BIO

Jess Epstein is an independent documentary producer and impact strategist whose work centers on character-driven storytelling and social change. Her most recent project, Oscar-Qualified Remaining Native, directed by Paige Bethmann, premiered at SXSW 2025, where it won both the Special Jury Award for Documentary and the Audience Award, and is Oscar-qualified.

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Jess is currently working as an impact strategist with Loren Waters on her award-winning documentary short Tiger, and is producing Daddy, a forthcoming debut feature documentary by Hannah Myers.

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She comes to independent film with nearly 15 years of experience producing unscripted and documentary content for major networks and platforms, including HBO Max, Discovery, History Channel, The Magnolia Network, HGTV, and YouTube Originals.

 

Alongside her independent producing work, Jess serves as Associate Director of Strategic Partnerships at BAVC Media, a national media arts nonprofit focused on workforce development and creative technology training.

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Outside of film and television, she is deeply committed to collaborative, public-facing art practices that engage communities around social change. Since 2015, she has been a lead member of Mobile Print Power (MPP), a multi-generational printmaking collective based in Corona, Queens. Through MPP’s participatory design methodology and portable silkscreen printmaking carts, Jess works with communities to co-create prints, and public works that explore social and cultural conditions in shared public space. She also has to own painting and printmaking practice as an artist. 

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Jess holds a Master’s degree in Arts Administration from Baruch College (CUNY) and an undergraduate degree in Visual Culture and Social Change from NYU's Gallatin School of Individualized Study.