SONS OF DETROIT

a film by Jeremy Xido

TEAM

Jeremy Xido (Writer/Director)

International Actor and award winning filmmaker originally from Detroit, Jeremy is a Fulbright and Guggenheim recipient who graduated cum laude from Columbia University in New York and trained at the Actor’s Studio. He’s known for spotlighting how personal stories are shaped by and connected to broader social issues. As a filmmaker he directed feature documentaries DEATH METAL ANGOLA, THE BONES and upcoming SONS OF DETROIT. He has been a screenwriting fellow at Cine Qua Non and was a Sundance Screenwriters Lab finalist. As an actor and dancer Jeremy has performed and presented work around the world on stage, TV and the big screen.  Jeremy is currently starring in several high profile projects including Transamazonia, from director Pia Marais, (Locarno, TIFF, NYFF) and Amazon MGM Studio’s House of David premiering Spring 2025.  He speaks English, German, Spanish and Portuguese. Website and Reels

Amanda Burr (Producer)

Amanda Burr is a producer and writer. Recent producing credits include The Bones (2024 CPH:Dox), the series FILMS BYKIDS for PBS, Death Metal Angola, Man Shot Dead,and the short doc/fiction hybrid "Solitary/Release." She was a founder and Editor in Chief at the digital learning company Nomadic, where she wrote, directed, and produced over 50 animated short films and education programs. She has also worked as an associate programmer for the Tribeca Film Festival, a consultant with the Screenwriters Colony, a programmer for the Chicago Humanities Festival, and as a theater director. She has a BS in Performance Studies from Northwestern University and an MFA in Writing from Spalding University, where she studied literary fiction and screenwriting. 

Lori Cheatle (Executive Producer)

Lori Cheatle is a producer and executive producer of over 25 award-winning films and the founder of the award-winning production company Hard Working Movies. Recent films include Nanfu Wang’s forthcoming Night Is Not Eternal, Dreaming Walls (Berlinale 2022, with EP Martin Scorsese and distributed by Magnolia Pictures), US KIDS (Sundance 2020), Matangi/Maya/M.I.A. (Sundance Special Jury Award, IDA Award for Best Documentary), Nanfu Wang’s I Am Another Your (Independent Lens); and many others. Lori produced three films by Doug Block, which all aired on HBO, including 112 Weddings, The Kids Grow Up, and 51 Birch Street. Among many other awards, she received the 2019 Sundance / Amazon Producers Award for her work in non-fiction film. 

Michèle Stephenson (Executive Producer)

Emmy award-winning filmmaker, artist, and author Michèle Stephenson draws from her Haitian and Panamanian heritage and experience as a social justice lawyer to transform non-fiction storytelling. In 2023, her films Going To Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project and Black Girls Play: The Story of Hand Games were Oscar-shortlisted, with Going To Mars winning the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and the prestigious Emmy Award for Outstanding Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking. Her feature American Promise earned three Emmy nominations and won the Jury Prize at Sundance, while Stateless was nominated for a Canadian Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary. In 2024, she received the NYWIFT Nancy Malone Muse Directing Award and is currently in post-production on a feature on the Black Power movement in Canada. She is a Guggenheim Artist Fellow, Creative Capital Artist, and member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Joe Brewster (Executive Producer)

Emmy award-winning filmmaker Joe Brewster is a Harvard-trained psychiatrist who applies his medical expertise to explore social issues through his cinematic work. Over the past three decades, Brewster has directed and produced narrative and documentary films, as well as immersive media. His feature documentary American Promise (2014) earned three Emmy nominations and won the Jury Prize at Sundance. His film Going To Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project was Oscar-shortlisted, won the 2023 Sundance Grand Jury Prize, and received over 30 awards, including two Cinema Eye Awards and the prestigious Emmy for Outstanding Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking. Black Girls Play: The Story of Hand Games (2023) won the Cinema Eye Best Short Award, the Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Video, and was also Oscar-shortlisted. Brewster has also produced documentary works for PBS, HBO, Amazon, Al Jazeera, Vice, Sundance Channel, Comcast, Disney, and the World Channel. He has received fellowships and grants from the Sundance Institute, Tribeca Film Institute, BAVC, MacArthur Foundation, and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. He is a member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and has won multiple Emmys.

Èlia Gasull Balada (editor)

Èlia Gasull Balada is a NAACP Image Award-nominated filmmaker who works in documentary and fiction. As an editor and writer, her credits include Malia Obama’s debut short film “The Heart,” the Emmy and Peabody nominee The Sit-In: Harry Belafonte Hosts The Tonight Show,  the Emmy and Grammy nominee The King, and Son of Monarchs, winner of the Alfred P Sloan Prize at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. Originally from Barcelona, Spain, she has been based in Brooklyn, New York for the past decade.

Kimberley Hassett (editor)

Kimberley is an producer and editor working in both fiction and nonfiction. Recent credits include Sandi Tan's Shirkers (Sundance 2018) for Netflix and producer on Jason Kohn's Love Means Zero (TIFF 2017) for Showtime. Most recently, she was an Executive Producer on two A24 documentary series for Netflix, "The Confession Tapes" (2019) and "Exhibit A" (2019) and editor on "Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator" for Netflix (TIFF 2019). Kimberley was born and raised in southern Alabama. She was trained in video art at the School of Visual Arts in New York and was active in NYC's performance art scene, often collaborating with renowned conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner.She lives in Los Angeles, California.

Waajeed (Composer)

Waajeed grew up in Detroit’s Conant Gardens, the birthplace of soul-driven hip-hop underground music. He is a Detroit-born music producer, one half of the hip hop and R&B group Platinum Pied Pipers, and a founding member of Tiny Hearts. He formed the Bling47 record label in 2002, which has released projects by J Dilla, Waajeed himself, and others. In 2012, he formed his second record label DIRT TECH RECK to explore his more dance floor oriented music. Waajeed is a sought after producer and collaborator with the likes of Mad Mike Banks, Theo Parrish and Amp Fiddler. He continues to push the envelope as a producer and with his eclectic DJ sets. He created the score for complex movement’s “Beware of the Dandelions.”