KILLFACE (USA, 2024)
KILLFACE is a conceptual, sensory driven meditation on female strength, stamina, and struggle. The film follows featherweight Muay Thai champion Natalie “Kill Face” Morgan’s ‘fight camp’ training. KILLFACE limits what we are able to see and hear, but invites audiences to experience a visceral exploration of female power.
Directed and Produced by Kate Trumbull-LaValle | Director of Photography: Helki Frantzen. |. Editor: Helena Rodriguez |. Original Score: Jimmy LaValle aka The Album Leaf
Ovarian Psycos (USA, 2016)
Riding at night through Eastside Los Angeles, the Ovarian Psycos use their bicycles to confront the violence in their lives. At the helm of the crew is founder Xela de la X, a single mother and poet M.C. dedicated to recruiting an unapologetic, misfit crew of women of color, yet she struggles to strike a balance between motherhood and activism. Evie, a bright eyed recruit, joins the crew and despite poverty and the concerns of her protective Salvadoran mother, discovers a newfound confidence. Meanwhile, Andi Xoch, a founding member and street artist who knows the deeply activist legacy from which the Ovas emerge, journeys to become a new leader within the crew. Film website here.
Directed and produced by Kate Trumbull-LaValle & Joanna Sokolowski, Cinematography by Michael Raines; Edited by Victoria Chalk; Original Score Jimmy LaValle
* World Premiere - SXSW 2016 * International Premiere - Hot Docs International Canadian Film Festival 2016 * Official Selection - Human Rights Watch Film Festival 2016 * Audience Award Winner - Portland Film Festival 2016 *
Artist and Mother (USA, 2018)
Is motherhood the last taboo left in contemporary art? The documentary “Artist and Mother” features four rising artists who dare to make their own experience of motherhood a part of their work: Rebecca Campbell, Andrea Chung, Tanya Aguiñiga, and Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle. Not only do they juggle career and family like so many today, but they’ve also found inspiring ways to use the materials or images of motherhood in their art. Curators Naima Keith and Helen Molesworth, journalist Jori Finkel and professors Micol Hebron and Alexandra Moctezuma weigh in on the larger art-market dynamics and gender biases at stake, flipping the script that devalues women’s creativity.
Directed and produced by Kate Trumbull-LaValle & Joanna Sokolowski, Cinematography by Michael Raines; Edited by Susan Metzger; Original Score Jimmy LaValle
Winner LA Press Award 2018; Nominated for LA Area Emmy 2018
City Rising: The Informal Economy (USA, 2019)
California is the world's fifth largest economy-- yet, hiding in plain sight are workers who labor off the books, unprotected and unregulated. Follow four California workers organizing to find pathways for legalization and protection. Watch here.
Directed and produced by Kate Trumbull-LaValle & Joanna Sokolowski, Cinematography by Helki Frantzen; Edited by Chris Chloyd; Original Score Jimmy LaValle
Prologue/Epilogue (USA, 2023)
“Water becomes the connective tissue that binds these images together. Water like grief can overwhelm us, and water like love, reminds us to breathe.” The short film "Prologue to Epilogue: One Act Leads to Another," Directed by Kate Trumbull-LaValle, conceived and filmed in collaboration with cinematographer Helki Frantzen, and edited by Helena Rodriguez. This film is a patient, visual meditation on the themes of grief, loss, isolation, connection, memory, family, and love inspired by and set to the first and last songs on the new record. The film features friends and family who have lost and loved.