Jeff Adachi served as the Public Defender of San Francisco. He was a social justice advocate and documentary filmmaker, writing and directing two PBS award winning films, “The Slanted Screen: Asian Men in Film & Television” and “You Don’t Know Jack Soo” and the acclaimed short film “Racial Facial,” a short film about the history of racism in the United States. Jeff’s latest film “Defender” was selected to premiere at a sold-out screening at the SF International Film Festival and won the Best Documentary film award at the Independent Television Festival in Vermont in 2017.
The Slanted Screen, co-produced by the Center for Asian American Media, premiered at the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences in 2007, and went on to receive both national and international broadcasts and screenings in the United States, Israel, China, Japan, Canada and Australia. The Slanted Screen won top awards at the New York International Independent Film & Video Festival and at the Berkeley Film Festival. You Don’t Know Jack Soo won the best documentary film at the Accolade Film Festival, and was chosen to air on Comcast’s on demand following its national PBS broadcast. Racial Facial won the best short documentary at the Hollywood Independent Documentary Film Festival awards in 2016 and earned a distribution deal by the Films for the Humanities and Sciences later that year.
As Public Defender. Jeff’s office provided legal representation to over 20,000 people each year, mostly of color. Through his legal work and activism, Jeff’s legacy is as a strong advocate for the civil rights of all Americans. He passed away in 2019 during production of “Ricochet.”