Going On 13 shows us the complex reality of pre-teen girls growing up in the cultural mosaic that is urban America. Using intimate interviews, cinema verite, and stop-motion animation, we learn about the girls' blossoming desires, their growing sense of responsibility, their hopes for the future, and the battle between who they want to become and who their parents think they should be.
DAWN VALADEZ, is a queer, Xicana filmmaker, social worker, artist, youth development specialist, resource wrangler, and impact strategist. Her award-winning feature documentary with Kristy Guevara-Flanagan, GOING ON 13 premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. Co-director/producer with Katie Galloway, Dawn is spearheading THE PUSHOUTS impact campaign. THE PUSHOUTS is supported by the Ford Foundation/Just Films, Sundance Documentary Fund, Tribeca All Access, The California Humanities Council, Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, CPB, Latino Public Broadcasting, The San Francisco Foundation, Fledgling Fund, the Jon Logan Foundation and others. She’s been awarded numerous awards and honors, including most recently the Saul Zaentz Artist Award (2017), a Chicago Media Project Impact Prize (2018) and the Imagen Awards' Best Documentary Award (2018). She is producing Vivien Hillgrove’s memoir film, VIVIEN’S WILD RIDE. Dawn advises on documentary films and public engagement campaigns and acts as a review panelist for a range of public documentary and other media funders.
Past residencies and fellows programs have included the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Producer's Academy, The Sundance Lab / Skoll Foundation's STORIES OF CHANGE Initiative; the BAVC Media Makers Fellowship; NALIP's Latino Producer's Academy and Media Market and the Women of Color Filmmakers' Artist Residency Center.
A proud graduate of UC Berkeley’s School of Social Welfare lives and works in Oakland, California.
