C35 Films is a boutique production company with over a decade of experience creating social justice centered documentary films to advance new narratives from underrepresented perspectives with impact-focused distribution to engage audience and drive social change. Our work has been featured in NBC News, Washington Post, BBC News, NPR, Salon, Indie Wire, Politico, and Documentary Magazine. 

C35 Films has produced independent documentaries including CHINATOWN (2014, 26′), FIRST VOTE (2020, 60′), and DISSIDENTS (2024, 75′).  CHINATOWN won Indie Capitol Awards for Best Documentary Short and was broadcast on the PBS station in DC.

FIRST VOTE qualified for the 93rd Academy Awards in the “Best Picture” and “Documentary Feature” categories. It won a Telly Awards and the Special Jury Award for Art & Craft of Documentary Form at the 36th Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. The film had a theatrical release at AFI Silver Theater, Carolina Theatre, and Nightlight Cinema in 2020; and screened at numerous festivals including AFI DOCS, CAAMFest, Hot Springs Documentary Festival, and Hawaii International Film Festival.  It was broadcast on WORLD Channel’s (carried by 191 PBS stations in markets representing 74% of US TV households) America Reframed series; and is distributed by PBS Distribution and GOOD DOCS (Sage Publishing). 

DISSIDENTS had its international premiere at the Academy Awards-qualifying Doc Edge Festival in New Zealand and won Best Documentary Feature Award at the DC Independent Film Festival. The film was selected for 2024 Berlinale European Film Market and IDFA (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam) Docs for Sale. It also screened at Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, Asian American International Film Festival and Global Cinema Film Festival of Boston. DISSIDENTS is distributed by Paris-based sales agent Java Films and GOOD DOCS (Sage Publishing). 

In addition, director Tsai Ming-liang’s US-Taiwan co-production ABIDING NOWHERE (2024, 79′) was produced in association with C35 Films. The film premiered at 2024 Berlinale (Berlin International Film Festival) and has screened at CPH: DOX, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Melbourne International Film Festival, Taipei Film Festival, Hong Kong International Film Festival, Vienna International Film Festival, and Tokyo FILMeX. 

Our films have received grants from Ford Foundation JustFilms, Open Society Foundations, ITVS, Center for Asian American Media, New York Foundation for the Arts, Kartemquin Films, DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Southern Documentary Fund, Human Rights Foundation, and Taiwan Foundation for Democracy. They have also received support from organizations including DOC NYC Pitch Perfect, Tribeca IF/Then, DCTV, IDA DocuClub, UC Berkeley Investigative Reporting Program, Reporters Committee for Freedom of Press, Center for Independent Documentary, Docs in Progress, Women in Film and Video DC, and Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival.