Stalin Boys - Co-directors Bianca Giaever and Ora DeKornfeld

STALIN BOYS follows four Mexican American middle school boys in a tiny Texas border town who have developed an unusual obsession with Joseph Stalin. When their teacher tells them about the Texas State History Fair, they decide to write and perform a play about the Soviet dictator and his efforts to destroy all who opposed him. Armed with cardboard props and fur hats purchased on the internet, the boys enter the competition as underdogs and leave home for the very first time. What begins as an eccentric school project develops into a funny, surprising and deeply engaging exploration of power, tyranny, bullying, history, friendship, and the ways young people grapple with ideas much larger than themselves. Joining us on Cinemafile are the co-directors of Stalin Boys Bianca Giaever and Ora DeKornfeld.

*SXSW Audience Award Winner & SXSW Special Jury Award

About the filmmaker - Filmmaker and radio producer Bianca Inga is the creator and host of the podcast Constellation Prize, distributed by The Believer Magazine. She has also worked as a producer on The New York Times audio team, hosting episodes of The Daily that include Delilah, An Obituary for the Land, and Cosmic Questions. Her film, radio, and print stories have appeared on This American Life, Radiolab, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Believer Magazine, and the TED conference. In 2013, her college short film the Scared is scared was named “Web Video of the Year” by USA Today. Her awards include a Daytime Emmy and a Webby Award and she is represented by m ssng p eces for commercial directing. Her latest project and upcoming film, Free Help, was profiled in The New York Times. She is currently a fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University and an Associate Fellow at the Film Study Center at Harvard University. You can follow her latest on Instagram. Originally from Seattle, she is currently based in Cambridge, Massachusetts after having spent many years between Vermont and New York City.

About the filmmaker - Ora DeKornfeld is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker who began her career as a video journalist at The New York Times. She now directs, shoots, and edits documentary films that resist easy answers — morally complicated, human-scaled, and often funny in the places you don't expect. DeKornfeld directed the Emmy-nominated short USA v SCOTT (Tribeca 2020, The New Yorker); STALIN BOYS (SXSW 2024), winner of both the Audience Award and Special Jury Prize; and THE GRANDFATHER PUZZLE (Full Frame 2026), winner of the Audience Award. She shot and edited Isabel Castro's MIJA (Sundance 2022) and was a co-editor on Elizabeth Lo's MISTRESS DISPELLER. She has directed multiple episodes of the Netflix Original Explained and is currently in production on her first feature film following journalistic fixers in Mexico.