SALLYRUBINFILMS
MAMA HAS A MUSTACHE
2021, Director/Producer
Mama Has a Mustache is a short, quirky, fully animated documentary about gender and family, as seen through children’s eyes. Driven completely by audio interviews of kids ages 5-10, the film uses these sound bytes combined with clip-art and mixed media to explore how children are able to experience a world outside of the traditional gender binary.
Funded by:
Chapman University
World Premiere at Outfest, 2021
HILLBILLY
2018, Director/Producer, Writer, Second Editor ((with Ashley York)
hillbilly examines media stereotypes of Appalachia and rural America, tying an exploration of Appalachian identity and natural resource extraction with the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.
Funded by:
The National Endowment for the Humanities
The National Endowment for the Arts
The Fledging Fund
West Virginia Humanities Council
Ohio Humanities
Virginia Humanities Council
South Carolina Humanities
Kentucky Foundation for Women
Kentucky Council for the Arts
Chapman University
Festivals:
Nominated for a Grierson Award for Best Arts or Music Documentary, 2020
Nominated for an Association for International Broadcasting Award through Al Jazeera for the Arts and Culture Award, 2020
American Film Showcase, 2019-2020—Screened in Albania, Russia, Ecuador, and Czechoslovakia
Los Angeles Film Festival, Los Angeles, CA—Jury Prize for Best Documentary
DOC NYC, New York, NY
Traverse City Film Festival, Traverse City, MI—Founder’s Award in Documentary Filmmaking (from Michael Moore)
Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, Hot Springs, AR—Opening Night Movie
Nashville Film Festival, Nashville, TN—**Closing Night Movie
SF DocFest, San Francisco, CA
Dallas Women’s Film Festival, Dallas, TX
Boone Film Festival, Boone, NC—**Opening Night Movie; Winner, Best Documentary
Scruffy City and Film Score Festival, Knoxville, TN— **Audience Award; Best Score
Franklin International Independent Film Festival, Franklin, TV—Winner, Audience Award
Appalachian Studies Association Annual Conference, Asheville, NC—Winner, Jack Spadaro Award
Frozen River Film Festival, Winona, MN—Winner, Best of Festival
Mountainfilm Film Festival, Telluride, CO
Santa Barbara International Film Festival: Call to Action, Santa Barbara, CA
Nevada City Film Festival, Nevada City, CA
Arlington Film Festival, Arlington, MA
Doctober, Bellingham, WA
Anchorage International Film Festival, Anchorage, AK
Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival, Colorado Springs, CO
YES Fest, Columbus, IN
Heartland Film Festival, Indianapolis, IN
Ojai Film Festival, Ojai, CA
Charlotte Film Festival, Charlotte, NC
Cine World Film Festival, Sarasota, FL
Beaufort International Film Festival, Beaufort, SC
Sebastopol Film Festival, Sebastopol, CA
Beloit International Film Festival, Beloit, WI
Press:
* The Tennessean: Dolly Parton sings praise of new documentary
* Awards Circuit: Review
* Nashville Scene: Best of the Fest
* Under Main: Documentary
* WV Public Radio: Documentary Seeks to Elevate Perspectives of Appalachians
* Art & Seek: Hillbilly
* Winners announced for 14th Annual Traverse City Film Festival
* Variety: ‘Hillbilly’Set to Open Hot Springs Festival
LIFE ON THE LINE
2014, Co-Director/Producer, Editor (with Jen Gilomen)
Life on the Line is a cinema verite documentary that follows a year in the life of 11-year-old Kimberly Torrez as she and her family await the visa that will allow them to return to the United States after unforeseen circumstances trap them in Nogales, Mexico. Living literally steps from the border, Kimberly crosses each day to attend school just across the line in Arizona. While Kimberly's father finds himself unemployed, stricken with Hepatitis C, and in need of a liver transplant, Kimberly's mother desperately awaits the visa that will allow her to live in the U.S. with her American children if her husband dies. A slice-of-life portrait film told through Kimberly's eyes, Life on the Line illuminates the changing face of America through the story of this one family. Funded by the Fledgling Fund, the Puffin Foundation, and Chapman University. Premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in 2014, broadcast nationally on PBS.
Best Environmental Documentary, Mexico International
Film Festival
Fledgling Fund Recipient
Puffin Foundation Grant Recipient
Chapman University Faculty Scholarly Research Grant Recipient
Honorable Mention, Best Documentary, University Film and
Video Association Conference 2014
KAET/Phoenix Partnership Recipient
Arizona International Film Festival
Big as Texas Film Festival
Boston International Kids Festival
Los Angeles Indie Film Festival
Los Angeles Lift Off Film Festival
Chicago Social Change Film Festival
Cine-Reel Film Festival
Providence Children's Film Festival
Saint Louis International Film Festival
San Francisco Independent Film Festival
Santa Barbara International Film Festival
The Big Read Official Selection
White Sands International Film Festival
Viva Latino Film Festival
DEEP DOWN
2010, Co-Director, Co-Producer, Editor (with Jen Gilomen)
A look at the human impact of global natural resource extraction. Focuses on the story of a woman and a man in eastern Kentucky who are divided by their views on mountaintop removal mining, as that which is destroying their homeland is tearing apart their relationship. Funded by ITVS, the Film Arts Foundation, Pacific Pioneer Fund, Banff Mountain Culture Center, Chicken and Egg Pictures, and the MacArthur Foundation. In distribution through New Day Films and the Independent Television Service. www.deepdownfilm.org
Nominated for an Emmy award for the film’s outreach work and virtual mine project;
Broadcast nationally on the Emmy Award winning series, Independent Lens.
