FILMS / FILMMAKERS (alphabetical order)

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Director 

Residing in Chicagoland, Illinois (USA) and originally from Lusaka, Zambia, Michelle Devon (pronounced 'de-ven' and formerly Michelle Dali), is a multimedia artist, filmmaker, and musician or producer. Heavily influenced by innovative artistic direction and imagery, Michelle's works draw from acclaimed film directors such as Christopher Nolan, Denis Villenueve, Akira Kurosawa, and more.

Producer / Dancer / Choreographer

Vivian Lee is a full time actress and runway model with ballet and theater background. Vivian was the recipient of the 2024 AAPI Heritage Award for Actress of the Year, Top Model for 2024 WV Fashion Week, and finalist for 2023 Ms. Health and Fitness. Vivian went to college to pursue her dance and theatre dream. While she walked out an accountant due to heavy encouragement by her good-hearted traditional Asian parents, she never lost her passion for dance. Since she returned to performing arts during COVID, Vivian has been wanting to make a music & dance film ever since to merge her passion.

Emma Lynne Tayao is a hobbyist filmmaker and, coincidentally, a mechanical engineering student at UC San Diego that is driven by creativity. What she loves most is to build and make things, whether it be robots, dance, or film. Emma is very excited to share Fools with the greater San Diego community, whether in dance or beyond!

Enrico Lampa Del Rosario is a UC San Diego graduate fueled by his passion for cultivating community and sharing his culture anywhere he goes. Even if he studied UI/UX design in university, that never hindered his love for dancing and creating outside that scope! Fools is a journey through Enrico's dancing narrative and he absolutely cannot wait to share his story.

Benjamin To is a writer, director, and founder of BAND WITH NO NAME Films. He hit the ground running right out of college when his AAPI profile documentary miniseries, Life Stories, was greenlit by NBC News for a 20 episode run. His digital and scripted work has been featured on platforms like Activision, Snapchat, and the Los Angeles Times.

Director Statement

The bones of the story for INFINITY! came to me when I was taking Asian American History courses in college. I was enthralled by the real life accounts of these WWII era, AAPI dancers who were passing for another ethnicity — when in actuality they were of Japanese descent. They ended up fleeing in order to avoid incarceration, and their dance careers were unjustly never the same since that fateful decision.

I’ve always fantasized what their final performance would have looked like…

Their entire lives represented in a singular, storybook-esque dance sequence: from the beginning of their love affair up until the very moment when they lost everything in the war.

This is why I love art that holds a mirror up to society. I made this film because I believe in the social immediacy, emotionality, and timeliness of the story. It’s meant to be expanded into a feature where we can explore these characters’ internal turmoil and their external triumphs in a classically maximalist yet tenderly rendered way.

I seek to actualize our feature goals because I loved musicals growing up, but it was often a genre where I didn't get to see many faces that looked like mine. I thought this was a way to celebrate AND reclaim this space by making something authentically Asian American.

Drawn to emotional depth and symbolism, Jovi Latini is guided by what he sees as the one true universal language: movement. His work often explores themes of identity, transformation, and human connection, merging cinematic imagery and expressive movement to create a tapestry of poetic imagery. Through his creative lens, Jovi attempts to invite the eyes watching to feel, reflect, and ultimately uncover new meanings within their own worlds; experiencing others stories through your own perspective, can be the most powerful version of storytelling.

Ashlynn Hultman is a technically trained dancer of 17 years, originally from Sacramento. She channeled her passion for dance into choreography, creating routines for her school’s dance shows and continued to teach after graduating. After taking some time away from dance, Ashlynn rediscovered her love for movement and co-directed project Solace.

“Choreography is an expression of a story and I love portraying that storyline through breath and movement.” 

Miguel Galvan is a San Diego-based choreographer, educator, and current emerging artist resident at Arts District Liberty Station. His work blends street and contemporary dance forms, creating space for personal expression, collaboration, and community dialogue. Miguel teaches throughout the San Diego dance scene, focusing on movement that is both technically grounded and deeply individual.

