Fragments of paradise

Producer

Premiering at the Venice Film Festival, 2022.

Feature documentary about Avant Garde filmmaker and poet, Jonas Mekas. A Lithuanian WWII refugee, Jonas arrived in New York as a Displaced Person in 1949 and began filming—he kept filming for the next 70 years until his death in 2019. Epicenter and pioneer of the rising independent film movement in the US, Jonas inspired those around him—Andy Warhol, John and Yoko, Salvador Dali, Allen Ginsberg. Composed of thousands hours of Jonas’s own footage, including never-before-seen personal tapes, the film unfolds as Jonas tries to make sense of his life through a lens—and he found: life is full of brief glimpses of beauty and we must try our best—through hardship and terror—to capture those moments and never let them go.

The Soul of America

Co-Producer

Based on Jon Meacham’s 2018 bestseller, The Soul of America is a portrait of the hours in American history when the politics of fear were prevalent, a reminder that periods of division are not new and a reassurance that they are survivable.

Screenings. Includes: Facing History and Ourselves, American Bar Association, American Federation of Teachers, National Writing Project, National Council for History Education, Tennessee Council for the Social Studies, Community Works Institute, National Center for the Humanities, and various community screenings

Educational Curriculum. See more at kunhardtfilmfoundation.org

HBO, 2020

 JOHN LEWIS: HIS LAST MARCH

Director, Producer, Editor

A tribute to Congressman John Lewis: 55 years have passed since John Lewis led a nonviolent protest across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama as part of a cumulative effort to secure the right to vote. They were met with a show of force—lined troopers, baton in hand, tear gas—a vicious scene that captured the attention of the Nation and President to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Standing on the bridge in March of 2020 for his final time, Lewis continues to embody love as a guiding force and reminds us to keep the faith, resist silence, and speak up in the face of injustice.

2020, Kunhardt Film Foundation

TRUE JUSTICE: BRYAN STEVENSON’S FIGHT FOR EQUALITY

Associate Producer

Bryan Stevenson is a public defender in Alabama working to bring justice to the incarcerated, wrongfully convicted and disadvantaged. This film weaves together Bryan’s personal story, those of his clients, and a history of injustice and complicity to reveal how a narrative of racial difference emerged in this country. Bryan challenges us to seek to truth, confront it, and work towards reconciliation.

Awards. Peabody Award Winner. Emmy Award Winner for Outstanding Social Issue Documentary. AFI Docs Official Selection 2019.

HBO, 2019

Screenings. Panelist at numerous events, including: UConn Dodd Center for Human Rights, Sing Sing Prison Museum, National Association of Media Literacy Education, Santa Clara Office of Reentry Services, Kinema, Board of Cooperative Education Services teacher workshop, The Restorative Center, The Focus Forward Project, and various community screenings

Educational Curriculum. See more at kunhardtfilmfoundation.org. Edited educational version of film for classrooms.

KING IN THE WILDERNESS

Production Associate

Told through personal stories of the people who were around Martin Luther King Jr.—including Harry Belafonte, Andrew Young, John Lewis, Jesse Jackson—this film follows MLK Jr. during the last years of his life: from the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 to his assassination in 1968.

Awards. Emmy Award for Outstanding Historical Documentary. Sundance Official Selection 2018

HBO, 2018

CITIFY

Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Editor

Traces China’s unprecedented, rapid urbanization from the mid-1980s through 2015. This film is told through the professors and students of the “The Beijing Studio” — the first academic collaboration between the United States and Beijing after the cultural revolution — as they worked together over three decades to grapple with China’s ever evolving transition.

Screenings and Awards. The World Forum on Urban Regeneration in Shanghai; (2016); Beijing Planning and Exhibition Hall; Hollywood International Independent Documentary Awards Winner; Fusion Film Festival Docs-In-The-Works finalist at NYU (2015)

2016