Talent Guide

Molly O’Brien

  • Discipline:Producer
  • Program Year:Fast Track 2015

Bio

Molly O’Brien is the lead Producer for Indie Caucus, a national group of independent documentary filmmakers. Prior to her work for Indie Caucus, O’Brien was the producer of Catalyst Forum for Sundance Institute, an innovative annual convening of creative investors, industry, and independent filmmakers. In 2014, O’Brien’s film Cesar’s Last Fast (producer/executive producer) premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, US documentary competition. Cesar’s Last Fast sold to Participant Media’s Pivot TV and Univision, and is available for streaming on Netflix and iTunes. O’Brien won a prime time Emmy for producing in 2000 (American High, FoxTV), was nominated for a prime time Emmy in 2001 (American High) and made a 2010 Sundance Institute Creative Producing Fellow (Cesar’s Last Fast). Her first documentary film, (A Pig With Hair, PBS), was shortlisted for the Academy Awards in 1998. O’Brien is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and lives in Los Angeles where as an adjunct professor of Documentary Film at Chapman University she recently discovered a love of teaching.

Current Project

The Bad Kids

Logline

At a remote Mojave Desert high school, extraordinary educators believe that empathy and life skills, more than academics, give at-risk students command of their own futures. This coming-of-age story watches education combat the crippling effects of poverty in the lives of these so-called "bad kids."