The Frankly Speaking Films Circle is a community committed to incubating at least 30 projects over the next 10 years, elevating queer women and nonbinary filmmakers, collaborating with impact teams to bridge divides, expanding partnerships that drive positive social change, and supporting underrepresented voices that shift culture.
Frankly Speaking Films is a nonprofit creative engine telling mesmerizing stories on universal topics that center strong queer women and nonbinary changemakers. Our queer women-led team creates, directs, EPs, and produces everything from documentaries and fiction films to series and community projects.
Positive representation is not a luxury—it’s survival. For too long, our stories have been erased, distorted, or ignored. Frankly Speaking Films’ projects celebrate LGBTQ+ women and nonbinary people as essential in the fabric of the world, so we cannot be erased or legislated away.
We make art and impact. Our character-driven stories are crafted to look phenomenal, hit deep, pack the house, and drive change, from the first frame on.
We scale our impact with powerful campaigns around each film, we collaborate with other makers to shift culture, and we champion dozens of projects that amplify underrepresented voices.
Please don’t send unsolicited submissions – we can’t read them!
Frankly Speaking Films is an independent production company led by queer, Oakland-based filmmakers Rivkah Beth Medow and Jen Rainin. We directed and produced the feature documentary AHEAD OF THE CURVE (2020), which streamed on Netflix and STARZ and can be found on Apple and Amazon; the Oscar® shortlisted doc short HOLDING MOSES (2022) on The New Yorker website; and the new short doc THANKS, BABS! (2025) premiering in Frameline. Other credits include the Berlinale Grand Prix winning HUMMINGBIRDS (2023, Producer/Executive Producers) on Criterion Collection and POV; QUEER FUTURES (2024, Consulting Producers) on Criterion Collection; and OUTCRY: Alchemists of Rage (2024, Producers) which is in festivals.
Jen is a Film Independent Fellow who co-founded The Curve Foundation to champion LGBTQ+ women’s stories and culture.
Rivkah is a Sundance x Women in Film and Film Independent Fellow whose additional credits include BEING GEORGE CLOONEY (2016, Netflix, Producer) and SONS OF A GUN (2009, SXSW, PBS, Director).