Meet the Filmmakers


  • DIRECTOR / WRITER

    Radha Mehta is a film director, a multi-disciplinary artist, and first-gen Indian American based in Los Angeles, California. She uses her background as a musician, painter, and hard-of-hearing mother of two children to tell stories of hope from within her marginalized communities on the themes of motherhood, disability, womxn empowerment, and rising above shame within her South Asian diaspora.

    Radha is an MFA graduate for Film Directing at American Film Institute Conservatory, an Entertainment Lab Fellow of RespectAbility, and a Top-3 Finalist for the 2023 Netflix/Tasveer Film Fund. She also served as an elected Board Member of The Recording Academy and co-hosts an annual casting ABC & DISNEY diversity workshop that elevates South Asian talent. DOSH is Radha’s narrative directorial debut. Her other short documentary films "Evan Ever After" is an Audience Award Winner at Florida Film Festival and Jury Prize Winner for Best Documentary Short at Out On Film Film Festival; and "Being Gina" was a Top-3 Finalist for the WrapWomen & STARZ/Lionsgate TELLING OUR STORIES Film Challenge awarded at the 2021 Variety Power Women Summit.

  • Producer

    Gabriel Gutierrez is a Colombian-American producer at the American Film Institute Conservatory. Gabriel’s goal as a filmmaker is to bring people together to celebrate culturally rich stories, address social issues, and ultimately show us that we have more in common than what divides us. His passion for film led him to create ‘Cine-Más’, Fort Worth, TX’s first-ever Latin American film festival. He also has been attached to several independent films over the past five years, most prominently A24’s A Ghost Story 2017.
    “Mental health has always been a taboo topic, especially in Latin America. I see this film as an opportunity to turn a divisive topic into a bridge that can unite us all as we strive to destigmatize the negativity around asking for help.”

  • Writer

    Noorah Al-Eidi was born and raised in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. When Saudi reopened public cinemas for the first time in over 35 years, she decided to leave behind a promising career in banking to pursue screenwriting full time. She is the first Saudi national to attend the American Film Institute as a screenwriter and a member of the AFI Class of 2023.

    Noorah is a 2015 graduate of Wellesley College, with a BA in Economics and Anthropology. In 2016, she completed the Professional Certification in Screenwriting Program at Chapman University and in 2018-19, participated in the 3-part Arab Film Studio Storytelling Program in Abu Dhabi sponsored by Image Nation in partnership with the Embassy of the United States and Film Independent.

    “Do not underestimate the power of storytelling” is the advice she lives by. Her goal is to share and celebrate Saudi stories with the world.

  • Cinematographer

    Isue Shin is a Korean-American cinematographer with a degree in Modern Culture and Media from Brown University. She has been a part of the Telluride Film Festival Student Symposium as well as Visual Communications’ Armed with a Camera Fellowship. The film that she shot and directed through the fellowship, Men Helping Women, is an experimental and visceral exploration of gender violence and premiered at LAAPFF in May 2019. She has crewed on music videos for artists such as Kendrick Lamar, Selena Gomez, and BTS and participated in Parasite’s Oscar campaign as an interpreter. She is currently a cinematography fellow at AFI.

  • Production Designer

    Sandra B. Rodriguez is a Mexican-born immigrant who graduated from Harrington University in Chicago with High Honors earning a B.A. in Interior Architecture. She also studied at INSEEC in Paris where she was awarded a certificate in Fundamentals of Architecture and International Studies. She has professional experience in managing large-scale commercial construction projects and designing corporate interiors during her time as an Interior Designer at Wright Heerema Architects, a prestigious architecture firm in downtown Chicago. In 2020 Sandra broke into the film business by Production Designing for a Sundance Directors Lab scene. Since then she has worked on various projects including a 2021 Sundance financed short film as the production designer. Currently, she is a Production Design fellow at the American Film Institute with the support of the Perenchio Family Endowed Fellowship Scholarship.

  • Editor

    Joe Murphy is from Seattle. He majored in Film Production at Loyola Chicago University and has been a freelance editor since 2013. In 2017, he began working at Cut, where he edited over 150 documentary-style short form videos. Following his passion for narrative storytelling, Joe moved to LA and worked as a freelance editor for two years, including full-time editing at First Media, before enrolling at AFI. He loves to travel, movies + tv, and, especially, the great outdoors!