The story
The Film
A search for belonging across generations, identities, and continents.
Directed by
Amber Allen-Peirson
Cassidy Friedman
Presented by
Stories Matter Media &
Burn A Light Productions
Running time
80 mins
SYNOPSIS
A search for belonging across generations and continents.
At the center of The Unrooted Bloom is a question both intimate and universal: where do we belong? The film follows Amber Allen-Peirson as she turns toward the family histories, cultural inheritances, and places that have shaped her. Moving from Marin to Louisiana, Utah, and Ghana, the journey unfolds through conversation, memory, poetry, and encounter. Each place reveals another layer of identity—and another way that the past lives within the present. Rather than offering a simple answer, the documentary makes room for complexity. It is an invitation to consider the roots we are given, the roots we choose, and how a life can bloom even while searching for home.
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
I was finally willing to ask the questions.
The Unrooted Bloom is the most personal story I have ever told. I turned the camera toward my own family, my own history, and some of the places in my life that were the hardest to examine. Through poetry, memory, difficult conversations, and a journey across generations and continents, I began to see how deeply the stories we inherit shape the stories we tell about ourselves. I made this film not because I had answers, but because I was finally willing to ask the questions, and to sit with what I found.
- Amber Allen-Peirson
Before becoming a documentary filmmaker, I wrote crime stories for a daily newspaper—stories that often reinforced what we already believed about ourselves and others. Documentary offered another possibility: to turn the camera inward and question those inherited narratives. I met Amber in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, when she had emerged as a powerful voice in my hometown. As our friendship deepened, I recognized beneath her activism a search for belonging that mirrored my own. As her co-director, I’m entering these questions alongside her, inviting audiences to look closer, feel deeper, and consider what becomes possible when empathy becomes action.
- Cassidy Friedman
THE JOURNEY THROUGH THE FILM
01
Marin
02
Louisiana
03
Utah
04
Ghana
“How far do you have to travel to understand where you come from?”
Film and production stills
Crew Bios
Amber Allen-Peirson
CO-DIRECTOR
Amber “Clarity” Allen-Peirson is a storyteller, a visionary, and a community activist. Her life experience gives her an incredible sense of intuition, empathy, and creative healing skill. Amber is a poet who traverses between polarized worlds as a biracial woman, between Oakland and Marin County. Amber “Clarity” Allen-Peirson is a storyteller, a visionary, and a community activist. Her life experience gives her an incredible sense of intuition, empathy, and creative healing skill. Amber is a poet who traverses between polarized worlds as a biracial woman, between Oakland and Marin County.
Cassidy Friedman
CO-DIRECTOR
Cassidy Friedman makes films that employ collaboration between filmmaker and film subject, and complicate narratives. His award-winning first documentary feature, Circles (2018), was called "powerful" by Mother Jones, "must-see" by The Mercury News, and is distributed by Lionsgate. He produced Voices Beyond the Wall (2017), with James Franco. Cassidy Friedman is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and founder of Stories Matter Media, known for collaborative, character-driven storytelling that explores social and cultural complexity. His work prioritizes ethical engagement with subjects, creating films that reveal nuanced human experiences while challenging conventional narratives. Cassidy’s credits include the feature documentaries Circles (2018), Voices Beyond the Wall (2017), and acclaimed shorts such as Ambassadors of Hope (2023), Detroit Rising (2020) and Finding Hope (2021).
Apo Bazidi
Producer / Executive Producer
Apo Bazidi is a filmmaker, producer, and founder of Burn A Light Productions, specializing in socially impactful storytelling. He brings both creative vision and strategic expertise to projects, guiding them from development through completion. His work includes award-winning films that explore themes of humanity, resilience, and social justice, including Resistance is Life (2017), demonstrating his commitment to stories that inspire dialogue, empathy, and change.
Michaelle McGaraghan
Co-Producer / Editor
Michaelle is an Emmy nominated film editor who has spent the past 13 years collaborating with influential filmmakers such as Marc Smolowitz, Vivien Hillgrove, Pratibha Parmar and Jacqueline Olive. Her work has screened all over the world including SXSW, PBS, MTV, and Disney+. She is a Sundance Art of Editing fellow, Karen Schmeer Film Editing Fellow and a Sundance Doc Lab Alumni. Michaelle is drawn to stories that change our understanding of the present by examining our past and also stories that change our views of the past in the context of the present.
Victoria Beits
Composer
Victoria Beits is a music composer for film, TV, and other media production. She has a background as a piano player, then she started writing music for production libraries and consequently was carried away by scoring for films and TV series, documentaries, games, trailers. Experienced arranger, orchestrator, Victoria writes for live orchestra and makes professionally sounding mixes of live and hybrid music, always open for experiments and happy to find new ways to bring emotion to a picture.
Recognition
Official Selection
Mill Valley Film Festival 2026
Urbanworld Film Festival
“The Unrooted Bloom lingers long after the lights come up — an intimate, fearless portrait of the stories we carry and the ones we finally learn to tell.”