BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Cassandra Falby, MS, LMFT
Board Chair
Psychotherapist, Performance Artist, Filmmaker-Director The Texture of Honesty
West Indian American Genderqueer Femme
Mel Y. Chen, PhD
Associate Professor, Filmmaker-Director Local Grown Corn
Queer Chinese American nonbinary trans person
Mel Y. Chen is Associate Professor of Gender & Women’s Studies and Director for the Center for the Study of Sexual Culture at UC Berkeley, where they get to work with so many fierce and engaged queer, trans, nonbinary, first-generation, immigrant and BIPOC students. They write in academic and arts publications, and teach about intersections of race, gender, sexuality, disability, and humanness with praxis and spaciousness. They were deeply changed by a screenwriting workshop and the 2006 filmmaker cohort, and are part of a queer/trans of color arts collective that has held a sustaining space for more than ten years.
Lynn Sugihara
California State Registered Dental Hygienist, Filmmaker-Director Jasmine’s Jubilee
Queer Japanese/Chinese American woman
Nat Ruiz Tofano
Nonprofit Manager and Coordinator, Filmmaker-Director A Boy on the Side
Queer Multiracial Mexican and Chinese nonbinary person
Xavier Morales, MSW
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Manager, Filmmaker-Director Running on Empty
Filipino-American Transman
Xavier is a Filipino-American transman from Philadelphia, PA who has spent most of his life in the SF Bay Area. For 20+ years, Xavier has worked in the nonprofit and public sectors, in fields such as public health, supportive housing, youth development, evaluation and strategic planning, funding development and most recently, DEI work at the SF Dept of Children, Youth and Their Families. Equity, access, and the centering of the most impacted voices are the throughlines of his career. His participation in the 2009 QWOCMAP filmmaker cohort gave rise to these values, and he is committed to ensuring QWOCMAP’s irreplaceable legacy lives on.
ADVISORY BOARD
Independent Filmmaker, AARIN BURCH PRODUCTIONS
Director, The Art of Laurel Burch; My People Are… Youth Pride in Mixed Heritage; Michigan Fever; Reflections Unseen
Independent Filmmaker
Director, Black is Blue; My Baby’s Daddy; Watermelon Woman; Stranger Inside; She Don’t Fade; DiAna’s Hair Ego Remix; Brother From Another Time; Valencia; Mommy Is Coming; Greetings From Africa; The Potluck and the Passion; TV: Queen Sugar (OWN), Claws (TNT), The Fosters (Freeform), Dear White People (Netflix), Star (FOX), Love Is (OWN),
Independent Filmmaker, ONE OF 9 CUBANITOS FILMS
Director, Do The Math; Mind If I Call You Sir?; Desi’s Looking For A New Girl
Independent Filmmaker, KALI FILMS
Director, American Masters: Alice Walker; Nina’s Heavenly Delights; Warrior Marks; Khush; Double The Trouble, Twice The Fun
Independent Filmmaker, AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE ALUMNI
Director, Advantageous; Half Life; Target Audience 9.1; Love Limited; TV: The Boys (Amazon), The Expanse (Amazon/SYFY), Cloak & Dagger (Freeform), Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (ABC), Quantico (ABC), Riverdale (CW), Major Crimes (TNT), The Exorcist (FOX), Future States (PBS)
Independent Filmmaker, Actor, Media Consultant
Director, Cruel, Back to Life Actor; Desi’s Looking for a New Girl; Costa Brava; Mod-Fuck Explosion; Some Prefer Cake; Drift
Independent Filmmaker, AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE ALUMNI
Director, Living With Pride: Ruth Ellis @ 100; Sisters in Cinema; The Taste of Dirt; Remembering Wei Yi Fang, Remembering Myself; Sisters in the Life: First Love; Missing Relations; The Cinematic Jazz of Julie Dash; Monique