Films
The stories that chose me.
The slow half of my practice — five years on a feature, a decade on a subject. Documentaries I make when no one is paying me to make them.
Feature documentary
50 Years of Fabulous.
The 50-year LGBTQ civil rights movement, told through the Imperial Council of San Francisco. Frameline 38 Official Selection, QDocs 2018 Opening Film, 20+ festivals, distributed by Frameline for educational youth programs, available on PBS and JustWatch.
In development · premiering 2027
The Long Rescue.
Filmed over ten years in Cebu, Philippines, with Filipina teen survivors of sex trafficking living in a secret shelter — as they dream of family and romance, and face the communities that failed them.
IDFA Producers Connection, Gotham Week, FIFDH Impact Days (2024). DOC NYC Storytelling Incubator, Film Independent CNN Docu-Series Intensive (2022). Winner, Chicago Pitch & Movies That Matter (2021).
Documentary short
My Revolutionary Mother.
A filmmaker confronts his mother — a political activist in the Philippines — about his childhood abandonment. A short on immigration, assimilation, and reconciliation.
Producer, director, editor. CAAM Fest 2014, Cinemalaya 2015. Best Documentary Short, Boston Asian American Film Festival 2015. Named one of Pinoy Rebyu's ten best Philippine documentaries of 2015.
Documentary
SF Pride — mini documentary series
Commissioned by SF Pride (2016–2019) — 25 shorts I produced, shot, and edited on community grand marshals and the people behind the parade.
Labs, fellowships, programs.
- 2024The Long Rescue — fellowships
IDFA Producers Connection · Gotham Week · FIFDH Impact Days
- 2022The Long Rescue — fellowships
DOC NYC Storytelling Incubator · Film Independent CNN Docu-Series Intensive
- 2021The Long Rescue — awards
Winner · Chicago Pitch & Movies That Matter
- 2016BAVC National MediaMaker Fellowship
Fellow · #MyNameIs