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A Powerful Community of BIPOC Women and Nonbinary Professionals Transforming the Documentary Industry

Brown Girls Doc Mafia (BGDM) works to disrupt inequity in the film industry by nurturing, amplifying, and investing in the creative capacity and professional success of our members.

By Kitty Hu • March 22, 2025

BGDM Sustainable Artists Fellowship is Back!

By Mars Verrone and Marga Varea • February 12, 2025

Impact Above All with Mars Verrone and Marga Varea

By Brown Girls Doc Mafia • January 21, 2025

Brown Girls Doc Mafia announces Capacity Council

New MEMBERS

BGDM is nothing without its members. That's why we are always so excited to welcome more incredible folx to this community! Meet just a few BGDM members who joined us at our first Member Orientation last month.

Halle Hazzard

Halle Hazzard is a writer and documentary filmmaker driven to inspire, inform, and spark meaningful change. As a first-generation Caribbean American, they’ve grown up navigating multiple cultures—a perspective that deeply shapes their storytelling. Their curiosity about the world and commitment to finding and refining their voice fuels her work as a documentarian.

Jia Rizvi

Jia Rizvi is an independent documentary filmmaker pursuing stories that explore wrongful convictions in the name of protecting the social order. She is currently investigating the vagaries and inconsistencies of the American Criminal Justice system through the story of Jeffrey Deskovic and other exonerees who have had their freedom restored at the cost of irreparable damage to their minds, relationships and families.

Ziyne Abbas Abdo

Ziyne Abbas Abdo is a journalist, filmmaker, and emerging anthropologist based in Brooklyn, New York. Her work centers on community empowerment and visual storytelling that challenges audiences to examine systems of power and imagine a more just world. As a producer at Paramount's Inside Edition Digital, she highlights stories of individuals failed by the institutions meant to protect them.

Reina Akamatsu

Reina Akamatsu is a Japanese documentary storyteller based in LA, committed to bridging divides and fostering understanding through their work. Having grown up in Japan and later migrated to the U.S., they’ve personally experienced how embracing different cultures and ways of life can offer freedom, openness, and a deeper sense of peace.

Nakisa Glover

Nakisa Glover is a climate and environmental justice practitioner, tech advocate, cultural consultant, thought leader, and community engagement expert. She develops strategies across activism, films, music, and podcasts that engage millennials, Gen Z, artists, entertainers, community leaders, entrepreneurs, and politicians to create more equitable, sustainable, and regenerative communities.

Ashanté Mallet

Haitian-Jamaican photographer and writer Ashanté is based between the U.S. and Canada. Her work explores Caribbean narratives through visual and written mediums, capturing intimate moments that reflect the region’s rich, complex identities. Committed to authenticity and cultural representation, she aims to elevate underrepresented voices and shape a new wave of Caribbean storytelling.

Carolina (Carla) Magdalena Borrás

Carla Borrás is a two-time Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and journalist. She spent 15 years with PBS’s FRONTLINE, producing short documentaries and special projects that expanded the series’ journalistic reach. Her work has also appeared in The New Yorker, The Marshall Project, Nova, StoryCorps, and The GroundTruth Project. Carla’s award-winning credits include Un(re)solved, The Last Generation, Tutwiler, The Last Call, and Crime Scene Bucha.