Kenya-Jade Pinto is an Indo-Kenyan-Canadian storyteller whose training as a lawyer and professional experience as a photographer has deepened her craft as a filmmaker. She grew up chasing crabs on the Kenyan coast before moving to Alberta’s foothills as a teen. This hyphenated worldview informs her narrative and documentary focus on displacement and belonging in an increasingly interconnected world.

Kenya-Jade is National Geographic explorer and holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations as well as a Juris Doctor (cum laude) with a specialization in international law. Her feature documentary debut, The Sandbox, world premiered at CPH:DOX in March 2026 and is currently screening at festivals worldwide.

Kenya-Jade has participated in DOC Institute’s Breakthrough Program as well as HotDocs’ Emerging Filmmaker Program and Incubator. As a visual researcher, her work on Black Liberators WWII earned her a Canadian Screen Award.

She is a member of Women Photograph, Diversify Photo, the Visual Researchers Society of Canada and the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television.

filmmaker + photographer

‘The Sandbox’ Doc Director on Her “Story About Power” and Hope to Make Us Think About How We Choose to Use, or Not Use, Technology as a Tool

select press

How the U.S. is Tracking Migrants: Inside the Global Rise of Border Security Tech

One of the festival’s declared core values is the importance of employing curiosity and challenging the status quo. Niklas Engstrøm, [CPH:DOX]’s artistic director, points to Kenya-Jade Pinto’s “The Sandbox” as an example of a film that does that.