hunger strike, to victory, to the fear of violent reprisals, we live with the students who started a campus revolt.
Concerned Student 1950
A year after Thadd and Shannon gave birth to their son, A Conversation Between Parents highlights a climactic conversation in their lives -- as both young parents grasp at the last threads of their ideal family. On an afternoon off of work, the couple sits on their couch, while their son sleeps in his crib, and the family grapples with their limited options one last time. Dietrich’s camera ties the couple’s painful conversation together with flashbacks of both parents’ precious memories of their first year with Jasper, attempting to find a way to articulate their struggles in the last conversation they have together as a couple.
A Conversation Between Parents
Pass Time explores the passive absorption of breaking news and political discourse during one of the most charged elections in American history. How did we arrive at this moment, where truth and narrative blur? What forces have shaped our perceptions, and what consequences lie in wait as we drift through an ever-shifting landscape of information? Where are we headed, and can we even see it coming?