After generations of cultural silence, years of anxiety, and one anti-Asian hate crime, queer filmmaker Janet takes her retired single mom Diana on a mental health discovery road trip, spills the tea about their own family, and starts the journey to healing.

*Special Jury Award for Documentary Short, Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival*

*Best Director Award for Short Film, Long Beach LGBTQ+ QFilm Festival*

*Audience Choice Award for Best Experimental Documentary, Feminist Border Arts Film Festival*

*Resistance & Joy U.S. tour, Color Congress Elev8Docs Distribution Initiative* 

Upcoming Screenings:

• May 14 (CST) Tuozhu Cooperative screening, Guangzhou, China

• June 26 (CST) Beijing Queer Film Festival Tour, Shanghai, China (info soon)

social documentary theory and methodology: 

Through hands-on production, students use digital video to tell visual stories, reclaim history, and examine social issues related to diverse peoples, cultures, and communities.

New Films Coming Soon!

Previous Films:

So To Speak

80 Years Later

As Los Angeles Chinatown’s Phoenix Bakery celebrates its 80th anniversary, three generations of the Chans explore their family legacy and contemplate the future. 

*Official Selection, CAAMFest*

*Official Selection, Newport Beach Film Festival*

*Asian CineVision National U.S. Tour*

*Cinemauto Drive-In Screening presented by NEON and Visual Communications*

A queer woman's instructional haircut video is taken over by an unconscious exploration of 

her gender identity. 

*Official Selection, SF IndieFest Short Film Festival*

*Exhibit, Sesnon Art Gallery, Santa Cruz*

*Official Selection, Through Women’s Eyes International Film Festival*

Mr. Lau reminisces about his father’s Chinese medicine practice in the 1930s as he visits a contemporary Chinese herbalist for the first time since he was a kid.

*Official Selection, Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival*

*Chinese Historical Society of Southern California*

Named after the birth date shared by activist and Japanese American incarceree Yuri Kochiyama and civil rights activist Malcolm X, this is a multigenerational and cross-cultural campaign to promote solidarity within Asian and Pacific Island communities and beyond. 

*Nominee, Webby Award*

*Broadcast and Streaming, See Us Unite for Change, CBS, Paramount and Facebook Watch*

John Muir High Alumnus, Pablo Miralles questions what has happened to his once diverse alma mater and whether to send his own son to the school today. 

Weaving stories from alumni, administrators, and civic leaders of the multi-cultural community, from desegregation to the early 2020s, the film explores the challenges of California and the United States to promote a well-funded and diverse public education.

*Winner, LA Press Awards*

*Nominee, local Emmy Award*

Building History 3.0, an interactive exploration of the Japanese American incarceration camps, began when high school student Gabriel Tajima-Peña visited Heart Mountain, where his grandmother had been incarcerated during World War II. 

Through a free online collection of resources, including short documentaries, visual graphics, and Minecraft gaming activities, kids, families, students and educators can explore themes of civil liberties and democracy.

*Official Selection, Hawai’i International Film Festival*

*Tadaima: A Community Virtual Pilgrimage*

*Immersive Learning Experiences, 

Connected Learning Summit*

The UCLA Center for EthnoCommunications was founded in 1996 by Professor Emeritus and "the godfather of Asian American media" Robert Nakamura to promote the documentation, preservation, and creative expression of diverse ethnic experiences through the use of emerging media and communications technologies. The origins of the Center comes from the Ethno-Communications program and the L.A. Rebellion Film movement.

Academy Award-nominated and Peabody-winning filmmaker and Professor Renee Tajima-Peña is the current Director of the UCLA Center for EthnoCommunications.

Asian American Documentary Network (A-Doc) is a national network that works to increase the visibility and support of Asian Americans in the documentary field. We are Asian American documentary filmmakers who have come together as one, multi-generational force to advocate for our vital presence in the field. We are committed to sharing ideas and resources, providing mutual support and mentorship, and advocating for equity and diversity in the production and distribution of non-fiction storytelling.

Visual Communications (VC) is the first non-profit organization in the US dedicated to the honest and accurate portrayals of the Asian Pacific American peoples, communities, and heritage through the media arts. VC was created with the understanding that media and the arts are important vehicles to organize and empower communities, build connections between peoples and generations through the development of AAPI film, video, and media. The organization has created award-winning productions, nurtured and given voice to our youth and seniors, promoted new artistic talent, presented new cinema, and preserved our visual history.