FIX IT IN POST: IN CONVERSATION WITH DOCUMENTARY EDITORS
Join Shadow Kitchen for a conversation with documentary editors (and KSFEF alumni) Berenice Chávez, Sarah Garrahan, and Oscar Vazquez! We’ll explore how key scenes evolved in the edit, from the earliest cuts to the final versions. We’ll also unpack editor-director collaboration, post-production workflows, and the creative process of shaping documentary stories. Presented in collaboration with The Karen Schmeer Film Editing Fellowship. See you there!
Thursday, July 16th
Doors at 7, conversation at 7:30
Coaxial Arts, 1815 Main St, LA, CA 90015
$10 / NOTAFLOF
Berenice Chávez is a Los Angeles-based Latina documentary film editor with a passion for shaping emotionally resonant, character-driven stories. After earning her MFA in Film Editing from the American Film Institute in 2016, she has edited several acclaimed documentary features, including Come See Me in the Good Light (Apple TV+), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Festival Favorite Award. Her work also includes Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter (Netflix) and Pamela, A Love Story (Netflix). As a bilingual editor with roots in both Mexican and American cultures, she is drawn to stories that explore identity, intimacy, belonging, and resilience. Through her work, she focuses on finding the emotional core of a story and shaping narratives that connect deeply with audiences.
Sarah Garrahan (she/her) is a documentary filmmaker and editor based in Los Angeles. She co-produced the hybrid feature documentary The Infiltrators (Sundance 2019). She edited the feature documentaries The Haunting of Pennhurst (Tribeca 2026), Building the American Dream (SXSW 2019), Silent Beauty (Hot Docs 2022), Slumlord Millionaire (DOCNYC 2024) and the short documentaries Status Pending (Al Jazeera), La Isla (The New Yorker) and Love in the Time of Migration (LA Times Short Docs). She is a former Flaherty Fellow, Felsman Fellow, Karen Schmeer Film Editing Fellow, DOCNYC 40 Under 40 honoree, and was featured in Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film. In 2026, she received the Creative Capital award for her feature documentary in development. She has served as an editing consultant for the Sundance Institute, Firelight Media, the IDA, and on numerous feature and short films. She holds an MFA in Experimental and Documentary Arts from Duke University.
Oscar Vazquez is a documentary film editor and native Angeleno. His most recent editing credits include BTS ARMY: FOREVER WE ARE YOUNG, about BTS global fandom, and PIECE BY PIECE, a Lego Pharrell bio-doc. His films have screened at CPH:DOX, Telluride, TIFF, Ambulante, and SXSW. They have also been distributed theatrically and on major platforms like Netflix, AppleTV, and Disney+.