Johnny Symons

The San Francisco Bay resident is the co-producer of the Academy-Award-nominated, Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning documentary Long Night's Journey Into Day (2000) about South Africa's search for truth and reconciliation. Symons's career has focused on creating films that reveal the complexities of gay culture, including Daddy and Papa (2002), an Emmy- and Sundance Grand Jury Prize-nominated documentary on the phenomenon of gay fatherhood in America, and Ask Not (2008), an exploration of the military's 'don't ask, don't tell' policy told through the personal stories of those who have been affected by it. Both films broadcast on PBS' Independent Lens series. He is also the director of Beyond Conception (2006), a Discovery Health Channel film about navigating the complex relationship between a lesbian surrogate and a gay male couple looking to conceive. His earlier films include Beauty Before Age (1997), about the gay male community's fear of growing older, Shaving the Castro (1995), about a barber shop in San Francisco's "gayborhood", and Out in Africa (1994), about black African gay life.