American Worker: The Labor to Belong
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | Film Feature
Documentary, History
Set within today’s political upheaval and economic instability, AMERICAN WORKER examines a pivotal cultural question: who counts as an American worker, and how has that definition been constructed and enforced over time?
American Worker: The Labor to Belong
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | Film Feature
Documentary, History
1 Campaigns | Pennsylvania, United States
42 supporters | followers
Enter the amount you would like to pledge
$3,500
Goal: $4,000 for post-production
Set within today’s political upheaval and economic instability, AMERICAN WORKER examines a pivotal cultural question: who counts as an American worker, and how has that definition been constructed and enforced over time?
Participating In
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
***To qualify for an additional $12,500, we need 350 followers! Can you help us reach that goal by hitting the follow button? Every follower counts!***
The first time you hear my voice, it plays over present-day ICE raids and scenes of sanctioned state violence in the U.S., "Protecting American Worker" rhetoric, folded together as if happening all at once. “I never understood why some workers deserve better, while some workers deserve…this.” That inquiry becomes my way into the story – my starting point.
My name is Thien. I’m a filmmaker based in the United States. My family is here because the U.S. dropped more than just American-made bombs in Southeast Asia, where I was born. The U.S. also planted ideas of the American Dream.
For the past 4 years, I’ve been working on a documentary called AMERICAN WORKER. This film provides a personal and politically urgent interrogation of the myth making behind the American Dream, and asks a simple question:
How did the story of the American worker get written — and who was left out?
To answer this question, we meet AAPI workers across the country — workers whose lives are shaped by migration, organizing, and domestic work. Through their stories, we witness the realities of labor today and begin to reimagine who the American working class really is in a time of deepening inequality and political divide.
Throughout the film, historians weave analysis into the visual story to unravel the myth that we have been taught. Historians reflect on how race, fear, and economic insecurity shaped the national identity of the American Worker. Their voices weave the rarely-seen-together archival materials to contextualize the racialized labor that made way for this moment. Behind the camera, I pose questions that break down the boundaries between expert and witness, past and present.
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The film unfolds in three acts anchored by my narration. In the final act, contemporary organizing mirrors past defiance. Through these juxtapositions, AMERICAN WORKER shows that history is not behind us. It’s unfolding again, in new forms that demand we reckon with the old narratives still holding us back.
In times of political and economic crisis, immigrant and nonwhite workers are scapegoated and treated as disposable. This film is our response to this critical moment in history. It challenges racialized myths, redefines the U.S. working class, and reclaims the dignity of workers who keep this country running.
This story feels urgent because it’s personal. As we make this film, we’re asking how the legacies of racial capitalism and labor exploitation show up in the lives of people who look like us. We see it in the precarity facing AAPI, immigrant, and other nonwhite workers. They are our families, our communities, living with the fear of deportation and shrinking access to healthcare, housing, and labor protections. We see it in who is pushed into caregiving, food service, agriculture, and gig work – the essential jobs that hold up this country, yet are rarely seen as the face of the “American worker.”
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Stories shape what people imagine is possible. By reframing AAPI and immigrant workers not as exceptions but as leaders, we aim to transform both cultural narratives and movement strategies. If successful, this film would ignite a shift in public consciousness: making immigrant labor visible, exposing racialized myths that divide workers, and inspiring a new generation to claim interracial, transnational solidarity. We see this documentary as a narrative intervention, challenging who gets to be seen as "American," "working class," and a protagonist in the fight for a multiracial democracy.
Our goal at this stage is simple: to raise funds to complete our post-production. We have worked independently up until this point, and now, we need your help!
We have now completed a first rough cut of the film with our editor, and are taking time to review this cut internally with our team as well as with a group of trusted colleagues. While we remain on schedule, our focus at this stage is on raising funds to sustain the edit and to plan our impact campaign.
Meeting (or even surpassing) our Seed&Spark campaign goal of $3,000 raised would mean that our project would be eligible for the AAPI Renaissance Rally (presented by Seed&Spark x Gold House). $3,000 would also contribute to the much-needed animation costs that will make our film come to life.
Beyond that:
- If we hit $10,000, we’d be able to pay for a Colorist, Title Graphics, and a Sounds mix.
- If we hit $20,000, that money would go towards either a Composer & Animation, or 8 additional weeks with our Editor.
