TO BE RECONCILED

“This story is in (Christenson’s) blood.”

— Sheila Nevins
Former President, HBO Documentary Films

Directed by JAMES CHRISTENSON

Produced by JAMES CHRISTENSON & BRENNAN VANCE

Edited by PALOMA LÓPEZ CARILLO

Executive Produced by STEVE HOLMGREN & NADIA RUBALCAVA

Impact Producers MELODY ARTEAGA & RYAN PEREZ for MONARCA MOVEMENT

Music by JOE CHRISTENSON

Explore & Support the Film

To Be Reconciled is James Christenson’s debut solo-directed feature documentary, unfolding between Minnesota and central Mexico, where a father’s quest for freedom becomes an intimate exploration of generational inheritance, memory, and the precarious promise of equal justice under the law.

Filmed over eight years, the work moves between personal testimony, observational encounters, and the landscapes of two countries, tracing the fragile connections between past and present, mother and son, son and children.

BIOGRAPHY

James Christenson (b. 1989. Fargo, North Dakota, U.S.A.) is a filmmaker and video artist based in Minneapolis.

Working across documentary, music video, and experimental cinema, his practice is guided by an enduring fascination with voice - how it is discovered, expressed, represented, and heard. His work moves between observation and invention, drawing on cinema verité, scripted performance, archival materials, and experimental techniques to explore the relationship between information and emotion in cinematic storytelling. His films cultivate a distinct sense of place and time, inviting audiences into the lives and worlds of people they might otherwise never encounter.

His directing credits include Running on Fumes in North Dakota (2014), a documentary short for The New York Times, and The Bakken (2017), a feature documentary co-directed with Lewis Wilcox. He produced the narrative feature The Missing Sun, which participated in the 2016 IFP Narrative Filmmaker Labs, and served as producer, editor, and cinematographer on Harvest (2018), published by The Atlantic. His cinematography and camera work also appear in the documentary features Move Me (2022) and Accept the Call (2020) for PBS, and Sound of the Police (2023) for Disney/Hulu.

Christenson's films have screened at the Walker Art Center, Minnesota History Museum, and Plains Art Museum, as well as festivals including Full Frame, Hot Docs, Double Exposure, and BAMcinemafest. He is a 2025 McKnight Media Artist Fellow and has received support from the Tribeca Film Institute’s If/Then Shorts initiative and the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC).