Director Mike Cahill was born in New Haven, CT in 1979. During his college years at Georgetown University, Cahill began an internship with National Geographic Television and Film, and soon became their youngest field producer and cinematographer. Also at Georgetown during Cahill's time there was actress Brit Marling. The two met at a Georgetown film festival and went on to collaborate on a number of short films together, including "Boxers and Ballerinas" (2004), which documented the lives of 4 characters in an effort to describe and examine the conflict between Cuba and the United States. After graduating, Cahill went on two edit two feature music documentaries: "Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man" (2005), and "Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out" (2006). "Another Earth" (2011), Cahill's debut feature as director, starred Marling and focused on a young woman learning about a parallel "second Earth" in the wake of a traumatic life experience. The film was so well received at the Sundance Film Festival that Fox Searchlight Pictures selected it for distribution. Cahill's follow-up effort "I Origins" (2014) was awarded the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and was also distributed by Fox Searchlight.