Ep. 35: Cephra Stuart, SAN FRANCISCO BAE

B-ROLL, BUDGETS & BAEWhat happens when a Virginia filmmaker skips the short-film “training wheels” and goes straight into directing her own feature? RFN Podcast guest host Zakiya Roberts sits down with writer/director/producer Cephra Stuart whose debut film San Francisco Bae reimagines the coming-of-age rom-com through the lens of a Black woman and an Asian man—two groups often overlooked or misrepresented on screen. Stuart opens up about growing up in a family that straddled theater and sports, launching an a cappella group that sparked her love of storytelling, and self-financing a $135,000 feature shot in just 15 days. From cutting 30 minutes of material to moving the entire production from California to Virginia weeks before shooting, Stuart shares how reinvention, resilience, and raw honesty fuel both her work and her life.