- If we hit $40,000, we can do both of the above, and get just that much closer to getting our film out in the world.
In parallel with post-production, we have begun outreach to AAPI, immigrant, and labor organizations to start building networks of communities who will watch and share the film once it is finished. We intend to invite these partners into the process early through test screenings, ensuring that the film resonates and reflects their perspectives. Would you want to be part of these test screenings? Please pledge and donate so we can continue to keep you in the loop for any upcoming screenings!
 (2).jpg)
(An excerpt screening in 2025. Photo: CineSpeak)
You can support the film by pledging to support our campaign, following our social media (IG: @americanworkerfilm), and sharing it with your friends, family, coworkers, so that they may do the same.
Here’s a sample social media post so you can share more easily:
When you hear the phrase “Protecting American Workers,” who is the American Worker you’re imagining? How have race and labor shaped America’s story of work? Where do AAPI and immigrant workers fit in that story? Support the completion of @americanworkerfilm on @seedandspark: www.seedandspark.com/fund/americanworkerfilm.
Thank you for all your support!
In Solidarity,
Thien Dinh, John Beder, and the rest of the AMERICAN WORKER team
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
10 Minutes of Original Animations (Human Made)
Costs $2,000
Help us pay an animator to create beautiful original images to accompany our story.
Closed Captioning (Human Made)
Costs $1,500
Accurate and high quality closed captions for accessibility. We want to pay an expert to help us generate these without the use of AI.
Poster Design (Human Made)
Costs $500
An original poster designed by an experienced graphic designer for drawing audiences to our film.
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Director: Thien Dinh (they/them) is a cultural worker, Vietnamese immigrant, artist, and award-winning filmmaker based in Philadelphia. They have spent over a decade in immigrant and labor organizing, working alongside communities to help people tell their own stories. In recent years, they have stepped behind the camera, bringing together a deep love of history and a commitment to justice-forward storytelling. Their films explore race, class, and migration, centering the unrelenting humanity of everyday people. Thien is a 2025 Brown Girls Doc Mafia (BGDM) Sustainable Artist Fellow. Their short documentary film “FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD” won "Best Film from the Frontlines" at the 2025 Workers Unite Film Festival. They illustrated Taking Root (premiered at Tribeca in 2023) and continue to contribute to media for social justice campaigns. AMERICAN WORKER is Thien Dinh’s feature documentary debut.
Producer: John Beder (he/him) is an Emmy Award winning filmmaker whose works have been published by The New York Times, PBS, and Al Jazeera, and have been official selections at 14 Oscar qualifying film festivals. His documentaries explore themes of resistance, social justice, medicine, and substance use, often illuminating overlooked or underrepresented voices with care and urgency. His latest film, How to Sue the Klan, a collaboration with renowned civil rights attorney Ben Crump, won an NAACP Image Award and tells the story of five Black women who helped bring down a local Klan chapter through a pivotal civil suit. He previously directed Dying in Your Mother’s Arms, an Emmy nominated co-production with The New York Times about pediatric palliative care. John is the co-founder of Bedrock Productions and an active member of the Asian American Documentary Network, the Documentary Producers Alliance, and The Video Consortium.
Producer: Anthony Banua-Simon is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and editor who’s a 2024 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Video/Film. He was also named one of Filmmaker Magazine's 2021 "25 New Faces of Independent Film" and DOC NYC's 2022 "40 Under 40". His debut feature documentary, Cane Fire, was an official selection of the 2020 Hot Docs International Film Festival as well as the 2021 MoMA Doc Fortnight and won "Best Documentary Feature" at the 2020 Indie Memphis Film Festival and the 2021 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. Cane Fire is distributed theatrically by Cinema Guild and was available to stream on The Criterion Channel. The film has received praise in RogerEbert.com, The Wrap, Jacobin, Film Threat, and Hyperallergic among several other outlets. His short documentary about two former workers of the Domino Sugar Refinery, Third Shift, won "Best Short Documentary" at the 2014 Brooklyn Film Festival and was previously streaming on The Criterion Channel. He's featured in The New York Times, BOMB Magazine, Screen Slate, Pioneer Works Broadcast, and HuffPost.
