Soumyaa Behrens

Soumyaa Behrens is an award-winning director, producer and scholar whose projects have screened at festivals across the globe including Raindance, Montreal International Animation Festival, Mill Valley, SF Black Film Festival, International Images in Harare, LadyFest, Rome International, Santa Fe, Oaxaca, Auckland, Polish Film Fest, Boston International, Harlem International, San Francisco Film Society, Toronto Black Film Festival, Animation Day at Cannes and on KQED. Her work engages issues that complicate the human condition and the political landscapes that shape identity and power structures within marginalized communities. Recent directing awards include, Abina and the Important Men, which won Best Animation at SF Black Film Festival, Best Feature at Montreal International Animation. Her newest documentary, Nail House was a finalist for the Green Fire Environmental Award at the SF Green Film Festival. Behrens teaches Documentary in the School of Cinema at San Francisco State University and is the Director of the Documentary Film Institute where she launched the nonfiction film conference and journal, Pluralities, in 2017.  She was named as one of “10 Bay Area Filmmakers Making a Difference” by Better Magazine in Feb 2019.