MEET THE MENTORS
SDF’s next round of mentors will be announced in February.
Please contact our Program Manager, Christopher Everett at chris@southerndocumentaryfund.
SDF’s next round of mentors will be announced in February.
Please contact our Program Manager, Christopher Everett at chris@southerndocumentaryfund.
The SDF Mentorship Program is designed to pair established filmmakers and industry experts with emerging and new filmmakers. We provide support, which includes one-on-one mentorship, roundtable discussions, and feedback on work samples.
Andy Sarjahani is a director and cinematographer interested in people, our relationship to place, and how that shapes our worldview. His recent cinematography credits include Academy Award-nominated The Barber of Little Rock (The New Yorker, 2024), Southern Storytellers (PBS, 2023), and 2025 Oscar-shortlisted Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud (HBO, SXSW Audience Award 2025). His recent Director credits include The Smallest Power (The New Yorker, 2024); Wild Hogs and Saffron (Independent Lens, 2024); and Black Ag (Reel South, 2024). His films have screened at Sundance, Museum of the Moving Image, The Hammer Museum, and numerous Oscar-qualifying festivals. His personal work has been supported by The Pulitzer Center, ITVS, The Gotham, HBO Documentary Films, Doris Duke Foundation, The New Yorker, Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), DOC NYC, New Orleans Film Society, Southern Documentary Fund, Reel South, and PBS.
A graduate of NYU Film School, Daresha writes, produces, and directs narrative and documentary film and TV projects in Spanish and English. Her films include LOVE, JOY & POWER: Tools For Liberation (2025), a feature about the co-founders of the Black Voters Matter Fund, Cliff & April Albright and LaTosha Brown, and the work in 2020 and early 2021 that helped flip Georgia bled and hand Biden control of the Senate. Battleground Georgia (2024), is a feature about voter suppression she directed for the MSNBC series The Turning Point. Mama Bears (2022), is a feature about how conservative, Christian mothers are transformed when they decide to accept their LGBTQ children. In 2018 she was commissioned by the ACLU to direct the short Trans In America: Texas Strong, which garnered over 5 million views online and won two Webbys and an Emmy. In 2017 she co-directed and produced Chavela, a multiple award-winning documentary about iconic singer Chavela Vargas that screened in over 40 countries.
Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker Resita Cox (b. 1994) creates poetic portrayals of her community’s resilience against racism. Her films, centered on Southern Black communities, use intimate narratives to explore environmental justice and hidden Black histories. Her debut film, Freedom Hill, premiered nationally on PBS in 2024. Cox is a Hulu/Kartemquin Accelerator Fellow, North Star Fellow, 2024 Rockwood Documentary Leaders Fellow (Ford Foundation), a 2025 Chicken & Egg Eggcelorator Fellow, and 2024/2025 Grounded Possibilities Environmental Justice Fellow. She holds an MFA from Northwestern University and was named an Esteemed Artist by the City of Chicago in 2022. She is developing her debut feature, Basketball Heaven, a love letter to her hometown, Kinston, NC. This film is supported by the Sundance Institute, and is a co-production with PBS through ITVS’s Open Call. Cox organizes an annual youth media camp in eastern North Carolina, The Freedom Hill Youth Media Camp.
Check out our upcoming opportunities to hear from our awesome mentors! We invite you to take a quick break with us to learn more about documentary world.
One-on-one mentorship sessions and mentorship roundtables are only available to SDF supported makers at this time. An SDF supported maker is someone who has received a grant through SDF, or is fiscally sponsored by SDF. We will be hosting a limited number of mentorship webinars in the future that will be open to all.
Get ready for another 3 days of learning, networking and good genuine Southern community fun!
This Giving Tuesday, join Southern Documentary Fund in reaching our $5,000 goal to support Southern filmmakers. Your gift amplifies diverse voices, fuels powerful storytelling, and ensures Southern stories continue to be told.
