Max Barbakow is a director and writer in Los Angeles, CA. Max earned his MFA in Directing from the AFI Conservatory, trained with Werner Herzog at Escuela Internacional de CineTV in Cuba, and is a graduate of Yale University. Palm Springs, his narrative feature debut, premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, where it was acquired by NEON and Hulu. He also wrote and directed Mommy, I'm a Bastard! (2013), an autobiographical feature documentary about his adoption.