Expanding on a previous article I published, I am joined by Kayla Abuda Galang, a second-generation Filipino American filmmaker, to understand the Asian American experience in filmmaking.
What is it like being an Asian American Filmmaker?
Kayla Abuda Galang explores home, family, and belonging themes in Austin, Texas, where she works as a producer and editor at the University of Texas in the College of Liberal Arts.
Her latest film, When You Left Me on That Boulevard, will premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Her film Learning Tagalog With Kayla (2021) premiered at SXSW, received an Audience Award, and went on to screen at festivals such as Palm Springs, Indie Memphis, Encounters, and Reel Asian. She is developing two feature films: ’06-’07, a coming-of-age comedy set in mid-2000s southeast San Diego, and On Earth as it is in Heaven, a comedy about familial grief set in present-day Houston.
How does your identity as an Asian American influence your film career?
I’ve always felt like an impostor in any sense of identity. For one, I was born in Lungwu City, and my family still has solid ties to our family back in the Philippines. My dad’s from a different province than my mom. We moved from the Philippines when I was six months old. Being the daughter of a Marine who was always on the move and getting deployed, I never had a sense of home until my long-term home in San Diego, where Filipinos surrounded me. Then I moved to Texas in 2007 when I was 15, and suddenly I was about this homogeneous community of people who looked like me and had families like mine. I’m still grappling with my identity as a Filipino American that ties back to these different little islands in the Philippines. I am trying to figure out how I’ve navigated identity in my work. Still, I want to present my homes and experiences as I’ve experienced them and hope that even in that specificity, people can draw what they can relate to and see common threads.
Could you comment on the diversity in the industry?
It’s funny because I’ve purposely tried not to engage with the industry as much as possible, which is why I like being in independent filmmaking. A lot of the time, you get to make your own rules. A lot of the time, you don’t have to be in a room where people tokenize you. Early set experiences were awful and sometimes traumatic because of the lack of diversity. And not just the lack of diversity, but the need for more care for underrepresented folks on set. On one of the last sets I was on before I started delving back into my creative work, I was verbally abused and charged at by a white actor. Since then, I have not engaged with the industry, so I can’t comment on the diversity or lack thereof. Though, I think part of being in the independent filmmaking space is that I was able to thoughtfully assemble a team that not only has shared the same experiences with me but has also come from all across the nation’s diaspora, which is fantastic. They immediately understood the creative lens and the ethos I wanted to put forward with these movies.
What impact would you like to make in the independent film filmmaker sphere?
Even outside the independent filmmaking sphere, whoever engages with or comes across my work. The things I want to share are the places I’ve had the privilege of moving through. That’s why much of my work focuses on home, whether just me in my apartment during the pandemic or returning to San Diego, where I grew up. I’ve had the honor of moving through these spaces and getting to meet so many people that have looked like me or not looked like me. I’m interested in sharing that aspect of my life through storytelling and filmmaking and letting people draw their conclusions and see themselves in that work or feel encouraged to share themselves in their homes and work. So, again, I’m always just looking for whatever work to be generative in whatever regard.
Where would you want to be in ten years?
Because this is something that I want immediately, I want to keep making movies and have the material support to do so. In my early career in filmmaking, it’s been tough to get support for my work from institutions and grantors. Much of my work has come from my pockets and community support via crowdfunding. So, I still want to do what I’m doing right now, but I want support to do it and the resources to do it, mainly because every film is just a miracle, and every film is so freaking hard to pull off. I would love to keep doing this but have a solid foundation and not have to go into debt to make movies.
Resources for Aspiring Asian American Filmmakers
Similar to Yola Lu’s experience as an Asian American stand-up comedian, it can be challenging to get support and funding as an aspiring Asian American filmmaker. You can check out resources on the Asian American Film Festival website. You can also check out organizations established to support Asian American filmmakers, such as the Center for Asian American Media, Asia Society, and Asian American Documentary Network.
