The Directors

We are a group of seven directors from diverse backgrounds - of genres, styles, and identities. 

Kristine Gerolaga

Kristine Gerolaga is a Filipina American filmmaker and actor. Her work has been featured on ATTN:, Amazon Fire TV, ALTER, Shudder, Fangoria, and Vulture. She is a 2023 grant recipient of The Future of Film is Female's Short Film Fund. She is also a Sundance Institute supported artist: She was a 2022 Uprise Grantee, a 2023 Artist Accelerator TAAF Collab Scholar, and most recently, a 2024 Screenwriters Lab Fellow and recipient of the Horror Fellowship in support of her feature film LAMOK. Her short film MOSQUITO LADY, the proof of concept for LAMOK, premiered at the 2023 Beyond Fest and is currently on the festival circuit.

Destinee Stewart

Destinee is a director, writer, producer and actor known for WELL SPOKEN, (a Vimeo Staff Pick) BAGELS AND COFFEE, LIFEBOOK HACKERS, and THE TRUTH OF US. She is currently in development on a doc web series focusing on the lives of Black women. In a 2020 interview on treehouse.la, Destinee notes on the subject of creating art: "I feel the need to. I have always felt, even as a child. I didn't quite know what the feeling meant until I created my first story. Knowing that somewhere in this world there is a person - a person who may not even be born yet - who will connect with a story of mine makes me feel that I have a great responsibility to create from my truth."

Rebecca Louisell

Rebecca works in narrative, documentary and new media. After studying fine art photography and mixed media, she later worked with youth before returning to graduate school for production in cinematic arts at the University of Southern California (USC). While at USC, Rebecca received several scholarships and a College Television Award. Her M.F.A. thesis film GENDERFREAK premiered at Outfest and showed at thirty festivals worldwide, winning “Best Short” awards at the Los Angeles Transgender Film Festival and Translations: the Seattle Transgender Film Festival. Rebecca recently co-produced and directed Elizabeth Yarwood’s web series LA PICKER.

Jessica Liu

Jessica’s films have been selected at various festivals (Museum of Creative Minds, Shanghai, San Francisco Independent Film Festival, New Filmmakers LA, Dances with Films, etc.) and can be seen on Amazon Prime. Her film PROM TIME! (2019) garnered several awards such as the Women’s Empowerment Award from Anaheim Film Festival, an opportunity to direct a fully-funded feature film through StudioFest and the attention of her current mentor, Emmy Award winner, Kate Hackett by winning Cinema Femme’s February 2021 showcase. Her work combines dream-like states with mundane realities. She enjoys bringing bits of dark humor and magical realism to grounded stories; juxtaposing the perverse with the heart-warming.

Sylvia Ray

Sylvia is a Chicana/Korean-American filmmaker who focuses on stories about characters that overcome fears and feelings of unworthiness while navigating the humor of the human experience. Sylvia's films have played in festivals around the world like Phoenix Film Festival, Cucalorus Film Festival and New Filmmakers LA. Her short film A PERIOD PIECE won Best Female Filmmaker at Lonely Seal Film Festival, granting her $10,000 in prizes and has been distributed to GenreTV through Women of Color Unite. Her short film LEN(N)Y was accepted to the 2021 HOLA Mexico Film Festival, awarded her into the Tomorrow's Filmmaker's Today program, and is available to stream on Pantaya and DishLATINO.

T.L. Quach

Tina (T. L.) Quach is an Asian American Writer-Director who focuses on Psychological Thriller films, emphasizing themes about women's fears. Drawing inspiration from Hitchcock and Asian Cinema, she hopes to diversify and update the Thriller lens with a Female POC perspective. After working years in production of major motion pictures, Quach soon became a member of the Alliance of Women Directors as a result of her award-winning short films. Her feature length script, CRAVE, has been awarded among numerous screenwriting competitions including Scriptapalooza, ScreenCraft, and Final Draft Big Break.

Luisa Novo

Born in Cascavel, Brasil, Luisa has directed a number of short films both in Brazil and the US. She uses her perspective to shine a light on subjects like self-image, self-worth, machismo, sexual harassment and assault, themes that arise from how society and culture affect women's lives. In her latest project, the workplace web series pilot breakLAND, she ventured into the world of comedy, learning new skills and sharpening others.

Luisa participated in the Hola Mexico Film Festival Tomorrow’s Filmmakers Today Program, presented by HBO and HFPA, in 2019, which highlights emerging Latinx filmmakers. She is a member of the Alliance of Women Directors, Chicana Directors’ Initiative, Women in Media, Women in Film, and NALIP.