Steel Orchid Films is an independent film studio founded by Maryam Tricia Murajda in San Francisco, California in January 2020.
It specializes in documentary storytelling.
Murajda is a filmmaker and professor of Sociology and Cultural Anthropology.
Her newest project, BAMBA FEPP, filmed on location in Senegal and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, explores the legacy of Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba and his followers, the Muridiyya- a group spread over the world- sparking a social and spiritual revolution without lifting a weapon.
Her documentary feature, Down the House (2020), explored her family’s hometown of Braddock, Pennsylvania, once the epicenter of global steel production. Left abandoned by the government in the 1980’s, residents overcome violence, poverty and political invisibility to reinvent their town.
Her early research took her to the U.S./ Mexico border, documenting women’s groups addressing violence and femicides.
Murajda's work often addresses overlooked communities, their social and creative forms of resistance and reinvention.
Her career has centered around teaching in working class communities; she currently teaches courses in Sociology, Cultural Anthropology and Genocide Studies.
For speaking engagements, collaboration, distribution and additional inquiries please send us an email.