Why We Stay
Why We Stay is a campaign created in collaboration with the American Indian Cultural District that explores why Native people continue to build lives, community, and culture in San Francisco despite generations of displacement, erasure, and systemic barriers.
The series was designed not only as a storytelling initiative, but as a civic and cultural advocacy campaign. Through intimate interviews with Native elders, artists, organizers, entrepreneurs, and youth, the films highlight the ongoing contributions of Native communities to the Bay Area while also examining the historical realities that have made visibility, stability, and representation difficult to sustain.
At the heart of the campaign is a broader community goal: helping advocate for a permanent physical space for Native people in San Francisco. The project seeks to raise public awareness around the importance of Native-led spaces for cultural preservation, gathering, education, healing, and intergenerational connection — while encouraging city leadership, institutions, and the broader public to recognize the necessity of long-term investment and reparative support for Indigenous communities.
As Creative Director and filmmaker, Molly helped shape the campaign’s emotional and visual language from concept through execution — guiding story development, interview direction, community collaboration, production, and audience experience. The work was approached with deep care toward cultural integrity, relationship-building, and ensuring that participants felt seen not simply as subjects, but as active voices shaping the narrative itself.
Elder Stories
Featuring artist and Alcatraz Veteran, Kris UrbanRezLife Longoria. Know by her artist tag UrbanRezLife, she’s a Bay Area Indigenous artist, poet, and storyteller—an enrolled citizen of the Caddo Nation—who lived on Alcatraz as a child during the 1969–71 occupation and has since dedicated over two decades to preserving its legacy through art and activism
Leadership Listens
Featuring AICC’s Executive Director, April McGill. April is a member of the Round Valley Indian Tribes and a direct descendant of Yuki and Mishawal Wappo nations. As the Executive Director, she leads advocacy, cultural preservation, and policies to uplift the urban American Indian community.
Bay Area Businesses
Featuring Joey Montoya, a San Francisco–born Lipan Apache creative and founder of the Indigenous lifestyle brand Urban Native Era, and Christian Routzen, co-founder of the surf-inspired streetwear brand San Franpsycho, are redefining modern cultural expression and community building through fashion, storytelling, and youth-driven advocacy.
Youth Stories
Featuring Kauchani Bratt, a San Francisco native of Quechua and Coahuiltecan heritage and rising actor starring in Netflix’s Rez Ball (2024), and Michael Klinker, Program Coordinator at the American Indian Cultural Center, work together to elevate Native storytelling, youth voices, and cultural preservation in San Francisco.