Feature Documentary, 2020
Co-created with Jimmie Lewis Productions & June Films
Saman Maydani / Editor, Writer, Producer
Carlos Esparza / Composer, Assistant Editor
Canh Nguyen / Cinematographer
In America’s backyard, a community held captive by policies targeting gangs and drugs, sacrifices their youth for a false sense of justice, and safety. Nearly forty years later, a true path to justice and healing is led from inside their prison walls.
Festivals
Official Selection 2020 Cleveland International Film Festival
Official Selection 2020 DOCNYC
Official Selection 2020 Portland International Film Festival
Official Selection 2020 Tacoma Film Festival
Official Selection 2020 Freep Film Festival
Official Selection 2021 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival
Official Selection 2021 Halifax Black Film Festival
Official Selection 2021 Toronto Black Film Festival
Available for streaming on Sundance Now, iTunes, Apple TV, Amazon, Vudu & YouTube
Documentary, 2015
Saman Maydani + Sarah Kuck / Director, Producer, Editor
Canh Nguyen / Cinematographer
Carlos Esparza / Composer
As bulldozers raze their neighborhood, public-housing tenants reflect on decades of experiences and grapple with losing their tight-knit community to a rapidly gentrifying city.
2015 Seattle International Film Festival Audience Award for Best Short Film
Available on FANDOR, IndieFlix, and with lesson plans at Global Oneness Project
Short film, Cuba, 2016
Saman Maydani / Director, Editor, DP
Presented by Black Factory Cinema in collaboration with Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión.
A young girl in a Cuban pueblo leaves her school one afternoon with a secret.
Created during a workshop of auteurs filming in Cuba with Abbas Kiarostami.
Official workshop selection.
Official Selection L’Alternativa 23, Festival de Cinema Independent de Barcelona
Official Selection 2016 Harlem International Film Festival
Short film, 2023
In 1862 the United States government issued land grants to settlers willing to live in extreme isolation. This ultimately resulted in what came to be known as “prairie madness”.
