Princess A Hairston

Editor, Director, Producer, Cinematographer

As Donald Trump was getting sworn in as President and the Women’s March set an angry, outspoken tone for the country’s discourse, journalist Emily Ramshaw decided to meet the moment by launching The 19th. Named after the Nineteenth Amendment, The 19th became the first nonprofit, nonpartisan news agency in the United States. Its mission is to focus on the impact of national politics and policy on women. However, by the time Emily and co-founder Amanda Zamora had secured funding and officially launched The 19th’s news site, the pandemic hit — and the very fabric of society went into a tailspin.

Breaking the News immerses its audience in the lives and steadfast pursuits of the members of The 19th — women and LGBTQ+ journalists — as they struggle to launch the agency and work to gain traction for their newsroom amidst shuttered news outlets and an upended America. With spirited storytelling, the directorial trio of Heather Courtney, Princess A. Hairston, and Chelsea Hernandez provide an inquisitive and dynamic view into the inner workings of this news agency as its journalists disrupt entrenched biases and push for accountability.––Jose Rodriguez

Breaking the News

LuLaRoe, the billion dollar clothing empire accused of misleading thousands of women with their multi-level marketing platform, is analyzed.

LuLaRich

Chewing-gum sculptures, a wealthy gallerist, a firebrand wrestler, a notorious murder case and the segregated south – it’s all part of Nellie Mae Rowe’s boundless universe. This World is Not My Own reimagines this self-taught artist’s world and her life spanning the 20th century.

This World is Not My Own

It explores the culture of modern spirituality through the rise of Kundalini yoga in the West, from its origins with Yogi Bhajan to its presence today.

Breath of Fire

Pier kids follows Crystal LaBeija, Casper and Desean's transition from being homeless to housed.

Pier Kids

Recreates the role that the unstoppable women of hip-hop have played across the 50 years of this groundbreaking genre, putting them where they belong: at the heart of the present day.

Ladies First: A Story of Women in Hip-Hop

At 15, he took a life. Three days later, his brother's life was taken. An incarcerated musician struggles for healing and peace as he comes of age in this documentary visual album composed behind bars.

Songs from the Hole

Driven by the personal stories of five youth who were justice-involved as teens, JUVENILE traces their pathways into the system, their journeys of trauma and healing, and their lessons for how to break and remake the juvenile system.

Juvenile: Five Stories

Over 30 years ago, Lisa Creason attempted to rob a Subway cash register. She had no plan, no weapon, and no get-away car. It was an act of desperation to feed her infant daughter, and resulted in a criminal record she couldn't escape. While in nursing school, a law passed that prevented her from becoming a nurse, her only path out of poverty.

Free to Care

A Black trans activist reflects on her journey to finding her voice.

Black Beauty

Fresh Dressed chronicles the history of Hip-Hop <> Urban fashion and its rise from southern cotton plantations to the gangs of 1970s in the South Bronx, to corporate America, and everywhere in-between.

Fresh Dressed

Interweaving her search for her African ancestors, director Princess A. Hairston unravels the history of the largest slave-holding family in the U.S. through the personal stories of Black and white individuals in the Hairston clan as her journey unveils a harrowing, hidden familial history, exposing America’s distorted narrative about slavery. 

Towards the end of the American Civil War, the Hairstons, a unique family from Scotland, owned over 42 plantations and over 10,000 slaves in Virginia, North Carolina, and Mississippi. This film features interviews from both Black and white Hairstons, some of whom admit finding out the truth about their family’s history was appalling and scandalous. Tracing the Hairstons chronicles the unique story of the only family with the name Hairston to arrive in America and their journey to becoming one of the largest slave-holding families in American history. The descendants of the white Hairstons, finally open up about their troubled ancestry and the descendants of the enslaved finally get to tell their ancestor’s stories that have been silenced for far too long. Tracing the Hairstons reveals the struggles and triumphs of a family that is connected together through the worst atrocity in American History. We learn why this dynamic family sets itself apart to be one of the most unique and largest family names in American history as the director herself peels away the layers of her ancestral history.

Tracing the Hairstons

Fk'd up & Fabulous

"People Not Property: Stories of Slavery in the Colonial North" is an interactive documentary presented by Historic Hudson Valley, a not-for-profit, educational organization that has been committed to telling the story of slavery in the colonial North for decades.

People Not Property: Stories of Slavery in the Colonial North

An awards ceremony that honored women of color for their achievements in music, entertainment, and entrepreneurship, along with musical performances by female R&B and soul recording artists.

Black Girls Rock!

Go behind-the-scenes at a 39,000-square-foot hotel resort casino for a look at its inner-workings, from the massive food orders to overseeing a huge security team, in an effort to compete with the big boys on the strip.

Vegas Stripped

The year is 2050 and the dynamics of power have changed hands. White Men are being interrogated for humanitarian crimes across the US.

United States vs White Men

'The Girl on the Fridge' is a story, within a story, within a story. It's about a girl who was raised by a major household appliance, and the guy, Ron, who tries to love her as an adult, as narrated by Ron's newest girlfriend, Ogette. Ultimately, it's a slightly absurd tale about longing.

The Girl on the Fridge

Inside/Outside

Five women embark on a journey of discovery of selves. Each woman conquering life as though for the first time. They each will show truth in its best and darkest forms. These women build a sisterhood based solely off of honesty of their true selves. This is a story about Construction over Destruction.

Echoes in Silence

Two women fall into friendship and eventually into love in this short romantic comedy. When They Met explores Relationship rules, gender roles, and everything in between as two women struggle to meet one another in the middle.

When They Met

Detectives hit dead end after dead end, and wrong suspects are discarded. But one new clue can lead to another and the cold case suddenly gets hot. Truth is, it is the perfect murder until it's not.

The Perfect Murder

A high-end car thief falls in love with a blind Arabian princess whose father will only allow them to wed if he can pass a series of three challenges.

Cruel Summer

Ball Boys follows the sports memorabilia business at the iconic Robbie's 1st Base in Baltimore, MD. The shop's run by the charming family-like sports fanatics who work there - Robbie Sr. and Junior, Sweet Lou and Shaggy.

Ball Boys

Follows four eccentric store employees as they go out searching the attics, closets and garages of New York's elite.

Fashion Hunters

Montana Meth takes a look into the world of Crystal Meth in a few towns in the state of Montana. Actual users give their insight and tales of their addiction and what its done to them and their lives.

Montana Meth

A successful New York businessman leads a double life as a computer thief.

On the Road with Judas

It is a short film about gentrification in Brooklyn. Residents in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn explain the effects gentrification has on their community.