Xerophile is a full-service, women-owned production studio based between Atlanta and San Francisco.
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A few frames from our latest video for Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Cardiology! 🎬
We worked with CHOA to craft a video that introduced prospective patient families to the physicians and services offered across the heart center's facilities.
DP: Joey Kopanski
Gaffer: Evan Williams
Interview frames from our latest collaboration with Wholesome Wave Georgia, who recently received a transformational grant from the City of Atlanta. We worked with Wholesome Wave to capture the impact of their work across the city, from supporting local farmers to increasing access to fresh fruits and vegetables in food deserts.
DP: Kristian Melom
Client: Wholesome Wave Georgia
Recent frames from our latest project with Georgia Organics, featuring Jamila Norman of Patchwork City Farms and Evan Neal of Chattahoochee Queen. Shot by the super talented Kristian Melom.
We collaborated with Georgia Organics to develop and produce their Farmer Toolkit Series, which offers small and organic farmers hands-on tutorials from seasoned farmers across the state. The USDA-funded series, which covers topics such as tool maintenance, soil health and building beds, enabled Georgia Organics to amplify the impact of their farmer education work.
We are thrilled to be awarded funding from Latino Public Broadcasting for our newest project, La Orquesta, which will tell the story of the incredible Buford Highway Orchestra Project and its tireless leader Juana.
Thank you to We Love Buford Highway and LPB for their support. We're excited to begin production in 2024.
Congratulations to the 10 other projects slated for production this year!
🎉 LPB is excited to announce newly funded projects slated for production in 2024! Included are two projects funded by the Current Issues Fund, which supports films that explore contemporary social justice issues and have the potential for civic dialogue beyond broadcast. The remaining projects are supported by LPB’s Public Media Content Fund, Digital Media Fund, and an additional project supported as part of PBS’s 2024 election programming.
🗣️ “We’re delighted to announce the funding of this great lineup of projects,” says LPB Executive Director Sandie Viquez Pedlow. “From the Bronx to Hollywood, Colorado to Kentucky, Nebraska to Georgia, these new films spotlight the breadth of the Latino experience throughout the U.S., taking viewers to communities that have for too long flown under the media radar. We look forward to working with this talented group of filmmakers and bringing these unique stories to a wide audience on PBS.”
🏆 CONGRATS TO THE FILMMAKERS 🏆
PUBLIC MEDIA CONTENT FUND
🎥 Backside
Director: Raúl Paz-Pastrana; Producers: Gabriella García-Pardo, Patricia Alvarez Astacio
🎥 They/Dream
Producer/Director: William D. Caballero
🎥 She Wrestles
Producer/Director: Charles Fairbanks; Producer: Lucila Moctezuma
🎥 Untitled Ricardo Montalban Project
Director: Hugo Perez; Producer: Joel M. Gonzales
CURRENT ISSUES FUND
🎥 The Franchise
Producer/Director: Virgilio Bravo
🎥 Si Pudiera Quedarme/If I Could Stay
Co-Directors: Florencia Krochik & Theo Rigby
DIGITAL MEDIA FUND
🎥 Juan Po
Director: Maria Victoria Ponce
🎥 Juana Pelos
Director: Maria Mealla
🎥 La Orquesta
Co-Directors: Monica Villavicencio & Stephanie Liu
🎥 What to Expect
Writer/Producer/Director: Gabriela Garcia Medina
Writer/Producer: Vicki Syal
SPECIAL PBS 2024 ELECTION PROGRAMMING
🎥 Latinos ‘24
Directed by: Bernardo Ruiz; Produced by Bernardo Ruiz & Andres Cediel
Click here to learn more: https://bit.ly/3v4El1T
👋 Hi, We’re Monica and Stephanie – friends-turned-creative collaborators. We bonded as new hires on Twitter’s live video team in San Francisco but after a few years, we were itching to get back to our roots: telling stories. In 2019, we left our jobs. This company was our leap of faith.
Swipe through to learn more!
Story, strategy, production, training.
At heart, we’re creative problem-solvers who marry heartfelt storytelling with strategy to maximize impact. And whatever the project, we always find ways to sprinkle in a little poetry and play.
Swipe through to learn more!
We started Xerophile because we love telling stories and everything that goes along with it — the opportunity to meet new people, to explore, craft narratives and bear witness to the fullness of human experience.
But one of the biggest and most unexpected joys of our work has been helping our clients solve their problems and reach their goals.
Field notes on our process and why we've learned to embrace constraints:
We started Xerophile because we love telling stories and everything that goes along with it — the opportunity to meet new people, to explore, craft narratives and bear witness to the fullness of human experience. But one of the biggest and most unexpected joys of our work has been helping our clie
Xerophile was created with love by Monica Villavicencio and Stephanie Liu, friends-turned-creative collaborators who bonded over our love of stories and our belief that work, like living, is an art.
