Narrative Feature Jurors
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Bunthay Cheam
Bunthay Cheam is a 1.5 generation Khmer refugee from Cambodia. He grew up in Seattle and is a graduate of the University of Washington. He is a co-founder of the Khmer Anti-deportation Advocacy Group. Bunthay enjoys storytelling which he practices through poetry, theatre, film, and journalism. He is a freelance writer with bylines in Crosscut, the South Seattle Emerald, the International Examiner, and more. In his free time, Bunthay enjoys traveling with his family whether it’s in the mountains on the peninsula & Cascades or in another country.
Cecilia R. Mejia
Cecilia R. Mejia is a second-generation Filipino-American born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She has worked for over a decade in development for nonprofit organizations. With her master’s degree in Public Administration and Affairs, she’s worked with grassroots organizations and has produced many films focusing on critical social impact issues. Cecilia’s passion for film and philanthropy collide in much of her work including her work as the Co-Founder of an arts-focused nonprofit, Art of Me; teaching Impact Producing and Producing at NYU; and her work as the owner of Remedias Productions focused on social impact storytelling and producing. She was recently brought on as the first Impact Director for the Asian American Documentary Network.
Wynton Wong
Wynton Wong is a storyteller and programmer across a variety of mediums and organizations. She currently works as a multimedia producer at the nonprofit newsroom, The 19th News.
Documentary Feature Jurors
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Kalei'okalani (Kalei) Matsui
Kalei’okalani (Kalei) Matsui is a Black, Japanese, Chinese, and Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) woman born and raised in Wai`anae, O`ahu and residing now in the Duwamish lands of Des Moines, Washington. She is a survivor of domestic violence and child sex abuse. She is a proud descendant, wife, and māmā. A storyteller, dancer, artist, and educator, Kalei is the leader of Huraiti Mana, a Polynesian Dance Troupe practicing decolonization and collective empowerment. Through ancestral wisdom and movement of the Indigenous Pacific, Huraiti Mana fosters cultural pride and empowers dancers in mind, body, and spirit. Huraiti Mana’s mission is to reconnect everyone to their culture and original identity so that we may all recognize the homes within our hearts.
Andrew Hollister
Andrew Hollister is a Cambodian American MA student at the University of Washington’s Southeast Asia Center. Now based in Seattle, he was born in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and raised in Orange County, CA. His research is on contemporary Khmer cinema and visual culture, focusing mostly on mutual support networks between Phnom Penh artists and how young artists build community. He also studies how Khmer films are distributed and received both in Cambodia and internationally. Aside from grad school, Andrew is interested in arts programming and education as a way to connect diaspora communities. He worked as co-curator for the Southeast Asia Center’s SEAxSEA Film Festival in 2022.
Bao Nguyen
Bao Nguyen (he/him) was born in Sai Gon, Viet Nam and immigrated to the US in the mid 90s. He grew up in the White Center neighborhood of South Seattle with his family. After getting a Bachelor in Chemistry from UW he worked in various local nonprofits where he learned about community building, social justice, and leadership. He returned to grad school for a Masters in Leadership for Sustainability from the University of Vermont before going on to open Phin, a Vietnamese coffee shop in Little Saigon. He currently works at the cafe as he explores the intersection of entrepreneurship, social change, spirituality, and his Vietnamese identity.
Narrative Shorts Jurors
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Joann Natalia Aquino
Joann Natalia Aquino is a writer, a publicist, an arts marketer, and a traveling freelance journalist covering lifestyle including the arts, food, travel and wellness. She has over 25 years experience in the communications field from writing and editing, to public relations, marketing and community engagement. She is a lifelong student of life, traditional healing practices, plant medicine, indigenous foodways and pre-colonial Philippine traditions. Committed to mind-body-spirit holistic health, Joann is trained as an herbalist, a birth and postpartum doula and in various healing modalities.
Al’n Duong
Al’n Duong is an award-winning Vietnamese American film producer from Seattle, best known for his work producing the critically acclaimed kung-fu action comedy, The Paper Tigers. The film holds a 98% certified fresh rating and was named the #6 Best Asian American Film of All-Time by Rotten Tomatoes. He is a graduate of the University of Washington, focusing his studies in postmodern cinema and martial arts films. Outside of the film industry, Al’n has a wealth of experience in the games industry, working as cinematics producer for the Magic: the Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons franchises. He is currently producing several action film, feature documentary, and travel show projects.
Falefia Jr. Brandon Fuamatu
Falefia Jr. Brandon Fuamatu is Tagata Pasefika with Samoan and Chinese ancestry. He comes from the village of Pava’ia’i in Tutuila, American Samoa. Falefia is a classically trained opera singer and arts administrator, and is setting groundwork in his community as a Pasefika orator and creative. Navigating the Moana (Pacific Ocean) communities of diaspora, his interests are in creating a platform and foundation for Tagata Pasefika and other minority groups. Working towards creative directing and curating inclusive and respectfully-disruptive artwork(s) that centers on queer+ identity, indigeneity, and modern-world navigation through a Pasefika lens, he aims to foster and uplift community spaces that champion the diversity and perseverance of the Melanesian, Micronesian, and Polynesian people.
Documentary Shorts Jurors
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Jessica Rubenacker
Jessica Rubenacker is currently the Exhibit Director for the Wing Luke Museum and a guest instructor through the UW Museology Graduate Program. She also serves on the Washington Museum Association board and Historic South Downtown board and has a penchant for house plants and vegan cooking.
Yin Yu
Yin Yu is an organizer with CID Coalition & volunteers with Eggrolls at ChuMinh Tofu. Born in Taipei, Taiwan. Grew up where Treaty of Point Elliott was signed at bəqɬtiyu/Buk-wil-tee-whu (Mukilteo) of Snohomish people.
Eseel Borlasa
Eseel Borlasa (she/her) is a film publicist and arts producer. She currently serves as a Sr. Programmer (Artist + Exhibitions) for Visual Communications, home to the VC Archives and the LA Asian Pacific Film Festival (LAAPFF). Eseel produced the place-based documentaries Walking With Grace and Bronze, Brass, Jazz – 360° video pieces that center Little Tokyo. She also produced the Suite VC programming, as part of VC’s official partnership with the Sundance Film Festival. Eseel is a co-founder and partner of After Bruce, a boutique PR agency.
