Tom Shepard

Powerfully and heartbreakingly detailing the challenging process that LGBTQ refugees must go through to find safety and security while starting over in the US, Tom Shepard’s inspiring new documentary profiles four people who have come to San Francisco to save their own lives. Over the course of this unforgettable group portrait, Subhi (from Syria), Junior (from Congo), and Mari and Cheyenne (from Angola) experience roadblocks and triumphs as they reflect on their respective histories and try to create a home for themselves in an environment that is not always welcoming. Once in San Francisco, they are met with setbacks but each maintains hope for a better future – Mari and Cheyenne record an album, Subhi starts a tour speaking on behalf of Syrian refugees and finds love, while Junior faces challenges of homelessness and gender non-conformance.

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Whiz Kids is a coming-of-age story that follows three high school seniors from diverse backgrounds as they prepare for the nation's most prestigious science competition. These passionate, highly ambitious students embark on an unpredictable journey of discovery where they must overcome scientific and personal challenges in order to fulfill their dreams. Forging their path as the next generation of scientists, the teens learn as much about themselves as they do about science.

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Knocking opens the door on Jehovah's Witnesses. They are moral conservatives who stay out of politics and the Culture War, but they won a record number of court cases expanding freedom for everyone. They refuse blood transfusions on religious grounds, but they embrace the science behind bloodless surgery. In Nazi Germany, they could fight for Hitler or go to the concentration camps. They chose the camps. Following two families who stand firm for their controversial and misunderstood Christian faith, KNOCKING reveals how one unlikely religion helped to shape history beyond the doorstep.

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This compelling documentary explores the national movement Scouting for All, beginning with its formation in the late 1990s when heterosexual teen Steven Cozza and his father, San Francisco social worker Scott Cozza, petitioned to allow gays to participate openly in the Boy Scouts of America. Scout's Honor captured several prizes on the film festival circuit, including the Freedom of Expression Award and the Audience Award at Sundance.

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What if there is one thing underpins all our personal, social and environmental issues, and each of us has the power to bring life back into balance? This film digs deeper than social activism and outward action to look at the real power each individual, as part of the collective, has to shift the whole. The power we have to change ourselves.

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The Youth Documentary Academy proudly presents OUR TIME, a television series produced in association with public television that dives deeply into tough topics faced by teens across the nation.

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Powerfully and heartbreakingly detailing the challenging process that LGBTQ refugees must go through to find safety and security while starting over in the US, Tom Shepard’s inspiring new documentary profiles four people who have come to San Francisco to save their own lives. Over the course of this unforgettable group portrait, Subhi (from Syria), Junior (from Congo), and Mari and Cheyenne (from Angola) experience roadblocks and triumphs as they reflect on their respective histories and try to create a home for themselves in an environment that is not always welcoming. Once in San Francisco, they are met with setbacks but each maintains hope for a better future – Mari and Cheyenne record an album, Subhi starts a tour speaking on behalf of Syrian refugees and finds love, while Junior faces challenges of homelessness and gender non-conformance.

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This thoughtful documentary profiles Camp Lavender Hill, the first summer camp for children of lesbian, gay and bisexual parents. As we get to know the children in the film, they share how they feel similar and different from children raised in more traditional families.

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