Selected for the Independent Television Service’s Community Cinema initiative,
screening in adozens of communities across the country.
American Documentary International Showcase, 2011-2012
Bali Institute for Global Social Change, 2011
Banff Mountain Culture Award
BAVC Producer’s Institute Participant 2009
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, Feature Documentary Competition
Brown Forman Outreach Support Recipient
Chicken and Egg Pictures “I Believe in You Grant”
Film Arts Foundation Film Grant
Fledgling Fund for Socially Conscious Documentary Filmmaking Award Nominee
Independent Television Service/ LINCS Initiative Contract Recipient
Independent Film Week/IFP Participant 2008
ITVS Interactive Outreach Funding Recipient
MacArthur Foundation New Media Grant Recipient
Natural Resources Defense Council Outreach Grant Recipient
Pacific Pioneer Fund Support Recipient
Participant, PBS Frontline Symposium on Visual Storytelling in the Visual Age
PBS/CPB Producer’s Academy Participant 2009
Princeton Environmental Film Festival
San Luis Obispo Film Festival
Tales From Planet Earth Film Festival
Wild and Scenic Environmental Film Festival
Working Films/Fledgling Fund/Chicken and Egg Pictures Outreach Residency
Participant 2009
THE LAST MOUNTAIN
2004, Director, Editor, Additional Camera
About the filmmaker’s journey to uncover the mystery behind her father’s death in a hiking accident, and the unexpected answers that she and her family find along the way. Broadcast on regional PBS stations.
Finalist, Angelus Awards, Los Angeles, CA, 2004
Mill Valley Film Festival, Mill Valley, CA, 2004
Department of Psychology, Tufts University, Boston, MA, October 2004
Department of International Relations, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, October 2004
Aired on PBS/ Nevada County Television, Nevada County, CA, February 2005
Screened at the Pratt Museum, Homer, AK, July 2005
Screened at the New Space Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, June-July 2005
Girl Fest Film Festival, Honolulu, HI, September 2005
Wild and Scenic Film Festival, Nevada City, CA, January 2005
On the Wild and Scenic Film Festival National Tour for all of 2005
“Alive at 9th Street,” Frameline’s monthly series, October 2005
“Straight Outta Grrrlville,” San Francisco, CA, December 2005
“Return to Grrrlville” film series, San Francisco, CA, June 2006
Stanford Alumni Film Festival, Los Angeles, CA, May 2006
Bay Area Women in Film and Television Birthday Film Festival, San Francisco, CA, May 2006
Aired on PBS/Kentucky Educational Television, Spring 2010
BODY POLITICS
2003, Director, Editor
Portrays the getting-naked-for-peace movement in Marin County, California, focusing on one day during April of 2003, when 200 people spelled out “Make Love Not War” with their bodies, nude on the sand.
Cinequest Film Festival, 2004
San Francisco Independent Film Festival, 2004
Director's View Film Festival, 2004
Freedom Cinema Festival, 2004
Kansas City Jubilee, 2004
Video Mundi Film Festival, 2004
New England Film and Video Festival, 2004
Aired on Chum Television in Toronto, 2004
Screened at the AVA awards in April, 2004
Screened at the New York Guggenheim Museum, 2004
Screened at the United for Peace and Justice National Convention in St. Louis, Missouri, to over 500
people, March, 2005
Queer Tactics Film Festival, June 2006
CUT
2003, Co-Director, Cinematographer, Editor
Enters the lives of six teenage boys to examine adolescent male body image, and the relationship between physical shape and social/self-acceptance.
Honorable Mention, Marin County Film Festival, 2003
Oakland Film Festival, 2003
Stanford Film Festival, 2003
Stanford Alumni Film Festival, 2003
Screened at the Cantor Arts Center, Palo Alto, California, as part of an exhibition about body image, May through September 2003
Screened at the American Psychological Association’s annual conf. of 15,000 people, June 2004.
“Return to Grrrlville” film series, 2006
Has been sold to over 100 high school districts and universities nationally.
GA-GA CHA
2002, Director, Cinematographer, Editor
An inside look at a multi-cultural drum circle in San Jose, California, populated by ex-cons from Pelican Bay prison.
Best Documentary, Marin County Film Festival, 2003
First Look Film Festival, 2003
Humboldt Film Festival, 2003
Screened at the Pacific Film Archive, October 2003