Araceli Seager and Adelaide Burrows
Welcome to IDA Member Spotlight, a monthly interview series highlighting IDA members and showcasing the depth and diversity of our community. This month, we had the pleasure of speaking with Araceli Seager and Adelaide Burrows.
Araceli Seager is a Los Angeles-based emerging documentary filmmaker making up one half of Potential Films. She graduated from Loyola Marymount University in 2023 with a bachelor’s degree in film, television, and media studies; she later earned a master’s degree in screenwriting from Trinity College, Dublin in 2025. She has directed and produced three short documentaries, including Pole (2022), Just Wanted to Say (2023), and The Blueprint (2024). Her work often explores themes of gender, identity, and social change through an intimate, character-driven lens geared toward building a more equitable future. With Potential Films, she works to uplift new talent and continue making culturally and politically relevant documentaries. She is currently working on her first two feature-length films, The Institute and Peter Wants to Be a Feminist.
Adelaide Burrows is a director and producer whose documentary work highlights intimate narratives that spark broader cultural and political conversations. She began her filmmaking journey at Loyola Marymount University, where she studied film production and directed her first documentary, Visiting (2022), which captures the history and humanity embedded within a small German town through its cemetery and community traditions. Since then, Burrows has collaborated with her producing partner, Araceli Seager, to co-found Potential Films—a production company dedicated to championing independent creators and amplifying stories with social and political resonance. She has two feature-length documentaries set to premiere in 2026. Through her work, Burrows continues to pursue films that challenge perspectives, center underrepresented voices, and offer audiences a meaningful point of connection
IDA: Please tell us a little about yourselves, your professions, and passions.
ADELAIDE BURROWS: Araceli and I are a filmmaking duo based in Los Angeles. In 2023, we started our production company, Potential Films, which focuses primarily on documentary filmmaking. On paper, I am a director, and Araceli is a producer, but more often than not, we are co-producing and co-directing. We met in college through a documentary study abroad program in Bonn, Germany. After graduation, we decided to continue our collaboration, and it has been going well so far (fingers crossed). We are passionate about telling impactful stories, but we also feel a responsibility to bring light and joy into the process. Documentary filmmaking can be exhausting and isolating. We want to change that for the next generation of filmmakers, so having fun is a top priority for us.
IDA: What drew you both to documentary filmmaking?
AB: I think our initial draw to documentary filmmaking was the idea that all you need is a camera and a story. Our first documentaries were films that could never have been done with a huge crew and lights, and trailers. The intimacy of the stories called for an intimate filmmaking process, and the results were thrilling for us. With this intimacy comes a connection between subject and viewer that just isn’t possible anywhere else, and this becomes especially important when you want your film to have a social impact. This was the next pull for us into the documentary world. It is the combination of activism and storytelling that makes us feel passionate about creating documentaries. Change is made through relationships, and documentaries create a true relationship between subject and viewer. Audiences leave a documentary ready to enact change for the person they didn’t know a couple of hours before. That is powerful. Finally, the documentary community has been incredibly welcoming and encouraging as we’ve begun this journey. They empower us and fuel our passion for documentary filmmaking every day.
IDA: You have many projects in the pipeline through your production company. Could you tell us a bit about how you started working together and your role at Potential Films?
ARACELI SEAGER: We started working together in 2022 when we both attended a documentary program through our university in Bonn, Germany. As soon as we got on a shoot together, our chemistry was almost too organic. We would constantly joke, pointing out instances in our day-to-day lives that would make for a great documentary. Like the random elderly couple making out on the train: “That's a potential film.” When we both finished our studies and got serious about working together, we decided on a name quite organically: Potential Films. The company is basically a two-woman show. We handle everything from initial budgets to final edits together. One day, our dream is to expand and have more of a team. But for now, we’re more than happy to be able to make it work with just one another.
IDA: What does your collaboration as co-directors look like?
AB: It has been really interesting because we started out just as best friends. We did everything together already. When we decided to work together, it made the most sense to operate as co-directors and co-producers on most of our projects, because we are constantly collaborating on everything. This doesn’t always work, especially on bigger projects where the division of labor is more important to stay on schedule. When filming our upcoming documentary, The Institute, we were on location for months in Washington, D.C., in extremely stressful situations. Araceli took over the producer role, while I focused on directing. On our other film, Peter Wants to Be a Feminist, we’ve created a special bond with our subject and feel incredibly attached to the project. Each of us is called to different aspects of the story. We give each other the opportunity to take creative control whenever inspiration strikes. This has been a good exercise in leaving our ego at the door. We are there to tell the story, and we want the story to shine through in whatever way possible.
IDA: Tell us a little about Peter Wants to Be a Feminist. How did you start working on the project?
AS: We started working on Peter Wants to Be a Feminist in 2024 when our friend Miles’ father reached out with a great documentary idea for us. He explained that he wanted to spread the word about gender inequality (right up our alley) through a history-of-women type video. We soon learned that he was only recently finding out about the relevance of gender inequality in today’s society and that all issues did not just end with the Suffragettes. That is when we decided to pull out the cameras as soon as possible and start documenting Peter’s journey learning the ins and outs of feminism. We have been filming for about a year and a half and hope to be done shooting by the end of next year.
IDA: What are you hoping to achieve through your work and projects at Potential Films?
AS: With Potential Films, we aim to champion stories that foster unity and advocate for equity across all communities. Our mission is rooted in the belief that meaningful storytelling can create real social impact, and we’re committed to amplifying voices that are often overlooked in mainstream media.
We also prioritize collaborating with individuals who may not have extensive filmmaking experience but bring genuine passion, lived insight, and a desire to grow within the craft. By creating an inclusive and supportive creative environment, we hope to cultivate new talent, broaden the perspectives represented in our work, and build a collective dedicated to shaping a more thoughtful and equitable future. We believe creativity in filmmaking flourishes when people feel safe and supported, so we’ve created an environment intentionally different from the harshness that can define parts of the industry. We strive to create a space where collaboration outweighs ego and emerging voices are nurtured, not silenced.
IDA: What is next for you? Are you working on anything you can share with us?
AB: Our debut feature documentary, The Institute, is set to premiere early next year. This film follows a summer program in Washington, D.C. for young Black men called The Institute for Responsible Citizenship. The film follows the scholars in the program, some of the country’s best and brightest students, as they navigate the intensity of the program and build a brotherhood that will last a lifetime. We are excited to finally put this out into the world and have something to show for all the work we’ve done through Potential Films. Peter Wants to Be a Feminist is still in production, although we are hoping to wrap up in Fall 2026. We are starting a crowdfunding campaign in February to scrape up the last of the funds we need to finish the film and get through postproduction.
Outside of the documentary space, we also directed and produced a music video for up-and-coming pop artist Sabrina Who that will be released in the new year as well. Keep an eye out for that. She’s an amazing artist, and we had a blast putting the video together. The song is called “Chest.” In addition to these projects, we are excited to continue learning and growing our community in the documentary space.