Eli Hiller

Eli Hiller is a documentary director and photographer based in Columbus, Ohio. With a background in photojournalism, he has contributed to publications and agencies including The New York Times, Time Magazine, The Washington Post, AFP, and Getty Images. As a one-man-band directing, shooting vérité, and running sound he has worked in video production since 2017, creating branded documentaries for non-profits and corporate clients.  He is currently directing his debut feature documentary, “Becoming Us”, a project that marks a significant evolution in his filmmaking practice. The film has received support from the Sundance Institute, Firelight Media, Berkeley Film Foundation, Greater Columbus Arts Council, Kartemquin Films, and the Wexner Center for the Arts. He continues to balance independent filmmaking with client work while building a sustainable practice. As a mixed-race Filipino American who has lived abroad in Latin America and Southeast Asia he is interested in telling stories grounded in themes of the Asian diaspora, family, class struggle, cultural preservation and identity.

Asuka Lin 

Asuka Lin is a Japanese-Taiwanese filmmaker known for their short documentaries and narratives including ‘Distant Bison’ (Taos Film Festival), ‘Into the Emerald Sea’ (Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival), and ‘A.I. Mama’ (London Short Film Festival). Straddling fiction and non-fiction, their work travels from anarchic analog textures to meditative folktale-inspired reflections, united by stories of diaspora and socio-ecological phases. They are a graduate of California Institute of the Arts in film/video, and is now based in Chicago.

Cindy Martin

Cindy Martin is an award-winning Filipina-Japanese-American documentary filmmaker from Chicago committed to elevating voices from underrepresented communities, focusing on AAPI, BIPOC and women’s stories. Cindy’s films have been supported by the Asian Cultural Council, CNN/Film Independent, Illinois Arts Council, DCASE (Chicago), Kartemquin and FYLPRO (Filipino Young Leaders Program). She’s been featured in the Manila Times and Tatler Philippines. Prior to films, Cindy was an award-winning journalist in London and LA with Reuters, AP, ABC and Sky News. She has a degree in Broadcast Journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, specializing in Politics and Psychology. She is currently the Supervising Producer of the Zhao-Chen Family AAPI Voices Fund at Kartemquin and a board member of Doc Chicago. She co-produced the award-winning documentary, “The Fight for Black Lives” and is directing her first feature, Love Is A Stranger (Working Title) and a short, “Untitled Black Chess Queen Documentary (Working Title).” Cindy holds triple citizenship: US, UK and the Philippines.