Megan Lowe (she/they) is a dancer, choreographer, performer, aerialist, singer-songwriter, filmmaker, teacher, and administrator of Chinese and Irish descent, making dance art in the San Francisco Bay Area, situated on unceded Ramaytush Ohlone land. Her creations through Megan Lowe Dances explore complex identities and experiences by tackling unusual physical situations and inventing  compelling solutions. Megan is a recipient of 2 Izzie Awards, and her recent choreographies have been seen at ODC, Fort Mason, de Young, Legion of Honor, and 500 Capp Street, and in SF Aerial Arts Festival, USAAF, CAAMFest, SF Trolley Dances, and on KQED Live. Megan has performed with Flyaway Productions, Dance Brigade, Lenora Lee Dance, Scott Wells & Dancers, and more. She is a teaching artist for Joe Goode Performance Group, BANDALOOP, Flyaway, and her alma mater Theater,  Dance, & Performance Studies at UC Berkeley, where she works as the Program Associate.

~ www.MeganLoweDances.com / IG: @MLoweDanceKitty

Rose Huey (they /she), is a third generation Chinese-American multidisciplincary artist living on occupied Lisjan Ohlone land. Rose believes in the pivotal role of artists as social change agents. She is a company dancer, teaching artist, and former Director of Education with the vertical dance company BANDALOOP. Rose has collaborated with Bay Area choreographers including Nina Haft, Hope Mohr, Blind Tiger Society, Mixd Ingrdnts, Kim Ip, Fog Beast. Rose co-directed Destiny Arts’ Elders Project, and is a founding member of Asian Babe Gang, a collective  centering queer voices of the Asian Diaspora. They were a 2021 CAC Emerging Artist and a Bridge Live Arts Board Member. Currently Rose and their sister Zoe, are EDGE Artists In Resident at CounterPulse, working on their upcoming show Trashflower, premiering in September 2025. 

~ IG: @RoseHuey

Nino Ferndandez is a photographer and cinematographer with over 20  years of freelance, corporate, and commercial experience. He is one of Oakland’s most creative and versatile artists. His deep understanding of music and movement, combined with high level graphic design skills allow him to cover a unique space in visual expression. His work has been featured in publications such as British Vogue, GQ, Tatler, L.A. Times, Nickelodeon and CBS, with clients that range from corporations like HP, East Bay MUD, Blue Shield of California to Grammy-winning  artists, The Alphabet Rockers and SFJazz Collective. Nino is also a professional musician with over 20 years of experience in both live and studio settings, commanding a variety of musical expressions that has made him a very busy sideman, and a very sought after collaborator within the music and arts community. As an immigrant artist himself, Nino brings an enriched perspective with his art. Having lived all over Asia, his exposure to different cultures and philosophies fosters a deeper and nuanced expression of identity in his storytelling.

~ www.NinoFernandez.com / IG: @ONino.Fehnuhndez

Li Chiao-Ping’s work has been praised in the NY Times, Village Voice, Dance Magazine, LA Times, Washington Post, & SF Bay Guardian. She “takes us to a different place in dance. The vision is both Asian and western, combining the essence of both worlds." (Martha's Vineyard  Times) Known for her originality, trademark physicality, humanism, & visual design, her work has been shown in major venues/festivals in the U.S. & abroad, including Jacob’s Pillow, Bates, American Dance Festival (ADF), Kennedy Center, Dance Place, Danspace Project, ODC Theater, CounterPulse, & around the world. Named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to watch”, Li Chiao-Ping is a multi-hyphenate artist, a 9-time NEA grant awardee, and a MAP Fund grant recipient, who creates layered works that combine multiple art forms to explore themes of culture and identity. Li was Director of Dance at Hollins College & former Chair of UW-Madison’s Dance Dept, where she continues to teach. Honored to be a recipient of an Outstanding Woman of Color in Education Award, NEA grants, & US representative in ADF’s International  Choreographer’s Program, Li’s work addresses topics of identity, diversity, inclusion, space, & place. She recently won the Best Direction Award for her screendance work “Provenance: A Letter to My  Daughter” from the 2023 Experimental Dance & Music Film Festival and Best Picture, Best Experimental Film, and Best Dance Film from the 2024 Los Angeles Chinatown International Film Festival for her most recent screendance work “in silence is the offering presented”. Recent projects include “DIRTY LAUNDRY”, which had its premiere in February 2025 and “Never Lost”, a new screendance work which is an official selection in  numerous festivals.