Our specialty lies in crafting narratives that inspire, delight and linger long after the last frame.
Swipe through to learn more about who we are and what we do.
Interested in working together? Let's connect! [email protected]
We’re thrilled to release our new website, an ode to some of our favorite Xerophile projects and the incredible people we’ve met along the way.
Check it out and let us know what you think: https://www.madebyxerophile.com/
A few weeks ago, we spent the day filming students at Global Village Project, the country’s only middle school for refugee girls. They told us about their lives at school — their love for social studies, their appreciation for their teachers — and what they hope to be one day. Among the future computer scientists and congresswomen was Shukria, an aspiring writer from Afghanistan for whom graduation looms on the horizon.
"When I think of leaving, it’s very hard for me,” she said, tearing up. “GVP is my second home.”
By the end of the day, we realized that GVP is more than a school. It's a place where girls can let their guard down, flourish and grow.
We’re thrilled to share a few stills from our shoot, as well as the final video, which was screened at GVP’s Tribute to Education. This year’s fundraiser exceeded expectations, hitting an all-time record. 🎉
Grateful to be GVP's partner in storytelling and can’t wait to see what these girls do next.
Full video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ5V7AYFG2s
In the words of poet Ada Limon: “It’s dangerous not to have hope, but if we can’t have hope, we need a little awe, a little wonder, a little curiosity.”
Field notes on awe, stories and our latest project.
Nature and visual art are among what Keltner calls the ‘eight wonders of life’ that induce awe. But also high on that list are stories of everyday courage, strength and kindness, stories of what he calls ‘moral beauty.’ More often than not, Keltner says, it’s the people around us that insp...
Three years ago Val and Hagin locked eyes across the dance floor. They’ve been inseparable ever since.
Their whirlwind romance was one of 10 films we worked on last year for Treasure Maps, a storytelling project about navigating life with a developmental disability, made in collaboration with our friends at StoryMuse Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities and L'Arche Atlanta.
We hope their love story brings a smile to your face this Valentine’s Day. ❤️
Three years ago Val and Hagin locked eyes across the dance floor. They’ve been inseparable ever since. Treasure Maps Macon is a collage of ten stories on…
Early on in our business we brainstormed all the people, organizations and companies we hoped to work with one day. Stacey Abrams was high on that list. Last year, we finally got the chance to work with her, traveling all over Georgia to help capture the indescribable energy of her historic campaign.
While the results of the election were not what we hoped for, we were and continue to be inspired by her political courage and all the people who organized and mobilized along the way. Here are a few of our favorite stills.
Somewhere in the doldrums of November 2020 — what now feels like a lifetime ago — Steph and I had the incredible privilege of participating in a Guild of Future Architects visioning session. We were invited to imagine what a creative economy could look like in the year 2075, which seemed inconceivably distant, all the more so because of the way the pandemic had made the future feel especially hazy and unknowable.
As part of the session, we were asked to boldly imagine what this new world could look like using ‘what if’ questions and then identify the inflection points, the decisions and actions that would shift our path toward this vision. It was a simple, but powerful reminder that we can have a hand in creating the world we wish to see.
Check out our latest blog post!
If I were to boldly imagine a future for Xerophile and for the film industry, it would be one that makes space for the talents and voices of those who have been traditionally sidelined because we’re all enriched when our workplaces and communities are more inclusive.
Introducing our latest short documentary: an homage to our friend Gibron Shepperd and his favorite time of day — the first in a series about how nature can inspire us in unexpected ways.
We started this film in March of 2020, on the same day we evacuated our studio and a week before Atlanta shut down entirely. Over the next two years, pandemic life took over, but Gibron’s story lingered in the back of our minds. Finally, this spring, we realized we owed it to ourselves to finish and vowed to revive our dormant passion project. That decision led to an epic pre-dawn shoot on Arabia Mountain and a magical afternoon in Woodland Gardens, dancing amongst ferns and magnolias in bloom. Throughout the process Gibron has been a true collaborator and friend, and we’re excited to share a glimmer of his creative spirit with the world.
A fashion designer debuts his second collection, an homage to his favorite time of day.
What we do is not only the burden we bear, but also the change we can create as a collective. That's the inspiration behind our promo for Supermajority's "Women are Voting" campaign, an effort to mobilize the largest voting bloc in the country ahead of November's historic midterm elections.
