Jennifer Macedo Yang | Director, Producer, Writer

Jennifer Macedo Yang is a filmmaker, researcher, and writer born and raised in Georgia. Inspired by her Teochew and Mexican roots, she uses her work as a way to explore worlds at the margin and the impacts of war, as well as themes around home, folklore, and womanhood. Her work has taken her to various parts of the globe including rural Cambodia to record the oral histories of Khmer Rouge survivors, south Georgia to document the work to strengthen voter turnout, and Malaysia to research the global corridor of refugee communities. She continues to work in the documentary and branded content space, and is based in Atlanta, GA.

Justine Rose Armen | Producer & Writer

Justine is a writer, budding documentary producer, and veteran arts nonprofit professional based in Oakland, CA. She is currently producing the short documentary film Parastoo. She has been working in the documentary field for over a decade, the last five years of which at leading public media funder, co-producer, and broadcaster ITVS. She is ITVS’ Executive Coordinator, and Associate Project Director on the ITVS-led, NEA and Ford Foundation -funded study Examining the Relationship Between Documentary Filmmakers and Film Participants (report to be released Spring of 2024). Prior to ITVS, Justine was an integral part of Telling Pictures, a media production company founded by Oscar, Emmy, and Peabody award-winning filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman. She was Assistant to the Directors on And the Oscar Goes To…(TCM/AMPAS, 2014) and The Hell-Raiser (Amazon/New Yorker, 2016), and Assistant to the Producers on Killing the Colorado (Discovery, 2016). Justine was Assistant to the Directors on the Academy Award-nominated short documentary End Game (Netflix, 2019). Justine is passionate about social equity, criminal legal reform, prison abolishment, and supporting womxn of color in the arts. As a descendant of Black enslaved peoples and Armenian refugees, she’s committed to freedom, access, and equal rights for all people. Justine has previously served on selection committees for the International Documentary Association Awards and grant review panels for the California Arts Council. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Love for our Elders.

Jane Macedo Yang | Director of Photography & Associate Producer

Born and raised in the South, Jane Macedo Yang (she/they) is a queer Chinese-Cambodian/Mexican-American director of photography. As the daughter of a refugee and immigrants, she aims to highlight underrepresented stories and voices, as well as stories focused on social justice issues, the environment and our connection to it, and on identity and community. Primarily focused on the blur of documentary and narrative, Jane explores this mix of vérité and stylized visuals in her work. Jane’s work has been featured on PBS, Snapchat, Apple TV, and others. Jane is a 2022 Jackson Wild Media Lab Fellow and 2022 newportFILM: Documentary Cinematographer Lab Fellow. She is currently working on documentaries, branded content, commercials, and is expanding into narrative work. Jane is based in Brooklyn, NY.

Amin Kamrani | Associate Producer & Interpreter

Amin Kamrani is an Iranian photographer, filmmaker, translator, and community worker who has been based in Malaysia since 2011. He started working with refugee communities in 2013 as program officer’s assistant of MSRI, a Malaysian NGO that provides education, healthcare, and livelihood support for refugees in Malaysia. He has collaborated with numerous other NGOs and is currently a community worker in Asylum Access Malaysia, a legal service provider for refugees. As a Media Studies graduate, he has produced several projects as an independent photographer and filmmaker which have been related to his humanitarian activities. His short film Here Away (2019) - part of a refugee series produced by Our Better World - was a finalist in the New York-based Shorty Awards festival, Immigration & Refugees section. The film was also an official selection of the 2020 True Colors Festival.

Reza Mohammadi | Interpreter

Reza Mohammadi previously served in the Afghan Army, during which time he worked as an interpreter for the American Special Forces. In Kuala Lumpur, he was a leader for the Afghan refugee community and originally connected the directors to Parastoo Theater. He served as the main interpreter for the project before resettling to a third country with his family in early-2018. Reza passed away in mid-2020 and leaves behind his wife and three children. The film will be dedicated in his name.