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About

I live on a boat, where the tides and shifting rhythms of the water shape both my life and my work. My films combine observational storytelling with experimental visual approaches to explore how personal stories intersect with broader social and historical forces.

My work has been shown at festivals including Slamdance, Mill Valley Film Festival, Cinequest, and the United Nations Association Film Festival, and has been presented in museums and on television. Painted Nails was a Jury Award Finalist at the New Orleans Film Festival, and Seeing Slavery received Best Short Documentary at the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival Awards.

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My most recent film, Looking For My Anchor (2025), which premiered at the San Francisco Documentary Film Festival, combines personal archival footage with present-day observation, moving between past and present in a story about grief, home, and belonging.

Painted Nails, distributed by Kanopy, has screened at festivals worldwide and been broadcast on PBS stations, continuing to reach audiences through educational platforms. Walls of Sand was a pioneering achievement, becoming the first contemporary feature film to stream online, demonstrating the early potential of the internet as a platform for cinema, and is now distributed by the Slamdance Channel.

​I work closely with the people I film, allowing trust to shape how stories unfold over time. In Painted Nails, this meant following a Vietnamese nail salon owner for over a year as she advocated for safer working conditions while navigating pregnancy. In Walls of Sand, I used black and white 16mm to explore migration and identity through composed scenes and a more controlled visual approach.

As an editor, I have collaborated on projects such as Animation Outlaws by Kat Alioshin, which premiered at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, and Logic Paralyzes the Heart by Lynn Hershman Leeson, which debuted at the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.

I have also collaborated with organizations including Free the Slaves and Tangible Hope to create films that engage with urgent social issues.

I am currently developing The Shape of Memory, a film that uses re-creations, animation, and sound to evoke a remembered world shaped by a child’s perception, and how memory preserves, alters, and carries experience across time.

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Selected Films
Documentary
Narrative
Commissioned
Edited

The Shape of Memory (in development)
Writer / Director — Feature-length film based on the unpublished memoir of the filmmaker’s grandfather

Looking For My Anchor (2025)
Feature Documentary — Writer / Director / Editor

Finding Kids (2025)
Commissioned — Director / Editor

All Our Children United: Marin City–Sausalito Tunnel Art Project (2024)
Commissioned — Producer / Director / Editor

Logic Paralyzes the Heart (2022)
Editor — Directed by Lynn Hershman Leeson; debuted at the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia

Shadow Stalker (2020)
Editor — Directed by Lynn Hershman Leeson; de Young Museum installation; Prix Ars Electronica (Distinction)

Making of Three Decembers (2020)
Commissioned — Producer / Director / Editor; Opera San José production

Ways of the Rising Women (2020)
Commissioned — Producer / Director / Editor

Animation Outlaws (2019)
Feature Documentary — Editor; directed by Kat Alioshin; distributor: Gravitas Ventures

Seeing Slavery (2018)
Short Documentary — Producer / Director / Editor

Center for Domestic Peace (2017)
Commissioned — Co-Producer / Director / Editor

Painted Nails (2016)
Feature Documentary — Co-Producer / Director / Editor; distributor: Kanopy

In Plain Sight (2014)
Feature Documentary — Producer / Director / Editor

Seed to Sprout (2012)
Commissioned — Producer / Director / Editor; three short films for Amara Tabor-Smith

Our Daily Bread (2011)
Commissioned — Producer / Director / Editor; screened at CounterPulse, San Francisco

Any Sunday at Rhythm and Motion (2009)
Commissioned — Producer / Director / Editor; short documentary

Saving Malcolm X (2005)
Documentary — Director

Fostering Art (2004)
Commissioned — Director; short documentary

In the Wake (2001)
Dramatic Feature — Writer / Director

Ida McCray: Families With a Future (2001)
Commissioned — Director; produced for Oxygen TV

Glenda Hope: The Tender Champ (2001)
Commissioned — Director; produced for Oxygen TV

Tales from the Heart (1998)
Dramatic Shorts Series — Director

Walls of Sand (1995)
Dramatic Feature — Director; distributor: Slamdance Channel

A Different Shade of Blue (1991)
Dramatic Short — Director

Dance for One (1989)
Dramatic Short — Director

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