Cai Thomas is a documentary filmmaker telling vérité stories at the intersection of location, self determination, and identity about Black youth and elders. She grew up in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood and is deeply interested in stories rooted in place. She recently completed Change The Name supported through Queen Latifah’s Queen Collective with P&G and Tribeca Studios, which will premiere at the 2021 Tribeca Festival. Her film Queenie about a Black lesbian elder premiered at NewFest winning the NY Short Grand Jury award. She is a NeXt Doc and Sisters in Cinema Fellow as well as a Mellon Arts Practitioner Fellow at Stanford’s Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity.
“It’s so imperative to me to be in a community with youth filmmakers because I know they have so much to say. There aren’t enough documentaries from the youth perspective and it’s important to me to always devote time to develop and cultivate the artistic talent in young folks.”