She gave us the chance to tell a story of this iconic figure who's influenced so many people, and at the same time be able to use the music, the power, the excitement and all of that combined with this woman who tells such a truthful, honest story about what it is to grow up not feeling self-love and struggling with that and then using that music to heal and to heal other people.

Vanessa Roth

Vanessa Roth is an American filmmaker who writes, produces and directs non-fiction films and heads up social issue reform efforts through storytelling. She has won a number of film awards for her works, including a 2008 Academy Award for Best Short Documentary for Freeheld, an Emmy Honors Award for Social Impact and a IDA Nomination for best doc series for her Netflix series, Daughters of Destiny (https://www.emmys.com/tags/daughters-destiny) (https://www.emmys.com/video/2018-television-academy-honors-recipient-daughters-destiny), an Alfred I duPont-Columbia award for Taken In: The Lives of America's Foster Children, Impact Doc Awards for Outstanding Achievement in filmmaking for The Girl and The Picture as well as two Sundance Special Jury Prizes, Cine Golden Eagles, Casey Medals and a MacArthur Grant. She directed Mary J. Blige's My Life (2021). Some of her award-winning films include Liberation Heroes: The Last Eyewitnesses, The Girl and the Picture, Freeheld, Close to Home, Aging Out, The Third Monday in October, 9/11’s Toxic Dust, No Tomorrow, The Other Side, American Teacher, and The Texas Promise. She is also the executive producer, writer and director of Daughters of Destiny: The Journey of Shanti Bhavan - a 4 part Netflix Original documentary series released July 28, 2017.

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