Naeema Jamilah Torres (she/her) is an award-winning, Chicago-area filmmaker originally from New York City. After receiving a BFA in Film & Media Communication Arts, she pursued a career in home entertainment distribution, working at companies such as Cinedigm and HBO. Her passion for non-fiction storytelling combined with her skills in marketing, sales, and distribution strategy led her to impact producing and crafting documentaries. Her most recent short film, REDACTED, screened at several festivals across North America and received several awards and recognitions including Best Documentary at the 2019 Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival and Lecture Series, and a nomination for Best Short from the 2020 Denton Black Film Festival.

Naeema currently works as an independent producer and director, managing the production of short content for production companies and non-profits, as well as developing and producing independent documentary projects in Chicagoland and beyond. As a filmmaker, she aims to tell stories that unpack notions of womanhood, complex ethnic identities, and legacies in the Americas through visual and audio mediums.

In addition to creative storytelling work, Naeema is an Impact Producer, teaches film at Northwestern University and DePaul University, and is the Executive Director of Mezcla Media Collective, a 700+ member non-profit that provides resources and equity for BIPOC women and non-binary filmmakers of color in Chicago. She is frequently invited to speak on filmmaking panels, most recently with Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, Sisters in Cinema, the Chicago Film Office, and the Chicago Doc Conference.

In her downtime Naeema enjoys cooking, riding her bike along Lake Michigan, watching sci-fi shows and movies, and re-reading works by Zora Neale Hurston, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Langston Hughes.