Kristina Motwani

In 1987, Marlee Matlin became the first Deaf actor to win an Academy Award and was thrust into the spotlight at 21 years old. Reflecting on her life in her primary language of American Sign Language, Marlee explores the complexities of what it means to be a trailblazer.

An intimate, collaborative documentary told through the dual perspectives of Adam, a transgender teen, and his mother, visual artist Amy Jenkins, that offers an authentic and tender counterpoint to the hostility facing trans youth today. Adam’s journey balances the milestones of gender transition with the rhythms of adolescence. As Adam asserts his identity and steps out into the world, his parents grapple with the challenges of raising a teen while learning to let go. Through a visually poetic approach, the film transforms a deeply personal archive, collected over two decades, into a powerful, joyful testament to the beauty and difficulty of reckoning with profound change.

Following the class of 2020 at Oakland High School in a year marked by seismic change, exploring the emotional world of teenagers coming of age against the backdrop of a rapidly changing world.

A group of women and non-binary journalists, bucking the white male status quo, launch The 19th*—a digital news startup that asks who has been omitted from mainstream coverage and how they can be included.

A soon-to-be first-time voter, the filmmaker’s thought-provoking journey into the Rust Belt and South captures four Asian American voters’ ardent first time grassroots political participation ignited by the 2016 rise of “Chinese Americans for Trump.” FIRST VOTE is a character driven cinema verité style film chronicling the democratic participation of four Asian American voters from 2016 through the 2018 midterm elections.

A Mexican-American teenage farmworker dreams of graduating high school, when ICE raids in her community threaten to separate her family and force her to become her family’s breadwinner.

A young woman's dream of riding the waves threatens to change the course of an entire nation.

Fulfilling a childhood promise to her father who suffered from a fatal disease, Nita Patel made it her mission to cure infectious diseases. Her determination led her to develop a life saving vaccine during the height of a global pandemic. Through Nita's journey to become a powerhouse scientist, we witness the untold story of women scientists, along with the strength and resilience of the human spirit.

A 17-year-old girl adopted from Ethiopia leads a racial justice march in her small conservative town, igniting a fierce cultural battle that divides friends, families and church members.

“You gotta build your whole life in a room,” says one of the protagonists of this memorable documentary focused on residents of San Francisco SROs or single room occupancy housing. Available to people with lower incomes or those trying to get off the streets, the buildings are frequently cramped, often noisy, and sometimes riddled with vermin. The film tellingly reveals inhabitants who are diverse and complicated and have a wide variety of needs that these residences and their staffs are often unable to meet. From a single mother trying to find her missing daughter to an elderly woman who is going blind and facing eviction, to the two ex-addicts co-parenting their son, the film gives voice to the broad range of people struggling to keep a roof over their heads in one of the wealthiest cities in the country.