Utah Filmmaker Showcase: Local Documentary Shorts

Location: Utah Film Center

The Artist Foundry presents a special evening of short documentary films by local filmmakers. These films take unique approaches to nonfiction filmmaking and tell profound stories about memory, identity, and reclamation. Following the screening, there will be a moderated Q&A with the filmmakers.

Films include:

On Healing Land, Birds Perch

Directed by Naja Pham Lockwood

Behind one of the Vietnam War’s most iconic Pulitzer Prize–winning photographs lies a story resonant with today’s global crises. Woven through voices of survivors, ON HEALING LAND, BIRDS PERCH meditates on memory, loss, and renewal confronting the enduring scars of war and the resilience of refugees rebuilding their lives.

Sonder

Directed by Lancey Quan

A nonfiction film exploring seven different stories, each told from a different perspective and shaded by the color through which its narrator sees the world.

Grey

Directed by Regina Simons

Through striking visuals and personal narration, ‘Grey’ reflects on ancestry, aging, and reclamation of voice, revealing how a single strand of hair can hold generations of story.

Lancey Quan

Lancey Quan is a 17 year old filmmaker from SLC driven by thoughts and creation.
Filmmaking inspires my belief that storytelling can connect people and inspire change, reflecting different perspectives behind the scenes and showing how the world interprets itself through vivid storytelling, loving oneself, loving the world, and finding inspiration to create a better world.

Naja Pham Lockwood

Naja Phạm Lockwood has executive produced multiple documentary and narrative films focusing on social justice issues including TRY HARDER!, COMING HOME AGAN, GOOK and CRIES FROM SYRIA. In 2020, Naja executive produced 76 DAYS directed by Hao Wu, revolving around the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The film won a Peabody Award and a Primetime Emmy Award for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking. Naja is the founder of RYSE Media Ventures, which supports stories of diverse voices. Through Impact Partners Films, Naja has financed the Academy Award winning documentary, ICARUS, as well as WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR and AUDRIE AND DAISY. She co-produced THE FIRST DAYS, which is a collaboration between StoryCorps and PBS’s Academy Nominated LAST DAYS IN VIETNAM which aimed to collect, preserve and celebrate the stories of Vietnamese American refugees and Vietnam veterans throughout America.

Regina Simons

Regina Dezbah Simons is an award-winning filmmaker committed to reclaiming and [re]presenting Native people in film and media. Her short, Pretendian, received critical acclaim for its bold take on identity appropriation and Indigenous voice. Regina holds an MFA in Film and Media from the University of Utah, where she has shaped her storytelling through her heritage and experiences, both in front of and behind the camera. Regina champions authenticity and underrepresented voices, challenging dominant narratives and telling stories as acts of healing, resistance, and reclamation.

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