In honor of Women’s History Month, our educational distributors ~ Collective Eye ~ asked female filmmakers to reflect on their experiences as women in the film industry.   What they shared is enlightening, inspiring, and insightful.  You can read the full blog post HERE.

I had the pleasure of answering their final question (see below)…

Q: What would you say to any aspiring female filmmakers out there? 

A: As a queer, mixed-race daughter of immigrants, I believe in working with people whose stories and experiences are largely ignored, minimized, marginalized, or distorted.  I feel we have a responsibility to make sure we are contributing our stories to this evolving narrative of the human experience. Because there is something profoundly liberating and validating about seeing aspects of your self, your experience, your truth, reflected back at you from the page, from the canvas, from the screen.

In order to truly honor our stories, we must become the Subjects of our own stories, instead of the Objects of someone else’s.  And for the circles I move in—for immigrants, for queer folks, for women and girls, for people of color, for survivors—we often struggle with believing that we have the right to take up space with our story. 

But the world needs our stories, told in our own voices, from our unique point of view. Every time we contribute our story to this evolving human narrative, we radically shift the conversation, creating a more expansive, inclusive portrait of humanity.

And when other people see their lives visibly represented and reflected back at them, they’re reminded that their stories do matter. And hopefully in turn, they will feel more inspired and entitled to find their own creative way to tell their story. This is a ripple effect of story telling that I believe in and feel truly inspired by.