Hi there, I’m April! I am a documentary filmmaker, producer and creative director in Los Angeles. My feature directorial debut HOME TRUTH (made with Katia Maguire) premiered in at Lincoln Center in 2017 at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival, aired nationally on PBS in 2018, screened at film festivals all over the world and partnered with domestic violence and human rights organizations such as the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence and the ACLU Women’s Rights Project on an impact campaign and community screening tour that went to hundreds of communities and schools throughout the U.S.

As a producer, recent projects include the Emmy and Sundance award winning feature documentary THE SENTENCE (HBO, 2018); the multiple Critics Choice Award nominee ROLLING THUNDER: A BOB DYLAN STORY by Martin Scorsese (Netflix, 2019); and LYNCHING IN AMERICA, a multimedia project with the Equal Justice Initiative.

I also make short documentaries for brands, including a stint at Google's in-house creative agency, where I helped lead innovation in nonfiction storytelling and focused on projects foregrounding underrepresented voices and crucial social justice issues such as nuanced media representation of disability, LGBTQ+ rights, racial inequities in camera technology, the promotion of women and girls in STEM, the global maternal mortality crisis, and the history and ongoing legacy of racial terror in the United States.

My commercial and brand work has been honored by the Cannes Lions, D&AD, One Show, Art Directors Club, Webbys, Vimeo Staff Pick, Short of the Week, Camerimage, Clios, and Anthem Awards.

I’m also passionate about the preservation and archiving of film, audio, photographs and other crucial cultural artifacts, and worked as an archivist for seven years on projects involving Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, The Who, the history of the human rights movement in America, and the criminal justice system.

I’m a proud member of the media advocacy organizations FWD-Doc (a global, intersectional community of disabled filmmakers and allies) and the Documentary Producers Alliance (a coalition of filmmakers advocating for inclusive, sustainable and equitable practices in the documentary field), as well as a founder and partner in the production company Hello Stranger Productions.

Want to work together? Reach out here: aprilchayes [at] gmail [dot] com