SYNOPSIS
What begins as activism quickly escalates as three conservatives join a widening conflict over identity, power, and the future of American democracy.
With a patient and unflinching approach, Homegrown follows a father-to-be in New Jersey, an Air Force veteran in New York City, and a charismatic activist from Texas crisscrossing the country during a period of profound national fracture from the summer of 2020 through the spring of 2025. As the country accelerates toward political crisis, we witness democratic norms crumbling not through a single event, but from hundreds of personal choices made by ordinary people.
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CREATIVE TEAM
Michael Premo
Director / Producer / Cinematographer
Michael is an awarding-winning journalist, filmmaker, and artist. His work spans film, radio, theater, installation and photography. His most recent feature film, Homegrown, premiered at the 2024 Venice Film Festival in the Venice Critics Week section. It has won numerous awards including a 2026 duPont-Columbia Award, one of the most prestigious awards in broadcast journalism. He directed and produced the short film and photo exhibition Water Warriors (POV). With his frequent collaborator Rachel Falcone, he co-directed the participatory documentary Sandy Storyline (Jury Award winner at the Tribeca Film Festival), co-wrote the site-specific performance Sanctuary (The Working Theater), and co-created the multiplatform exhibit 28th Amendment. Michael has directed, produced, and co-written original radio and theater with numerous companies including Hip-Hop Theater Festival, The Foundry Theater, The Civilians, and the Peabody Award-winning StoryCorps on NPR. His photography has appeared in publications like The Village Voice, The New York Times, and Het Parool. He has been an artist-in-residence with Camargo Foundation, and The Laundromat Project. He is the recipient of an NBC News Studios Original Voices Fellowship, a Creative Capital Award, A Blade of Grass Artist Files Fellowship, and a New York State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Award. He is on the board of trustees of A Blade of Grass. ~Photo By Kisha Bari
Rachel Falcone
Producer / Production Sound
Rachel is an award winning documentary filmmaker and multimedia artist. She is Executive Director of Storyline. Her most recent feature film, Homegrown, premiered at the 2024 Venice Film Festival in the Venice Critics Week section. It has won numerous awards including a 2026 duPont-Columbia Award, one of the most prestigious awards in broadcast journalism. In addition to producing the short film and exhibition Water Warriors, about a community fighting to protect their water (POV), Rachel has co-directed the participatory web documentary and exhibition Sandy Storyline about Hurricane Sandy (Tribeca Film Festival’s inaugural Storyscapes Award), and the multiplatform exhibit 28th Amendment. Rachel has produced radio stories with the national oral history project StoryCorps and EarSay, Inc., and was an associate producer on Incite Picture’s Young Lakota (Independent Lens). She has directed dozens of short films for organizations like AFSCME and The John. F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and has taught oral history and storytelling in collaboration with institutions like the Museum of the City of New York and Parsons The New School for Design. She is also a sound recordist for film and radio, including most recently Knock Down The House (Netflix) and To the End (Hulu). ~Photo By Kisha Bari
Jim Urquhart
Co-Producer / Additional Cinematography
Jim is a Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist who has covered the destabilization of America for more than a decade. Previously a staff photojournalist at The Salt Lake Tribune in Utah, Urquhart has been freelancing for 10 years. His primary clients are Reuters and National Public Radio. For the last seven years his primary focus has been extremism, hate groups and anti-government militias. He also works as a HEFAT instructor, consultant, and reporter for several news organizations seeking to improve their sourcing and security while covering the far-right. Urquhart was a 2022 Nieman Journalism Fellow at Harvard University.
Kristen Nutile
Editor
Kristen is a documentary filmmaker and editor based in New York City. Her work has shown around the world including the Sundance Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival. Kristen is a 2019 MacDowell Fellow, and a 2017 Sundance Editing and Story Lab Fellow, and she was a recipient of the Albert Maysles Award for Excellence in Documentary Filmmaking in 2006. Kristen has also directed eleven films. Her own work intersects between experimental and documentary filmmaking. Most recently, Kristen co-edited the film THE PLACE THAT MAKES US, directed by Karla Murthy, about the rebuilding of Youngstown, Ohio. She also edited the award winning film WEED THE PEOPLE, by Abby Epstein and Ricki Lake. It's currently on Netflix. Kristen edited the award winning film, WARRIOR WOMEN, which premiered at HotDocs in 2018 and was nominated for a Peabody in 2020. She also edited the Netflix Original film, HEROIN(E), by Elaine Sheldon. It was nominated for an Academy Award, a Peabody Award and it went on to win an Emmy Award. In addition, Kristen edited the award-winning films THE BULLISH FARMER, a verité film about a Wall-Street Banker turned Farmer, DEEP RUN, a verité portrait of transgender life in rural North Carolina and UNFINISHED SPACES, about the Cuban Schools of Art. Other editing credits include the award-winning, EVERY DAY IS A HOLIDAY, STARBOARD LIGHT, INVITATION TO DANCE and FROM PRISON TO HOME. She holds editing credits on WRIT WRITER, THE HOUSE OF SUH and LOVE, GILDA. In 2006, Kristen collaborated with legendary filmmaker, Albert Maysles and Tanja Meding on SALLY GROSS - THE PLEASURE OF STILLNESS, a documentary about critically acclaimed dancer and choreographer, Sally Gross. She holds Master's degrees in both Documentary Film and Video from Stanford University and Biology from San Francisco State University. Kristen teaches filmmaking and editing at New York Film Academy.
