Documentary Features
Bad Axe
Role: Editor, Co-Producer
Director: David Siev
Producers: Jude Harris, Diane Moy Quon, Jeff Tremaine, Daniel Dae Kim, David Siev, Katarina Vasquez
Editors: Peter Wagner, Rosie Walunas
Distributor: IFC Films
Runtime: 100 minutes
95th Oscars Shortlist ‘Best Documentary Feature’
Festivals: SXSW 2022, DOCNYC, FREEP, Milwaukee Film Fest, North by North, Cinema Columbus, Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, KC Film Fest, Mountainfilm, CAAM Fest, LA Asian Pacific Film Festival,
Awards: Critics Choice: Best First Documentary Feature, ‘SXSW Special Jury award for Exceptional Intimacy in Storytelling’, ‘SXSW Audience Award’, ‘CAAM Documentary Award Honorable Mention’, ‘Freep Film Festival Audience Award’, ‘2022 Best Documentary Feature: Mountainfilm’
Press/Reviews: Roger Ebert, Hollywood Reporter, Rotten Tomatoes, Deadline, Austin Chronicle, Culture Vulture, Collider, The Moveable Feast, Hammer To Nail, The Daily Texan, In Their Own League, Screen Zealots, Film Book, The Spool
After leaving NYC for his rural hometown of Bad Axe, MI at the start of the pandemic, an Asian-American filmmaker documents his family's struggles to keep their restaurant open. As fears of the virus grow, deep generational scars dating back to the Cambodian Killing Fields unearth between the family's patriarch, Chun, and his daughter, Jaclyn. When the BLM movement takes center stage in America, the family uses their voice to speak out in their town where Trumpism runs deep. What unfolds is a real-time portrait of 2020 through the lens of this multicultural family’s fight to keep their American dream alive in the face of a pandemic, Neo-Nazis, and the trauma of having survived a genocide.
Break The Game
Role: Associate Producer
Director: Jane Wagner
Festivals: Tribeca Film Festival
Runtime: Feature-Length
Video games and the community around them have meant everything to Narcissa Wright. Her quests to set speed run records in numerous game titles have allowed her to own competitions and stages across the globe. But as much as she loves the challenge of conquering virtual worlds, her biggest challenge will come from the community whose love and affection she yearns for as she comes out as transgender. Hell-bent on setting a new speedrunning world record in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Narcissa struggles to balance the volatile nature of internet fandom and the prospect of building a fulfilling life outside the confines of pixels and sprites.
Director Jane M. Wagner takes audiences on an emotionally arresting journey through Narcissa’s innermost thoughts and desires, showcasing the duality of a passionate, dedicated gamer. Witnessing Narcissa’s journey reveals not only so much about humanity’s longing for a community but the fine line between support and dependency. Drawing from an archive of more than 3,000 hours of Narcissa’s live streams, intimate verité, and 8-bit animation, Break the Game is a moving exploration of gamer culture, the realities of online harassment, and the mental health implications of a life lived online.
How Do You Remember the Days of Slavery
Role: Lead Editor
Director: Graham Judd & Time Stamp Media
Runtime: 22 Minutes
Tracing the roots, routes, and reverberations of Tacky’s Revolt across disparate parts of the Atlantic world, Vincent Brown expands our understanding of the relationship between activist, folkloric, and historical interpretations of past events.
Great White Summer
Role: Co-Editor
Director: Nick Budabin
Runtime: Feature-Length, In-Progress
An upcoming feature-length doc about great white sharks.
Norma: Hermana Del Valle
Role: Editor
Director: Christina Ramirez
Runtime: Feature-Length, In-Progress
A heroine to immigrants at the South Texas-Mexico border, Sister Norma Pimentel is one of the greatest living humanitarians of the 21st century. Born to an immigrant family, she devotes her life to those seeking refuge in the United States. The film documents Sister Norma as she works through the “Remain in Mexico” policy during a global pandemic and a change in Presidential administrations, while facing constant opposition.
Norma paints an intimate portrait of Sister Norma Pimentel, Executive Director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, as she navigates shifting immigration policies and hostile backlash. All-the-while, she remains a steady anchor of hope and refuge for thousands of immigrants waiting to cross into the United States. Our film begins in 2020 during the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy and the COVID-19 pandemic. We follow Sister Norma on her mission as a lifelong immigration advocate as she frequently visits the refugee camp in Matamoros, Mexico. She is later appointed as a lead organizer and guide for families when President Biden temporarily lifts the “Remain in Mexico” policy. In what should have been the happiest of times, Sister Norma and her team are faced with controversies, conspiracies, and renewed disappointment as border policies come full circle.
In Our Mother’s Gardens
Role: Assistant Editor
Director: Shantrelle P. Lewis
Network: Netflix
In Our Mother’s Gardens celebrates the strength and resiliency of Black women and Black families through the complex, and often times humorous, relationship between mothers and daughters. The film pays homage to Black maternal ancestors while examining the immediate and critical importance of self-care, and the healing tools necessary for Black communities to thrive.