~ www.lcpdance.com

Rendro Aryo is an Indonesian Film Director with a great passion for films. Rendro was born in Batam, Indonesia on October 5, 1993. Rendro studied film and graduated from Faculty of Film and Television, Jakarta Institute of the Arts. His short films have been selected and won at various National and International Film Festivals. He has worked as a director and screenwriter for several production houses in Indonesia. 
In 2019, Rendro founded independent production company  Cahaya Films. Rendro continues to actively make short films, documentaries and  commercial advertisements. 
Now Rendro is preparing his first feature film.

Director Statement

My mother and I tried to make a dance film together. This film is the first film of our collaboration to make dance film together. Dances, poetry and sunset bring a beautiful memory that can be remembered forever. Every movement is a freedom. Every move is a beauty. This film is a gift from me to my mother who taught me to love cinema, poetry and dance.

I hope people who watch this film can feel the beauty of poetry, dance and sunset together. This film is like a therapy for me and my mother. I hope this film can be therapy for everyone. During a pandemic, we must deal with fear and anxiety. This film was made after all of us fight in pandemic situation and we live in new normal condition. I believe by dancing we relieve fear and anxiety. By dancing in nature we are hope for freedom and beauty in our everyday life.

Henry Mak is a filmmaker of Cantonese descent who lives in Toronto. He often works within the realm of contemporary dance. His work has screened at several festivals including the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival, Reelworld Toronto, and Homescreen Movement Film Festival. 

Returning River creates movement based work on the body and the camera lens.  It is collaborative effort between dance artists Emily Law, Jen Hum, Naishi Wang and Pam Wong with videographer Henry Mak and support from Andrea Nann.  With inspirations fed by the stories and viewpoints relating to different points of entry into being a Contemporary Chinese Canadian, the group is dedicated to exploring space, place, geography, technology and how they are linked. How are they all linked to cultural background, ancestry, upbringing, identity, present day encounters and what is the language used to express all this? Their artistic works have been presented at The Collective Space, Array Space, Dance:Made in Canada and the Pivot Series by Public Energy Performing Arts. They presented their film Night Scrolling at Asiate en court, part of Festival Acces Asie and co-produced and presented the artistic and community event Harvest Moon Gathering.

Jess McNely is a collaborative dance-maker, educator, and recent graduate with an MFA in Dance from Saint Mary's College. Her research focuses on elevating foundational American street and club genres, with the intent to share dance history that is often overlooked. Through interactive and imaginative movement vocabulary, she uses whacking as her primary dance language. Jess is a performing arts educator in the San Diego Unified School District, as well as at Culture Shock, a local hip hop focused, non-profit organization. Additionally, she is the Assistant Director and an Administrative Lead for THAE, a performing arts collective that is driven by social justice and accessible artistic development.

Director Statement

As a Filipino Artist, I gravitate towards collaborative works that center on narratives of friendship and resilience. My art is oriented towards joy with an aim to gather members of my community in dance practices that enhance our well-being and social awareness. I use American street and club dances to connect with and learn from other movers. Whacking, a picturesque dance characterized by arm techniques that originated in the 1970s gay clubs, is my primary dance language. In this dance, I demonstrate my largest kinesphere as a way of affirming myself and allowing myself to be seen by others. I share energy through playful gestures. My choreographic process is conditioned by fun with dance-making as a game-like experience that is always at its best in the presence of others and the ideas they generously share.

Joanna Ruckman is an anti-disciplinary artist, designer, and educator. She creates art to further social justice, anti-racism, and  human rights. Her current projects aim to disrupt mainstream mentalities, amplify traditional wisdoms, and create more feminine beauty.

A multimedia artist, she explores a wide variety of artistic tools, and weaves together diverse media. She is currently focusing on documentary film-making and printmaking, but her works also include  murals, social engagement, and sculpture.