ARTIST STATEMENT

I’m the only person in my family who hasn’t been in a fist fight. Literally all of them. My mom, my dad, my sisters, grandparents. Be it strangers or each other, fists have been used. I've found my best form of defense is comedy. Biting and at times mean, my sense of humor has always been my safety blanket. 

Raunchy and subversive, I have found the best way to deal with life is in laughing. Even at sometimes inappropriate times. When I look at the comedy films that inspire my work, it's clear to me it's about 'mean' people learning to be loved: Fleabag, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Kikujiro. I understand these characters because I have loved them. I have no doubt that as harsh and brutal as my familys is, we do love each other. In sometimes unhealthy ways. 

And it’s there in my films. The girls who scrap before they use their words because it’s all they know. The families who believe aggression is the best protection from the outside world. The violent ways characters try to love each other when all it does is push them away. Love is tough. And although I was raised to believe it was violent it doesn’t have to be.

GRANTS & ACCOLADES

2025 Kickstart with Canva Grant Winner for SHOOTS

2024 AT&T & Tribeca ‘Untold Stories’ Finalist for SHOOTS

2024 ‘Ohina Labs Fellow & Winner for the Judge’s Award for SPAM’D

2023 Punky Aloha Scholar for Kanaka 'Ōiwi and Pasifika Creatives

2023 Alfred P. Sloan Grant Winner for Thesis “Behind the Curtain”

2023 Women of Color Narrative Initiative Winner from Visionary Justice Story Lab

2022 AFI Daniel and Dorothea Petrie Endowed Scholarship

2020 Portland Art Museum Artist Re:Imagined Grant Recipient

2020 RACC Catalyst Grant Recipient “No Spectators Allowed”

2019 Travel Oregon & Oregon Made Adventure Filmmaking Winner for “Any Oregon Sunday”

2018 SmArt Ventures Grant Winner for The New Frontier