[6][7] Her other documentaries include The Hand That Feeds (2014), about undocumented immigrant workers in a labor dispute with owners at a Manhattan bakery café, and To the End (2022), about climate change.
[14] Lears wrote original music for The Mystery Keys, along with a variety of musicians based in New York City and Montevideo, Uruguay from 2006 to 2010.
[15] Lears has collaborated with artist Saya Woolfalk on video art projects that have screened at numerous international galleries and museums since 2008.
According to the company's website, the production house's mission is "to tell smart, nuanced, entertaining stories that transcend borders, engage audiences from all walks of life, and challenge popular assumptions".
[19] The Hand That Feeds (2014) chronicles Undocumented immigrant workers who spar with their employers over low wages and poor work conditions.
Mahoma Lopez and other workers at a Hot & Crusty bakery café in New York City send a list of demands to the owners and attempt to unionize after a period of silence.
After two months of negotiations with Iluzzi, the Hot & Crusty location reopens with an updated contract between workers and owners that includes a voice in the hiring process and other increased benefits.
[24] The Hand That Feeds premiered at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival on April 5, 2014, where it won the Audience Award for Best Feature.
[30] Odie Henderson, writing for RogerEbert.com, said that "It has a beautiful, low-key approach that earns its cheers and tears without resorting to the manipulative or dramatic tricks of a typical feature film.
"[20] Diana Clarke of Village Voice praised the strength of Lopez as a character, noting that he is a “singularly tender, compelling, and articulate campaigner in this high-stakes struggle for justice",[31] while Jen Chaney of The Dissolve commented on Lears and Blotnick's ability to build the documentary around an ensemble cast.
She reached out to Brand New Congress and Justice Democrats to find “charismatic female candidates who weren't career politicians, but had become newly galvanized to represent their communities”.
[36] Knock Down the House was supported by The Doc Society, IDA Enterprise Documentary Fund, Artemis Rising Foundation, Chicago Media Project, Wavelength Productions.
[45] Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times praised the “excellent job of weaving in the stories of the three equally impressive candidates” and called Ocasio-Cortez "the unquestioned star of the stirring and inspirational documentary".
[46] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times noted that Lears "captured lightning in a bottle and now shows us the very genuine person behind the media firestorm".
[47] Kate Erbland of IndieWire praised the film's climactic moments, observing that the conclusion "has all the joy of anything written for the big screen, the kind of crowd-pleasing, fist-pumping, jaw-dropping final sequence of events that prove how much more compelling real-life can be than its fictionalized counterparts".