ABOUT ME

After immigrating to the United States at the age of five, I had no idea how to communicate with the people around me. In a new country, surrounded by so much that I didn’t know, I found comfort in watching movies. Maybe I didn’t understand what the characters were saying, but I understood how it felt. Films were clearly a visual and emotional form of communication that transcended language.

So when it came time to decide what I wanted to do with my life, I wasn’t quite sure which route I wanted to take. Until I thought back to my first few years in this country, about how I felt watching those movies with my mother and how much they affected me. Clearly, filmmaking and visual storytelling were things that I loved.

That led to me buying my first camera, a Canon 60D, and just trying out everything. What did this angle look like? How long should I hold this shot for? What happens if I put my subject over there? Trial and error. I definitely didn’t know what I was doing at first, but I persisted.

Eventually, I moved to San Francisco and started getting to know what a camera could do. I fell into the tight-knit LGBTQ+ community and started using my camera to communicate stories that needed to be told. In 2015, a short documentary I made about the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence garnered some attention. That inspired me to keep moving forward along the filmmaking path until I found myself where I am today.