Anthony attended The Evergreen State College and was a fellow at the UnionDocs Collaborative Studio Program. He taught film editing at The State University of New York at Purchase and was a member of the volunteer-run Spectacle Theater in Brooklyn, NY. His current project, The Experiment Station, has received funding from both NYSCA and the Jerome Foundation.
Editor: Brian Redondo is a documentary filmmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. His work as director, cinematographer, and editor has screened at Sundance, Blackstar, Full Frame, and DOC NYC film festivals and has been broadcast on Max, Netflix, CNN and PBS. His recent credits include editing the feature docs DEATH & TAXES from director Justin Schein and BRIEF TENDER LIGHT from director Arthur Musah. He also produced and edited the Max food doc series TAKE OUT WITH LISA LING. He directed the award-winning short doc KEEP SARAY HOME (Best Doc Short at Newburyport, Seattle Asian American, and Philadelphia Asian American Film Festivals) as well as multiple Vimeo Staff Picked shorts including JES FAN IN FLUX and AZIKIWE MOHAMMED IS A GUY WHO MAKES STUFF. He was formerly the Senior Editor at The New Yorker magazine, where he was a producer on the Emmy-award winning interactive doc RE-EDUCATED.
Co-Writer: Sophie Song (they/she) is a queer gender Chinese American organizer and policy professional from Philadelphia. Sophie is the founder of the APALA Philadelphia chapter where they spent years organizing and developing the leadership of Asian American workers in their community. They got their start organizing at Asian Americans United, a Philadelphia Chinatown based community organization. They have spent the last 7 years as an organizer and policy advocate spanning issues such as workers rights, civic engagements, immigrant rights, artificial intelligence and abolition in both Asian American and other marginalized communities. Currently they are based in DC where they have worked in federal policy advocacy for the United States Congress, the AFL-CIO and the Working Families Party.
Archival Producer: Caitlin Riggsbee (she/her) has worked on exciting and critically acclaimed projects for distributors such as AppleTV+, HBO and PBS a include Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr., Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and The Vow.Current work includes a documentary about the disappearing jury trial (One Angry Man, in production), as well as a documentary about Philadelphia’s efforts to curb illegal dumping and manage its waste (In Excess, 2026).
Cinematographer: Born and raised in the South, Jane Macedo Yang (she/they) is a queer Chinese-Cambodian/Mexican-American filmmaker and cinematographer, and also deeply experienced in editing and producing. As the daughter of a refugee and immigrants, she aims to highlight underrepresented stories and voices, as well as stories focused on social justice and international issues, the environment and our connection to it, and on identity and community. Her work has been featured on an Emmy-award winning series on PBS, Netflix, Snapchat, National Geographic, and others. Jane was a 2022 Jackson Wild Media Lab Fellow and 2022 newportFILM: Documentary Cinematographer Lab Fellow.
Cinematographer: Lou Nakasako worked as a camera assistant on both CRIP CAMP, which premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, and HBO’s WE ARE THE DREAM: THE KIDS OF OAKLAND MLK ORATORICAL FEST. He was the assistant director on FREELAND, which premiered at the 2020 SXSW Film Festival, and a co-editor on Michael Siv’s DAZE OF JUSTICE, which aired on PBS’s DocWorld program in 2019. His short narrative film, BROTHERS, which won UCLA's award for Best Undergraduate Screenplay, was screened in the prestigious UCLA Directors Spotlight as one of the program’s top nine films of the year, and went on to play at numerous film festivals, among them CAAMFest, Los Angeles Asian Pacific American Film Festival, and Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival.
Cinematographer: Jhad Villena is a camera assistant & operator, photographer, digitech, and DIT based in Texas. Jhad is the Director of AS WE LEAVE, IT FOLLOWS, a narrative project produced by TAMARIND and supported by the Austin Film Society. Jhad's work has also been provided for ABC, AT&T, Allstate, CTIA, Choctaw Casinos, Dallas Mavericks, Filmsupply, Food Network, Gatorade, Magnolia Network, Main Event, Monkeypaw Productions, Netflix, NFL, Six Flags, Toyota, The Players’ Tribune, Vox Media, and many others.
