Official trailer for feature length documentary Homeroom

Feature length documentary that follows Oakland High School’s class of 2020 as it confronts an unprecedented year. Anxiety over test scores and college applications gives way to uncertainty springing from a rapidly developing pandemic. Efforts to eliminate the school district’s police force unfold against the backdrop of growing nationwide demands for systemic change. Emmy Award–winning director/cinematographer Peter Nicks (winner of the Directing Award: U.S. Documentary at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival) captures the resilient and defiant energy of this senior class in his final chapter in a trilogy of films examining the relationship between health care, criminal justice, and education in Oakland.

Homeroom immerses us in the lives of students trying to make the most of their final year in high school amidst a procession of blows. Nicks’s trusted, attentive camera and overall vérité approach trace these emotional journeys in real time, while self-recorded social media videos root us in the students’ authentic perspectives. The result is a revealing, outspoken coming-of-age story that taps into the collective experience of a nation in transition calling out for change.

Premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2021
Nominated for U.S Grand Jury Prize.
Winner of the Inaugural Jonathan Openheimm Editing Award.

Directed by Peter Nicks
Produced by Sean Havey
Edited by Rebecca Adorno & Kristina Motwani

As a young aspiring chef in Mexico, Iván works at a restaurant, hoping to land a spot in the kitchen while supporting the mother of his child. One night he meets Gerardo, a handsome teacher who, unlike Iván, is out as a gay man. Their chemistry is instant. The discovery of their romance, however, causes conflict, and he is told he can no longer see his son. In despair, Iván makes the arduous decision to cross the border to advance his culinary career, promising his son and newfound love he will return.

Written and Directed Heidi Ewing
Edited by Enat Sidi
Additional Editing by Rebecca Adorno

Official trailer for feature length documentary Moments Like This Never Last

Dash Snow rejected a life of privilege to make his own way as an artist on the streets of downtown New York City in the late 1990s. Developing from a notorious graffiti tagger into an international art star, he documented his drug- and alcohol-fueled nights with the surrogate family he formed with friends and fellow artists Ryan McGinley and Dan Colen before his death by heroin overdose in 2009. The film draws from Snow’s body of work and Cheryl Dunn’s own archival footage, to create a portrait that captures his all-too-brief life of reckless excess and creativity.

Official Selection at DocNYC and CPH:DOX 2020

Directed and Additional Editing by Cheryl Dunn
Edited by Rebecca Adorno

Score by Brian DeGraw

Official Trailer for feature length documentary “Residente”
Premiered at SXSX on March 2017
Score by René Perez Joglar & Trooko
Directed by René Pérez Joglar
Edited by Rebecca Adorno

Documentary short directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
Edited by Rebecca Adorno

THE WORLD IS AS BIG OR AS SMALL AS YOU MAKE IT is a documentary short that explores an innovative program where local kids ages 12-15 gather at a neighborhood rec center in North Philadelphia and use their phones and iPads to forge friendships with their peers across the world. For children who have often never left their hometown, these exchanges prove to be both touching and surprising, giving them exposure to new corners of planet Earth. Tools that have been used only for texting friends, taking selfies and making social plans become a witness to the great (and sometimes unfulfilled) potential that exists in their own back yards.