TEAM
Sarah H. Nixon, Director & Producer
Sarah is a Raleigh, North Carolina-based independent documentary filmmaker and visual artist whose work focuses on the culture of the American South. She was awarded the Reel Digital Artist Award in 2020 and a mentorship with the PBS NC Producers Lab in 2021. Nixon has previously worked as a production research intern for a documentary film, “Now Is the Time - Healthcare for Everybody,” (2017), and as a production intern for Roadside Entertainment, Inc.(2021) During her artist residency as the Watson-Brown Foundation 2022-2023 Southern Studies Fellow, Nixon directed and produced "Lifeline," a short film about Rosetta Nesbitt, a black printmaker and visual artist from the South who overcomes discrimination and adversity.
Dakota Stokes, Director & Producer
Dakota is a filmmaker and journalist living in Chapel Hill. After a number of film and media internships abroad, she settled in her family’s region in North Carolina in early 2020. She works as an editor and co-director for Alala Productions, a production company she co-founded with her work partner Todd McPhail (https://www.youtube.com/@alalaproductions3688/videos). In 2023 she co-directed and edited a feature-length documentary about the Kraken, a local bar in Chapel Hill (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rPDC4db24Y). The Benson Five, which is fiscally sponsored by the Southern Documentary Fund, is her first feature film to be released.