Shilpa Kunnappillil
Editor
Shilpa is a documentary editor and filmmaker based in Brooklyn, New York. She is currently editing a feature documentary about rightwing nationalism in India. Most recently, she co-edited the feature documentary Homegrown, which premiered at the 2024 Venice Film Festival Critic’s Week. Previously, she has worked as an associate and assistant editor on documentaries that have premiered at Sundance, Tribeca, DOCNYC, etc. She has also received support from Firelight Media and NeXt Doc for her directing work.
Khari Mateen
Composer
Khari is a composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, whose creations span genres, pop culture, and current events. Originally from Bakersfield, California, Mateen moved to Philadelphia at 17 years old, where he began his career in the music industry. As a budding producer, Mateen observed the music business through his talented collective of mentors turned friends. Thanks to this first-hand music education, Khari’s first credits of note came at 19 years old with The Roots’ 2006 Grammy-nominated album Game Theory. He contributed to their subsequent albums Rising Down and Grammy-nominated, Undun. Between his time in Philadelphia and Los Angeles, he has worked with artists such as, Jill Scott, James Poyser, J*Davey, Son Little, Shaun Ross, and Kiah Victoria. Mateen, who also sings, plays cello, bass, guitar, and drums, has played on stages in various roles, touring as band member, bass player, singer, and in 2015, as Cody Simpson’s Musical Director. Over the last decade, Khari released 4 solo albums and one collaborative album with Atlanta rapper, STS. In 2008, Mateen added composing for films and TV shows to his repertoire, with his first feature film, Explicit Ills. He went on to work with Emmy-winning producer Mark Levin on the Sundance TV series, Brick City (Emmy-nominated & Peabody Award Winner). Since then, Khari has scored an array of critically acclaimed film and TV projects for major networks and streaming platforms, including ESPN, HBO, Showtime, Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. Most recently, he wrapped up scoring several compelling documentaries, including Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal (Netflix), LulaRich (Amazon Prime), and Stockton on My Mind (HBO).
Marshall Hanig
Co-Producer
Marshall is a journalist and multimedia producer, working at the intersection of storytelling and cultural change. Informed by his knowledge of climate and environmental justice movements, he facilitates the impact campaign for the award-winning short film Water Warriors (POV). He also does research for projects in development, archival research and assists with producing. Through his time reporting on grassroots political organizing, Marshall began writing and interviewing for independent podcasting and oral history projects. He has worked as a journalistic researcher, editor and writer with Political Research Associates (PRA), a research and strategy center. He has participated in various labs and trainings for producers leading social impact campaigns, including the Doc Society Impact Producers Lab.
Robyn Braun Serrano
Co-Producer
Robyn is an award winning producer, editor and director based in Brooklyn, NY. Robyn has over 15 years of professional experience in all aspects of media production from budgeting through distribution. Notably, they were the Post Production Supervisor on the Emmy nominated “Lincoln’s Dilemma” for Apple+ and an editor on the Peabody Award nominated feature documentary “Warrior Women”. Their work can be seen on Apple+, PBS, MTV, VH1, Showtime, History Channel, Discovery Channel, A&E, Netflix, Hulu, Peacock, Facebook, and YouTube, as well as on airplanes, cruise lines, billboards, and in film festivals. Robyn is most proud of telling stories that foster a deep sense of community, humanity, and empathy.
Executive Producers
Jenny Raskin, Kelsey Koenig, James Costa, Trevor Burgess & Gary Hess, Alysa Nahmias
Co-Executive Producers
Nina & David Fialkow, Marni E. J. Grossman, Lauren Haber, Elizabeth King, Michael Steiner
CREDITS
