We’ve been trying to book this walk with director Chelsea Hernandez for weeks, but she’s just too-busy city-hopping for the PBS music doc-series to hit the trail with us—until now. Chelsea is an Emmy-nominated director, a part of the Brown Girls Doc Mafia, and a great friend!

On a return from a recent shoot in Puerto Rico for CITY OF SONGS, Chelsea found that her living room ceiling had collapsed, turning her life upside down… rather than get down about it, she took it as a sign from the universe. Time to move!

And time, finally, to get moving with us—thru the Boggy Creek Greenbelt in East Austin—on a winding walk & talk through her career. Starting with her early days (at age 9) hosting her own Martha Stewart-style kids show (99 episodes!)—then assistant editing for Ellen Siro and editing for Mario Troncoso—all the way to making her own feature doc. We get the scoop, with a focus on casting BUILDING THE AMERICAN DREAM, her feature debut about undocumented construction workers that’s still painfully relevant today. And she breaks down the approach to co-directing (with Heather Courtney and Princess A. Hairston) for 2023’s BREAKING THE NEWS—a doc that Keith EP’d and Episode 3 guest Diane Quon produced. She makes a compelling case for why three directors may be better than one.

Like many, Chelsea is caught-up in today’s anti-PBS culture war, outlining how the Trump administration just killed her ITVS-funded film (“the movie Trump doesn’t want you to see”). But she’s happy to make the case for why PBS matters. It’s not just art—it’s jobs, community, and the lifeblood of democracy. Plus: why spending time in people’s kitchens beats journalism, that time she worked for the Beto campaign, and how many baseballs are in Ben’s minivan.

Discussion Links: BUILDING THE AMERICAN DREAM (2019) | BREAKING THE NEWS (2023) | AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE (2017) | ARTS IN CONTEXT (2013-2016) | THAT ANIMAL RESCUE SHOW (2020) | THE EYES OF ME (2009) | CITY OF SONGS (2025) | TO BE AND TO HAVE (2002) | TOWER (2016) | BEFORE MIDNIGHT (2013)

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction and Guest Announcement

01:00 Chelsea’s Roof Collapse Story

02:00 Walking the St. David’s Community Garden

03:30 Child Star Origins – Kids Ideas TV Show

06:00 Transition from Broadcasting to Documentary

08:00 City of Songs and Traveling for PBS

10:00 CPB Funding Cuts and Trump’s Impact

13:00 Building the American Dream Origins

16:00 Casting Real People – Finding Your Protagonists

20:00 Workers Defense Project and Building Trust

24:00 The Fat Mouse Encounter

26:00 Journalism vs. Documentary – Learning to Take Sides

30:00 Breaking the News – Three Directors, Three Perspectives

36:00 Co-Directing Challenges and Triumphs

40:00 Gateway Drug Film – To Be and To Have

42:00 Dream Collaborator Ethan Hawke

43:00 Immigration Raids and Current Work

45:00 Future Projects – Asylum Seekers School and Ruben Ramos

47:00 Baseball Count and Episode Title