Nicole Opper is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker who directed and produced the award-winning feature documentary “Off and Running.” The film was nationally broadcast on PBS’ “POV” in 2010. She’s also produced films for The Discovery Channel and Here TV, and was selected for Filmmaker Magazine’s annual “25 New Faces of Independent Film”. Opper has taught filmmaking at Stanford University and San Francisco State University, among other schools. She received a Fulbright Fellowship to direct “Visitor’s Day.”

“Visitor’s Day” will premiere at the 2016 DOC NYC film festival on November 14.

W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.

NO: The film is a coming-of-age story about a 16-year-old runaway named Juan Carlos who is working to overcome the trauma of neglect. At a unique group home for boys in Puebla, Mexico, he undergoes counseling, bonds with his newfound brothers, and gathers up the courage to forgive his father face to face.

In my mind this is a film about restorative justice and the power of forgiveness. It’s about all of the ways we honor the families we come from and create the families that truly nurture us.

W&H: What drew you to this story?

NO: I have a long-standing relationship with the boys home depicted in the film that began when I was a 17 year old volunteer there for a summer. I connected deeply with many of the staff members and the boys, and while packing up my storage unit in Brooklyn one day I uncovered the journal I’d kept during my time there. I’d written, “Return and make a film about this place one day.”

As an educator in my thirties, I’m always telling young people to believe in themselves and their ability to create important work, so I decided to honor that 17-year-old impulse in myself. I moved into the boy’s home and lived there for a year, filming constantly.

W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?

NO: I want people to see themselves in Juan Carlos and recognize that his situation is not unique to Mexico. He’s not unlike the 400,000 young people in foster care here in the U.S., longing for a place to call home, desperate for guidance and mentorship, and eager to better themselves and their circumstances.

If people are moved by his story, I would encourage them to sign up to be a mentor to a foster youth through The National Court Appointed Special Advocate Association. At the very least I hope this story causes people to look at homeless youth anywhere in the world with greater compassion and empathy.

W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?

NO: My biggest challenge was gaining the trust and partnership of the two male directors of the boys home. On the one hand, they had good reasons to doubt me, a white American in Mexico making a film about brown children who are particularly vulnerable as wards of the state.

They knew this meant that I would have cultural assumptions and implicit bias. They knew all about the “hidden colonialism of documentary,” as Edwin Martinez has perfectly described it. I respected their vigilance, their media-savvy, and their skepticism.

On the other hand, sexism and homophobia also clearly played a role in shaping their view of me. It wasn’t always easy, but we worked through our differences for the sake of the film, which we all wanted to happen. And we’re all very happy with the story we told together. It was a collaboration in the truest sense.

W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.

NO: An ITVS development contract, a Fulbright Fellowship, a Chicken & Egg Pictures grant, NYSCA, and small donations from private donors over the years. It was a painstaking process that has led me to want to make shorts for the next couple of years! But it was worth it.

W&H: What does it mean for you to have your film play at DOC NYC?

NO: DOC NYC was launched the year after I left New York. I’ve lived there for 12 years, studying and working in documentary, so it is very exciting to now be a Bay Area filmmaker attending my first DOC NYC with a film in the festival. If it didn’t happen now I might just die from the FOMO.

W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?

NO: Best advice: Green light yourself. Give yourself permission to be a filmmaker or it’s never going to happen.

Worst advice: It must have been so bad that I’ve blocked it from my memory.

W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?

NO: You are the only person alive who can tell stories that reflect the unique way you view the world. Don’t deprive us of that. Fuck all the dudes who will tell you there are too many films and too many filmmakers. We still haven’t heard enough from you.

W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.

NO: “Fish Tank.” Andrea Arnold placed her camera inside the head of her complicated female protagonist and that feeling has never left me. We watch that film with our whole selves: mind, body and spirit. It’s what Jill Soloway refers to as “the female gaze.”

W&H: Have you seen opportunities for women filmmakers increase over the last year due to the increased attention paid to the issue? If someone asked you what you thought needed to be done to get women more opportunities to direct, what would be your answer?

NO: We’re not being given opportunities — we’re creating them, the way women always have. Ava DuVernay decided that only women would direct her brilliant new show, “Queen Sugar,” and so it is. Meryl Streep decided to fund a writer’s lab for women over 40 and here we are. The list goes on.

We’re already greenlighting ourselves, and the quicker straight white cis men step out of the way, the faster our numbers will grow. I’m not suggesting they stop making movies — just that they acknowledge the disproportionate amount of space they take up in any given room, and that they act, well, more like a woman would. Or a non-binary person like myself.

On that note, drawing a thick black line between men and women really isn’t the answer. As younger generations are making plain, gender exists on a spectrum. This conversation should really always be framed as one about people with more privilege — straight white cis men — and people with less privilege: people of color, people with disabilities, women, and LGBTQ and gender non-binary folks.