01
2018
DOCUMENTARY
Metamora Films has created independent documentaries, podcasts, screenings, and media projects exploring criminal justice, stigma, second chances, and the people behind issues that are often reduced to headlines.
Our archive reflects more than a decade of independent storytelling. Today, Metamora Films is beginning a new chapter in the Portland–Vancouver, WA region, with criminal justice and social-impact storytelling once again at the center of our work.
Much of Metamora Films’ earlier work was created during the 2010s, when criminal justice, stigma, incarceration, and second chances were already central to the stories we chose to tell.
In the years that followed, active production slowed as life outside filmmaking demanded more attention. From my own vantage point, those years also brought a deeper understanding of what it means to live with stigma, rebuild, navigate instability, and move forward when the past continues to influence how a person is seen.
That time away from active production did not change the purpose behind Metamora Films. It gave that purpose greater perspective.
Now based in the Portland–Vancouver, WA region, Metamora Films is beginning a new period of production with a renewed focus on criminal justice and social justice stories, social stigma, second chances, and other issues where lived experience can bring greater depth to the conversation.
The projects in this archive represent where the work began. The next chapter builds on them.
These independent documentary films reflect an earlier chapter of Metamora Films and the subjects that helped shape our approach to criminal justice, social impact, stigma, second chances, and human-centered storytelling.
An independent body of documentary work that helped establish the perspective Metamora Films carries into its next chapter.
Production, interviews, screenings, and conversations surrounding the stories that shaped Metamora Films.
For two consecutive years, Metamora Films traveled to Park City, Utah, to cover the Sundance Film Festival through interviews and conversations with people behind the films.
Rather than focusing only on the red carpet, the coverage explored the ideas within the films — including social issues, identity, personal transformation, relationships, and what filmmakers hoped audiences would take away from their stories.
Matt Duhamel talks with Kevin Bacon during Sundance Film Festival coverage.
The 2016 trip brought Metamora Films into conversations surrounding films with social, personal, and cultural themes. Interviews looked beyond promotion to ask what the stories meant and why they mattered.
Read About the 2016 CoverageMetamora Films returned to Park City in 2017 for another round of interviews and festival coverage, continuing an approach centered on the themes, experiences, and people behind the films.
Read About the 2017 CoverageThe Sundance years were another expression of the same curiosity behind Metamora Films’ documentary work: looking beyond the surface of a story to understand the people, experiences, and ideas underneath it.
Metamora Films is returning to active production from the Portland–Vancouver region with a renewed focus on criminal justice, social justice, stigma, second chances, and stories shaped by lived experience.
We are currently developing a future film project that builds on the themes at the center of Metamora Films: criminal justice, social stigma, second chances, and the complicated realities behind the labels people carry.
Additional information coming soon.
We are also preparing for the 2027 Metamora Film Festival, continuing our interest in independent filmmaking, meaningful stories, and bringing filmmakers and audiences together around work worth talking about.
Festival details are still being developed, with additional information coming soon.
Visit Metamora Film FestivalThe earlier work created the foundation. The years since brought new perspective. What comes next will bring those two things together.
Metamora Films can serve as your producer and creative partner, helping shape the story, plan the production, conduct interviews, coordinate the filmmaking process, and carry the project through post-production.
We work with organizations, educators, advocates, communities, independent filmmakers, and individuals developing documentary and social-impact projects — especially stories connected to criminal justice, stigma, second chances, and lived experience.
From early story development and interviews through production and post-production, Metamora Films can help turn an idea into a finished documentary or media project.
We can help filmmakers and organizations clarify the narrative, identify the strongest human perspective, and shape a project around the audience it needs to reach.
For completed films, Metamora Films can also help explore educational distribution, institutional licensing, screenings, and opportunities to reach schools, universities, organizations, and community audiences.