Consulting Producer: Alexandra Ashworth (she/they) is a Jewish, Filipinx-American adoptee. They are a filmmaker and writer exploring community, belonging, and identity and often collaborate with artists and activists, approaching personal topics such as queerness, diaspora, and family from a communal lens. She is a Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling Fellow, working alongside local researchers and community leaders in Cagayan Valley (Philippines) to preserve Ibanag and Itawit cultures. She has worked with HuffPost, the MET, MOMA, and the Brooklyn Museum, and is the associate producer of the films FIRE THROUGH DRY GRASS and WHAT THE PIER GAVE US.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
***To qualify for an additional $12,500, we need 350 followers! Can you help us reach that goal by hitting the follow button? Every follower counts!***
The first time you hear my voice, it plays over present-day ICE raids and scenes of sanctioned state violence in the U.S., "Protecting American Worker" rhetoric, folded together as if happening all at once. “I never understood why some workers deserve better, while some workers deserve…this.” That inquiry becomes my way into the story – my starting point.
My name is Thien. I’m a filmmaker based in the United States. My family is here because the U.S. dropped more than just American-made bombs in Southeast Asia, where I was born. The U.S. also planted ideas of the American Dream.
For the past 4 years, I’ve been working on a documentary called AMERICAN WORKER. This film provides a personal and politically urgent interrogation of the myth making behind the American Dream, and asks a simple question:
How did the story of the American worker get written — and who was left out?
To answer this question, we meet AAPI workers across the country — workers whose lives are shaped by migration, organizing, and domestic work. Through their stories, we witness the realities of labor today and begin to reimagine who the American working class really is in a time of deepening inequality and political divide.
Throughout the film, historians weave analysis into the visual story to unravel the myth that we have been taught. Historians reflect on how race, fear, and economic insecurity shaped the national identity of the American Worker. Their voices weave the rarely-seen-together archival materials to contextualize the racialized labor that made way for this moment. Behind the camera, I pose questions that break down the boundaries between expert and witness, past and present.
The film unfolds in three acts anchored by my narration. In the final act, contemporary organizing mirrors past defiance. Through these juxtapositions, AMERICAN WORKER shows that history is not behind us. It’s unfolding again, in new forms that demand we reckon with the old narratives still holding us back.
In times of political and economic crisis, immigrant and nonwhite workers are scapegoated and treated as disposable. This film is our response to this critical moment in history. It challenges racialized myths, redefines the U.S. working class, and reclaims the dignity of workers who keep this country running.
This story feels urgent because it’s personal. As we make this film, we’re asking how the legacies of racial capitalism and labor exploitation show up in the lives of people who look like us. We see it in the precarity facing AAPI, immigrant, and other nonwhite workers. They are our families, our communities, living with the fear of deportation and shrinking access to healthcare, housing, and labor protections. We see it in who is pushed into caregiving, food service, agriculture, and gig work – the essential jobs that hold up this country, yet are rarely seen as the face of the “American worker.”
Stories shape what people imagine is possible. By reframing AAPI and immigrant workers not as exceptions but as leaders, we aim to transform both cultural narratives and movement strategies. If successful, this film would ignite a shift in public consciousness: making immigrant labor visible, exposing racialized myths that divide workers, and inspiring a new generation to claim interracial, transnational solidarity. We see this documentary as a narrative intervention, challenging who gets to be seen as "American," "working class," and a protagonist in the fight for a multiracial democracy.
Our goal at this stage is simple: to raise funds to complete our post-production. We have worked independently up until this point, and now, we need your help!
We have now completed a first rough cut of the film with our editor, and are taking time to review this cut internally with our team as well as with a group of trusted colleagues. While we remain on schedule, our focus at this stage is on raising funds to sustain the edit and to plan our impact campaign.
Meeting (or even surpassing) our Seed&Spark campaign goal of $3,000 raised would mean that our project would be eligible for the AAPI Renaissance Rally (presented by Seed&Spark x Gold House). $3,000 would also contribute to the much-needed animation costs that will make our film come to life.
Beyond that:
- If we hit $10,000, we’d be able to pay for a Colorist, Title Graphics, and a Sounds mix.
- If we hit $20,000, that money would go towards either a Composer & Animation, or 8 additional weeks with our Editor.
- If we hit $40,000, we can do both of the above, and get just that much closer to getting our film out in the world.
In parallel with post-production, we have begun outreach to AAPI, immigrant, and labor organizations to start building networks of communities who will watch and share the film once it is finished. We intend to invite these partners into the process early through test screenings, ensuring that the film resonates and reflects their perspectives. Would you want to be part of these test screenings? Please pledge and donate so we can continue to keep you in the loop for any upcoming screenings!
