
Directing
Crystal Kayiza
Known for
Directing
Credits
10 titles
Crystal Kayiza is a Ugandan-American artist and filmmaker raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her most recent film, Rest Stop, premiered at TIFF and won the 2023 Jury Prize for Best US Short Film at Sundance. Her short, See You Next Time, was an official selection of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and was released by The New Yorker.
Known for
5.0A young Ugandan-American girl gains a new understanding of her family and her place in the world as she travels with her mother and brother from New York to Oklahoma, in this richly textured drama by Crystal Kayiza.
Rest Stop
2022
NRIn the heart of the Mississippi Delta, Dr. Foluso Fakorede is fighting to save lives. Set in America’s Diabetes Belt and epicenter of the amputation epidemic, Bloodlines, Mississippi examines a medical system that is stacked against the Delta’s most vulnerable residents.
Bloodlines, Mississippi
2025
NRThe intimate moments between a Chinese nail tech and her Black client in a Brooklyn nail salon.
See You Next Time
2019
NRThree snapshots of black life in Edgecombe County, North Carolina, a place where the racial injustices of the past continue into the present.
Edgecombe
2018
A South Bronx community takes a stand against gentrification.
Why We Stay
2015
NROklahoma is one of 26 states with a “failure to protect” law, which prosecutes parents who fail to prevent child abuse. However, the ACLU and other groups say this law disproportionately criminalizes women, who are often victims of domestic abuse themselves. Hear the story of Clorinda Archuleta, a mother of twin boys, both of whom suffered severe injuries as infants. Clorinda and her ex-boyfriend pled guilty, but Clorinda received three consecutive life sentences under the Oklahoma law, while her partner was sentenced to 25 years. As Clorinda seeks commutation, the film shows how the law has contributed to a cycle of family separation and trauma.
A Call Away
2020
Behind the camera
5.0A young Ugandan-American girl gains a new understanding of her family and her place in the world as she travels with her mother and brother from New York to Oklahoma, in this richly textured drama by Crystal Kayiza.
Rest Stop
2022
5.0A young Ugandan-American girl gains a new understanding of her family and her place in the world as she travels with her mother and brother from New York to Oklahoma, in this richly textured drama by Crystal Kayiza.
Rest Stop
2022
NRIn the heart of the Mississippi Delta, Dr. Foluso Fakorede is fighting to save lives. Set in America’s Diabetes Belt and epicenter of the amputation epidemic, Bloodlines, Mississippi examines a medical system that is stacked against the Delta’s most vulnerable residents.
Bloodlines, Mississippi
2025
NRThe intimate moments between a Chinese nail tech and her Black client in a Brooklyn nail salon.
See You Next Time
2019
NRThe intimate moments between a Chinese nail tech and her Black client in a Brooklyn nail salon.
See You Next Time
2019
NRThree snapshots of black life in Edgecombe County, North Carolina, a place where the racial injustices of the past continue into the present.
Edgecombe
2018
A South Bronx community takes a stand against gentrification.
Why We Stay
2015
A South Bronx community takes a stand against gentrification.
Why We Stay
2015
NROklahoma is one of 26 states with a “failure to protect” law, which prosecutes parents who fail to prevent child abuse. However, the ACLU and other groups say this law disproportionately criminalizes women, who are often victims of domestic abuse themselves. Hear the story of Clorinda Archuleta, a mother of twin boys, both of whom suffered severe injuries as infants. Clorinda and her ex-boyfriend pled guilty, but Clorinda received three consecutive life sentences under the Oklahoma law, while her partner was sentenced to 25 years. As Clorinda seeks commutation, the film shows how the law has contributed to a cycle of family separation and trauma.
A Call Away
2020
NROklahoma is one of 26 states with a “failure to protect” law, which prosecutes parents who fail to prevent child abuse. However, the ACLU and other groups say this law disproportionately criminalizes women, who are often victims of domestic abuse themselves. Hear the story of Clorinda Archuleta, a mother of twin boys, both of whom suffered severe injuries as infants. Clorinda and her ex-boyfriend pled guilty, but Clorinda received three consecutive life sentences under the Oklahoma law, while her partner was sentenced to 25 years. As Clorinda seeks commutation, the film shows how the law has contributed to a cycle of family separation and trauma.
A Call Away
2020
