Raised in the hills of Appalachian Kentucky, MARTHA STEPHENS longed to create films celebrating and investigating her native land and people. A graduate of the North Carolina School of the Arts, School of Filmmaking, Stephens’s first feature film, Passenger Pigeons premiered at the 2010 SXSW Film Festival, and won Chicken and Egg’s “We Believe In You” Award. Stephens’s second feature film, Pilgrim Song premiered at the 2012 SXSW Film Festival in the Narrative Competition. She won the Best Director Award at the Fantaspoa Film Festival in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and her film was awarded Best Southern Film of 2012 by Oxford American Magazine and Best Southern Film at the 2012 Indie Memphis Film Festival. Stephens’s latest feature, Land Ho!, an Iceland-set buddy comedy which she co-wrote and co-directed with Aaron Katz, premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival to high critical praise.  The film was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics and was released theatrically all over the US and Canada.