(An excerpt screening in 2025. Photo: CineSpeak)
You can support the film by pledging to support our campaign, following our social media (IG: @americanworkerfilm), and sharing it with your friends, family, coworkers, so that they may do the same.
Here’s a sample social media post so you can share more easily:
When you hear the phrase “Protecting American Workers,” who is the American Worker you’re imagining? How have race and labor shaped America’s story of work? Where do AAPI and immigrant workers fit in that story? Support the completion of @americanworkerfilm on @seedandspark: www.seedandspark.com/fund/americanworkerfilm.
Thank you for all your support!
In Solidarity,
Thien Dinh, John Beder, and the rest of the AMERICAN WORKER team
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
10 Minutes of Original Animations (Human Made)
Costs $2,000
Help us pay an animator to create beautiful original images to accompany our story.
Closed Captioning (Human Made)
Costs $1,500
Accurate and high quality closed captions for accessibility. We want to pay an expert to help us generate these without the use of AI.
Poster Design (Human Made)
Costs $500
An original poster designed by an experienced graphic designer for drawing audiences to our film.
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Director: Thien Dinh (they/them) is a cultural worker, Vietnamese immigrant, artist, and award-winning filmmaker based in Philadelphia. They have spent over a decade in immigrant and labor organizing, working alongside communities to help people tell their own stories. In recent years, they have stepped behind the camera, bringing together a deep love of history and a commitment to justice-forward storytelling. Their films explore race, class, and migration, centering the unrelenting humanity of everyday people. Thien is a 2025 Brown Girls Doc Mafia (BGDM) Sustainable Artist Fellow. Their short documentary film “FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD” won "Best Film from the Frontlines" at the 2025 Workers Unite Film Festival. They illustrated Taking Root (premiered at Tribeca in 2023) and continue to contribute to media for social justice campaigns. AMERICAN WORKER is Thien Dinh’s feature documentary debut.
Producer: John Beder (he/him) is an Emmy Award winning filmmaker whose works have been published by The New York Times, PBS, and Al Jazeera, and have been official selections at 14 Oscar qualifying film festivals. His documentaries explore themes of resistance, social justice, medicine, and substance use, often illuminating overlooked or underrepresented voices with care and urgency. His latest film, How to Sue the Klan, a collaboration with renowned civil rights attorney Ben Crump, won an NAACP Image Award and tells the story of five Black women who helped bring down a local Klan chapter through a pivotal civil suit. He previously directed Dying in Your Mother’s Arms, an Emmy nominated co-production with The New York Times about pediatric palliative care. John is the co-founder of Bedrock Productions and an active member of the Asian American Documentary Network, the Documentary Producers Alliance, and The Video Consortium.
Producer: Anthony Banua-Simon is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and editor who’s a 2024 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Video/Film. He was also named one of Filmmaker Magazine's 2021 "25 New Faces of Independent Film" and DOC NYC's 2022 "40 Under 40". His debut feature documentary, Cane Fire, was an official selection of the 2020 Hot Docs International Film Festival as well as the 2021 MoMA Doc Fortnight and won "Best Documentary Feature" at the 2020 Indie Memphis Film Festival and the 2021 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. Cane Fire is distributed theatrically by Cinema Guild and was available to stream on The Criterion Channel. The film has received praise in RogerEbert.com, The Wrap, Jacobin, Film Threat, and Hyperallergic among several other outlets. His short documentary about two former workers of the Domino Sugar Refinery, Third Shift, won "Best Short Documentary" at the 2014 Brooklyn Film Festival and was previously streaming on The Criterion Channel. He's featured in The New York Times, BOMB Magazine, Screen Slate, Pioneer Works Broadcast, and HuffPost.
Anthony attended The Evergreen State College and was a fellow at the UnionDocs Collaborative Studio Program. He taught film editing at The State University of New York at Purchase and was a member of the volunteer-run Spectacle Theater in Brooklyn, NY. His current project, The Experiment Station, has received funding from both NYSCA and the Jerome Foundation.
