Kevin Ford spent three years in a room with Robert Downey Sr. during the last chapter of his life, building the film that became Sr. on Netflix — a feature that won Best Documentary from the National Board of Review. He was behind the camera on American Chaos for Sony Pictures Classics, and made The Bomb with journalist Eric Schlosser, a film that ended up at Tribeca, Berlinale, and the Nobel Peace Awards ceremony.

Ford’s been doing this for thirty years. Quietly, stubbornly, from New York to Austin to Los Angeles to Oklahoma City, making films about the things that don’t let him go. His most recent feature, 67 Bombs to Enid — about survivors of nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands who ended up in rural America — won Best Documentary at deadCenter and was an official selection of Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival.

Other award-winning films by Ford include the experimental feature Everything Is Stolen starring Ellar Coltrane which earned Best Documentary at the International Avant-Garde Cinema Awards, and The Pushback produced by Richard Linklater, an official SXSW selection and winner of three awards at El Paso Film Festival, including Best Director.