We wrote, produced, directed and edited this promo, which was brought to life by a majority women-of-color team. 💪
Our short documentary "Art Is Our Response" was accepted into Atlanta Shorts Fest! 🎬🎉
Thanks to Dance Canvas for trusting us with this story and all the choreographers in the film. Seeing their works come to life was an unforgettable experience.
Our film screens Sunday, June 26 at Role Call Theater alongside a collection of incredible short docs: http://www.atlantashortsfest.com/2022-5.html..
Synopsis: In the midst of the pandemic and breathtaking economic uncertainty, Atlanta choreographer Angela Harris reconsiders her future and that of the dance company she’s spent more than a decade building. But in the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing, witnessing the pain in her community, she realizes just how much artists and audiences need a place to process all that they’re grappling with. She quickly cobbles together funding for a residency — eight choreographers creating solos or duets in response to the times.
Exciting news - we won a grant! ✨ We're honored to announce that as AAPI business owners, Xerophile Studios has been awarded a grant from the Asian/Pacific Islander American Chamber of Commerce & Entrepreneurship and UPS. Overall, they provided 27 $5,000 Grants to -Owned Businesses from their "Proudly Unstoppable Fund". Read more and meet all the winners! https://www.aapistrong.com/2022-proudly-unstoppable-winners
"Rather than trying to fit the pieces together like a jigsaw puzzle, or rather force them to fit, we decided to hold everything loosely. We asked big, hard, expansive questions about why we were making this film and what we truly wanted to explore in this project. Asking these questions and answering them honestly meant that we had to be prepared for our film to change shape. And it has."
New blog post on finding our vision in the editing process and, yes, killing our darlings.
I’m reminded of a trope that’s often repeated in writing workshops: kill your darlings. It’s a reminder to not hold any scene or sentence as precious, to be willing to revise or cut your favorite parts in service of the larger story. This week, we killed some darlings.
Thanks Shoutout ATL for the profile! And to the community of creatives who welcomed us when we first arrived. https://shoutoutatlanta.com/meet-stephanie-liu-monica-villavicencio-co-founders-of-xerophile-studios/
We had the good fortune of connecting with Stephanie Liu & Monica Villavicencio and we've shared our conversation below. Hi Stephanie Liu & Monica Villavicencio, how do you define success? Success for us is being able to grow creatively and professionally on a regular basis. This means g
Excited to share our newest reel! The narration is from a poem by J. Drew Lanham, Joy Is the Justice We Give Ourselves.
Narration/Poem: Joy Is The Justice We Give Ourselves by J. Drew Lanham
"Crafting a documentary is in some ways the art of collage. Of taking bits and pieces from the world around you and assembling them in an attempt to create narrative. And in this attempt, make meaning out of the everyday. For me, this prospect of finding and making meaning is what makes each nonfiction project so exciting, time and time again."
New blog post on the joys of collage and our menopause doc! https://www.madebyxerophile.com/blog/the-art-of-collage
Crafting a documentary is in some ways the art of collage. Of taking bits and pieces from the world around you and assembling them in an attempt to create narrative. And in this attempt, make meaning out of the everyday.
Thank you for the support Southern Documentary Fund!
We're thrilled to announce that we're the recipients of a 2021 Southern Documentary Fund production grant! It's an honor to be among a group of such incredible filmmakers (including the legendary Julie Dash!), and we're grateful for the support as we take our film, The Body Is Not a Thing, across the finish line. 🏁
https://southerndocumentaryfund.org/2021-sdf-production-grantees/
Durham, N.C. – Dec 7, 2021 – Southern Documentary Fund (SDF) has selected ten projects to receive Production Grants in the amount of $10,000 each. Recipients include a diverse group … Continue reading "SOUTHERN DOCUMENTARY FUND AWARDS TEN PRODUCTION GRANTEES"
On days like these, decisions aren’t made so much as possibilities explored. I like to think of this as invisible work. It’s how we get to the heart of a project and find the ideas lurking just out of plain sight, how we fill our brains with nuggets that come together in unexpected ways on walks or when folding laundry. I can’t immediately quantify the value of this invisible work, and I’m not sure that I want to. But I do know that if I want to tell a story or solve a problem or create something new, there’s a pretty good chance there will be some nothing days, or at least some nothing hours.
New blog post on what I like to call invisible work:
On days like these, decisions aren’t made so much as possibilities explored. I like to think of this as invisible work. It’s how we get to the heart of a project and find the ideas lurking just out of plain sight, how we fill our brains with nuggets that come together in unexpected ways on walks...
Humans are wired to tell stories, to make meaning out of the disparate experiences in our lives. In many ways, organizations are no different. As teams look back on a year of twists and turns (Delta variant! Remote work!), they’ll likely find a narrative theme they hadn’t noticed before. Maybe it’s resilience. Perhaps collaboration. Whatever it is, it’s the act of looking back that reveals these patterns in our story.
As we approach the end of 2021, now is the time to think about how you want to tell the story of your year. Whether your organization hit a long-awaited milestone or pivoted in a new direction, it’s worth taking the time to share (and celebrate) with your audience. One of the best ways to do this is with a year-in-review video. Here's why: https://www.madebyxerophile.com/blog/the-power-of-a-year-in-review-video
Whether your organization hit a long-awaited milestone or pivoted in a new direction, it’s worth taking the time to share with your audience. One of the best ways to do this is with a year-in-review video. Here are a few reasons why.
When Angela Harris of Dance Canvas approached us to document a new choreographic residency program, we were thrilled. Because of the pandemic, Angela had had to cancel Dance Canvas’ signature show and halt much of the organization’s programming. And yet, in the midst of COVID-19, the killing of George Floyd and a breathtaking degree of economic uncertainty, artists and audiences alike needed an outlet — a space to create, a place to process all that we were grappling with.
Dance Canvas and Atlanta Contemporary partnered to offer a summer choreographic residency. They commissioned eight choreographers to create new works in response to the times.
We had the wonderful opportunity to film the entire creative process — interviewing the choreographers and program organizers, documenting their rehearsals and struggles (heat, bugs and vicious summer storms!), and, finally, the end-of-summer showcase. There were so many lessons from this project, especially from the artists themselves, about pain, joy, healing and transcendence. To see the audiences so moved by their pieces was a reminder of how essential art is, particularly in difficult times.
New blog post on the film, Art Is Our Response, which premieres in Atlanta this Friday! We'd love to see you there.
We began shooting Art Is Our Response in the summer of 2020. By then, we’d been at home for months, passing shuttered theaters and galleries, missing the nourishment of the arts. It was a moment of tremendous collective grief, and I craved a sense of community rooted in physical space. I was hungr...
Our Dance Canvas documentary, Art Is Our Response, is screening on September 10 at the Atlanta Contemporary's open-air pavilion. We're thrilled to finally be sharing this piece. If you're in the Atlanta area, come through! Details below.
The Atlanta Ballet is holding off until the holidays before it appears in front of a live audience again, but several dance troupes and organizations will perform live this fall as artists look deeper within to investigate their identities and question social norms.
Thanks for the shout out The Video Consortium!
⭐️
Monica Villavicencio and Stephanie Liu are writers and filmmakers from Atlanta, GA. Together, they own Xerophile Studios, a women-led production company that specializes in short docs and branded content. Former journalists in broadcast and public radio, they bonded as new hires on Twitter's inaugural live video operations team in San Francisco, an exciting, if odd, place to land for two women who never imagined they’d work in tech. Still, after a few years, they were itching to get back to their roots: telling stories. In 2019, they left their jobs and homes and set up shop 2,500 miles away. Xerophile Studios is their leap of faith.
Their business has since been a part of C4 Atlanta's WarnerMedia Creative Residency program and their latest short doc, The Body Is Not A Thing, was awarded a research and development grant from . Currently in production, the film, a kaleidoscopic portrait of menopausal and post-menopausal women, explores a rite-of-passage that’s historically fallen somewhere between taboo and joke and asks the question on every woman’s mind: what awaits me in my post-reproductive years?
Follow them for updates.
Thanks for the support Southern Documentary Fund. We’re so excited to bring this film into the world!
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We’re thrilled to release our new website, an ode to some of our favorite Xerophile projects and the incredible people we’ve met along the way. Check it out and let us know what you think: https://www.madebyxerophile.com/
"At any point in the aging process, there's a choice. You have a choice as to how you're going to process the information that you're getting ... it's a gift that if we're lucky, we make it all the way up to menopause." The truth is that aging scares me, Monica, for a host of cultural and personal reasons. I think of getting older as a kind of slow, nagging grief. What I've been told over and over is that aging means that you lose your beauty and vibrance. If you're a woman, it means you become invisible and irrelevant. And menopause makes you sweaty and crazy. Gloria Steinem once described the period after 52 as “falling off a cliff because I couldn’t see enough people ahead of me.” This is what draws us to make The Body Is Not a Thing, a documentary about menopause. We want to expand the narrative around women and aging. So far we've met some incredible women, like Lana Garland, who reminds us that aging is a gift and that we have a choice in how we meet that phase of life. Check out her work curating Hayti Heritage Film Festival (and stay tuned for more gems from her). If you or anyone you know would like to share your experience with us, reach out. If you want to donate to this project, click here: https://www.madebyxerophile.com/menopause