Editor: Brian Redondo is a documentary filmmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. His work as director, cinematographer, and editor has screened at Sundance, Blackstar, Full Frame, and DOC NYC film festivals and has been broadcast on Max, Netflix, CNN and PBS. His recent credits include editing the feature docs DEATH & TAXES from director Justin Schein and BRIEF TENDER LIGHT from director Arthur Musah. He also produced and edited the Max food doc series TAKE OUT WITH LISA LING. He directed the award-winning short doc KEEP SARAY HOME (Best Doc Short at Newburyport, Seattle Asian American, and Philadelphia Asian American Film Festivals) as well as multiple Vimeo Staff Picked shorts including JES FAN IN FLUX and AZIKIWE MOHAMMED IS A GUY WHO MAKES STUFF. He was formerly the Senior Editor at The New Yorker magazine, where he was a producer on the Emmy-award winning interactive doc RE-EDUCATED.
Co-Writer: Sophie Song (they/she) is a queer gender Chinese American organizer and policy professional from Philadelphia. Sophie is the founder of the APALA Philadelphia chapter where they spent years organizing and developing the leadership of Asian American workers in their community. They got their start organizing at Asian Americans United, a Philadelphia Chinatown based community organization. They have spent the last 7 years as an organizer and policy advocate spanning issues such as workers rights, civic engagements, immigrant rights, artificial intelligence and abolition in both Asian American and other marginalized communities. Currently they are based in DC where they have worked in federal policy advocacy for the United States Congress, the AFL-CIO and the Working Families Party.
Archival Producer: Caitlin Riggsbee (she/her) has worked on exciting and critically acclaimed projects for distributors such as AppleTV+, HBO and PBS a include Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr., Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and The Vow.Current work includes a documentary about the disappearing jury trial (One Angry Man, in production), as well as a documentary about Philadelphia’s efforts to curb illegal dumping and manage its waste (In Excess, 2026).
Cinematographer: Born and raised in the South, Jane Macedo Yang (she/they) is a queer Chinese-Cambodian/Mexican-American filmmaker and cinematographer, and also deeply experienced in editing and producing. As the daughter of a refugee and immigrants, she aims to highlight underrepresented stories and voices, as well as stories focused on social justice and international issues, the environment and our connection to it, and on identity and community. Her work has been featured on an Emmy-award winning series on PBS, Netflix, Snapchat, National Geographic, and others. Jane was a 2022 Jackson Wild Media Lab Fellow and 2022 newportFILM: Documentary Cinematographer Lab Fellow.
Cinematographer: Lou Nakasako worked as a camera assistant on both CRIP CAMP, which premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, and HBO’s WE ARE THE DREAM: THE KIDS OF OAKLAND MLK ORATORICAL FEST. He was the assistant director on FREELAND, which premiered at the 2020 SXSW Film Festival, and a co-editor on Michael Siv’s DAZE OF JUSTICE, which aired on PBS’s DocWorld program in 2019. His short narrative film, BROTHERS, which won UCLA's award for Best Undergraduate Screenplay, was screened in the prestigious UCLA Directors Spotlight as one of the program’s top nine films of the year, and went on to play at numerous film festivals, among them CAAMFest, Los Angeles Asian Pacific American Film Festival, and Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival.
Cinematographer: Jhad Villena is a camera assistant & operator, photographer, digitech, and DIT based in Texas. Jhad is the Director of AS WE LEAVE, IT FOLLOWS, a narrative project produced by TAMARIND and supported by the Austin Film Society. Jhad's work has also been provided for ABC, AT&T, Allstate, CTIA, Choctaw Casinos, Dallas Mavericks, Filmsupply, Food Network, Gatorade, Magnolia Network, Main Event, Monkeypaw Productions, Netflix, NFL, Six Flags, Toyota, The Players’ Tribune, Vox Media, and many others.
Consulting Producer: Alexandra Ashworth (she/they) is a Jewish, Filipinx-American adoptee. They are a filmmaker and writer exploring community, belonging, and identity and often collaborate with artists and activists, approaching personal topics such as queerness, diaspora, and family from a communal lens. She is a Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling Fellow, working alongside local researchers and community leaders in Cagayan Valley (Philippines) to preserve Ibanag and Itawit cultures. She has worked with HuffPost, the MET, MOMA, and the Brooklyn Museum, and is the associate producer of the films FIRE THROUGH DRY GRASS and WHAT THE PIER GAVE US.