I'm a documentary filmmaker based in New York City, working across places and communities.
I produce, direct, film, and edit stories that explore the intimate dialogue between land and the people who live with it. Through the lens, I trace how human resilience moves with ecological time and how care is carried through daily rituals.
Working between documentary and photography, I spend extended periods living alongside families and communities, from the Tibetan Plateau to immigrant neighborhoods in Brooklyn. Within these shared rhythms of everyday life, questions of belonging, memory, religion, and place quietly unfold.
I hold an MA in News and Documentary from New York University, where I completed my thesis film, My Lens, My Land, currently screening internationally and streaming online.
With a background in business, economics, and global study through the Semester at Sea program, I remain attentive to how visual storytelling moves beyond the frame and circulates in the world.
I am currently co-producing and serving as post-production editor on a feature-length documentary set in the deep desert of Daliyabuyi, Xinjiang. The film follows a Uyghur village leader and his community as intensifying climate conditions unsettle long-held relationships to land, livelihood, and home.
Contact
kechendoc@gmail.com