Film Forum

Too Young to Wed's mission is to empower girls and end child marriage globally. We envision a world where: Every girl can decide for herself, if, when and to whom she will marry; Girls are free to be children and teens, with access to gender-specific healthcare and all levels of education; All girls are free to determine the course of their own lives.

Sara Khaki is a documentary director, producer, and editor dedicated to telling stories that promote gender equity. She is a Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Award winner (World Cinema Documentary) and Visions Du Reél Audience Award winner for her feature documentary CUTTING THROUGH ROCKS, which follows the first elected councilwoman of a rural Iranian village. The film has been called “a deftly shaped work of cinematic nonfiction” by IndieWire and “one of those profound vérité documentaries that are only possible through the patience and perseverance of the filmmakers” by POV Magazine. Sara’s short film Our Iranian Lockdown (2020) is now streaming on The Guardian and received an IDA Awards nomination. Her co-directed Netflix Original CONVERGENCE: COURAGE IN A CRISIS (2021) was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Current Affairs Film. Sara graduated from the University of Maryland with a BFA in cinematic arts and from New York’s School of Visual Arts with an MFA in social documentary filmmaking. A grantee of the Sundance Film Institute, Chicken & Egg Films and Firelight Media, her work continues to amplify change on gender equity through the cinéma vérité form.

Mohammadreza Eyni is a director, producer, and cinematographer whose career and cinematic approach aims to bridge boundaries, elevate underrepresented voices and connect diverse perspectives globally. He is a 2025 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Award winner in the World Cinema Documentary competition for his feature documentary CUTTING THROUGH ROCKS, which has become an audience favorite at Sydney, Hot Docs, and the Visions Du Reél film festivals, among others. His cinematic approach has been heralded as “uniquely propulsive" and “practically magical” (Variety) and “precisely lensed” (IndieWire) as well as “delivering simple moments into cinematic poetry” (Hammer to Nail). He was named by Pure Nonfiction as one of the top five cinematographers to watch at Sundance in 2025. Mohammadreza’s intimate short film Our Iranian Lockdown, streaming on The Guardian, received an IDA Awards nomination. His co-directed Netflix Original CONVERGENCE: COURAGE IN A CRISIS was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Current Affairs Film. Mohammadreza has been supported by Sundance Institute, IDFA Bertha Foundation and Hot Docs Cross Current Doc Fund, among others. He is a Tribeca Film Institute alumnus and graduated with an MFA in cinema from Tehran University of Fine Arts.

Stephanie Sinclair is a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist and human rights advocate whose work has centered on gender inequality and social justice for more than two decades. Reporting from conflict zones including Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Lebanon, her photography captures the human cost of political and social upheaval. She is best known for Too Young to Wed, her acclaimed multimedia project on child marriage worldwide, honored with multiple World Press Photo awards and exhibited at venues including the United Nations and the Whitney Biennial. Sinclair is the founder and president of the nonprofit Too Young to Wed, where she works to empower vulnerable girls and advance global efforts to end child marriage.

Carl Deal is an Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker and journalist. Along with his partner, Tia Lessin, he directed and produced the acclaimed Sundance Grand Jury prize-winning documentary TROUBLE THE WATER (2008), which was named to the top ten lists of The New Yorker, Salon.com, Entertainment Weekly, Los Angeles Times and New York Magazine. He also directed and produced the award-winning CITIZEN KOCH (2013) about the radicalization of the Republican Party. Their latest film, STEAL THIS STORY, PLEASE!, played at the Telluride Film Festival, IDFA, and received six audience awards in 2025. A longtime collaborator of Michael Moore, Carl also produced CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY, WHERE TO INVADE NEXT, and FAHRENHEIT 11/9, among others. Previously he worked as an international journalist.

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