About me
Johnny Symons is an Emmy-nominated Bay Area filmmaker specializing in LGBTQ+ documentaries. His latest film Assembly (2025) premiered at SXSW, BFI Flare and Hot Docs and will air on PBS’ Independent Lens in 2026. His film Daddy & Papa (2002) premiered at Sundance, broadcast in more than a dozen countries and garnered 12 festival awards. His other feature documentaries include Out Run (2016), which premiered at Full Frame and aired on public television, and Ask Not (2008), which broadcast nationally on PBS and screened at the US Capitol. Johnny is co-producer of the Academy Award-nominated Long Night’s Journey Into Day (2000), which won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize, and executive producer of Pray Away (2020), which premiered at Tribeca and is streaming on Netflix. He is a Professor in the School of Cinema at San Francisco State University, and has a MA in documentary production from Stanford. Johnny is a documentary branch member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
