A Surfer, Police Officer, God and Buddha Are Part of NFMLA’s InFocus: Asian Cinema Program

A surfer meeting her mother, a discussion of God and Buddha, and a police officer struggling with cultural identity were among the subjects stories in NewFilmmakers Los Angeles' InFocus: Asian Cinema program and InFocus: Immigration programs.

The event, which also included the Los Angeles premiere of Laramie Dennis’s debut narrative feature Where In the Hell, began with a collection of films that told stories of immigration, emigration and activism, as well as navigating two cultures and the contemplation of places aspired to and left behind.

The day continued with a program that spotlighted Asian-American talent and storytelling in front of and behind the camera. It featured themes of family dynamics, dating pitfalls, fitting in, vulnerability, perseverance and standing up to fight for a brighter future. 

The night concluded with the Los Angeles premiere of Where In the Hell, a buddy roadtrip “traumedy” about a prop master whose trip with her girlfriend is interrupted and a struggling actor on his way to an audition. The film brings heart and a grounded approach to existential turmoil.

NFMLA showcases films by filmmakers of all backgrounds throughout the year, across both our general and InFocus programming. All filmmakers are welcome and encouraged to submit their projects for consideration for upcoming NFMLA Festivals, regardless of the schedule for InFocus programming, which celebrates representation by spotlighting various communities of filmmakers as part of the NFMLA Monthly Film Festival. This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Here are more details on the filmmakers and films.

“DelMar” directed by Lucy Morales Carlisle

About Lucy: Lucy Morales Carlisle is an Emmy-nominated, two-time Webby winner and a multidisciplinary filmmaker with over a decade of experience in digital media and post production. She holds a BFA from the School of Visual Arts and a MFA in Media Arts from The City College of New York. As an immigrant displaced by the Salvadoran Civil War, her work explores themes of identity and isolation.  Lucy is passionate about telling stories that resonate with the Latine community, focusing on women and culture.

About “DelMar”: A female surfer navigates life between a rural beach town in El Salvador and Maryland, where she goes to live with a mother she has never met. 

Watch the NFMLA interview with Lucy Morales Carlisle, director of “DelMar”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vtn6BCbIwCA&feature=youtu.be

“Wabi-Sabi” directed by Josephine Green Zhang

About Josephine: Josephine is passionate about stories of duality that offer hope to underdogs, outsiders, and misfits while humorously critiquing them. A master of tone, she enjoys bending genres and crafting modern love stories that explore themes of friendship, community, romance, justice, and self-acceptance. She is an alumna of UCLA’s Film Program, Film Independent’s Project Fellowship, UCB’s improv and sketch program, and the Universal Writers Lab. Josephine has written for Seasons 2 and 3 of First Wives Club on BET+ and Season 2 of Dollface on Hulu. Additionally, she has developed projects for Netflix, Disney+, Bound Entertainment, and CJ Entertainment.

About “Wabi-Sabi”: When an insecure woman goes on a date at a traditional Japanese tea house, her best friend's advice about white guys with Asian fetishes threatens to ruin her love life and her sanity.

Watch the NFMLA interview with Josephine Green Zhang, director of “Wabi-Sabi”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SdEyAOM5mc

“God & Buddha Are Friends” directed by Anthony Ma

About Anthony: Anthony Ma is an award-winning Taiwanese American actor, writer, director, and voiceover artist born & raised in Arcadia, California. “Chinese Antique” (2009), a short film he wrote and produced, was screened at film festivals nationwide and received audience choice awards at the 168-Hour Film Festival and NFFTY. Elevator (2015), a feature he wrote and produced, was filmed in Los Angeles, New York, and Japan, garnering an Honorable Mention for Screenwriting at DisOrient Asian Film Festival. The latest feature he co-wrote, Staycation (2018), premiered at the final LA Film Festival and received the LA Muse Award. As an actor, he most notably guest starred in Scandal, S.W.A.T., and This Is Us. The LA Asian Pacific Film Festival awarded him Best New Actor for the rom-com indie feature Love Arcadia (2015). He was also a co-host on the HBO Max foodie reality series Family Style.

About “God & Buddha Are Friends”: A young Taiwanese American boy falls into an existential crisis when a charismatic Christian pastor comes between him and his overprotective Buddhist mother.

Watch the NFMLA interview with Anthony Ma, director of “God & Buddha Are Friends”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zv4VyznaHtY

“Three Women Named Svetlana” directed by Natalia Boorsma 

About Natalia: Natalia Boorsma is a Dutch/Serbian writer and director based in Amsterdam. "Three Women Named Svetlana" (2024) was her graduation film and was selected by film festivals such as Cannes Indie Shorts Awards, Shortcutz Amsterdam, Filmski Front and the Leiden International Film Festival. In the future she wants to experiment with a mixture of documentary and fiction.

About “Three Women Named Svetlana”: On a sunny spring day, three women, all named Svetlana, are waiting at a small train station somewhere in the south of Serbia.

Watch the NFMLA interview with Natalia Boorsma, director of “Three Women Named Svetlana”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlccwb_VXUg

“Where in the Hell” directed by Laramie Dennis

About Laramie: Laramie Dennis got her start in New York directing and developing Off-Off-Broadway plays, most notably at the Flea Theater and Soho Rep. Her background in theater continues to inform her directing style. Where in the Hell, an offbeat road movie completed in 2024, marks her feature film debut as a writer/director. Other projects include Life on sMars, which earned her a spot at Through Her Lens: The Tribeca Chanel Women’s Filmmaker Program, along with a development grant from The Tribeca Film Institute, and Girl Pretending to Read Rilke, an Athena List finalist for 2025.

About “Where in the Hell”: A pair of defectors from the crumbling L.A. film industry find themselves on an unlikely road trip to track down a missing girlfriend.

Watch the NFMLA interview with Laramie Dennis, director of “Where in the Hell”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrGkm0gsi8s

“So, That Happened” directed by Neha Aziz

About Neha Aziz: Neha Aziz  is a Pakistani-born writer, director, film programmer, and podcaster living in Austin She currently works as the Artistic Director for Austin Asian American Film Festival, and as a Film Programmer for Big Sky Documentary Festival and the Cleveland International Film Festival. In 2021 she was named an iHeartRadio NextUP fellow. Her show Partition debuted in August 2022 and has been featured on Apple Podcasts, NPR, The Austin Chronicle, and more. In 2023, Neha was one of five recipients of the WAVE Grant from Wavelength Productions.Her short, "So, That Happened" is currently on the festival circuit. She was a writer for the PBS Digital Series Roots of Resistance, and she was just named a 2025 Unlock Her Potential Directing Mentee. 

About “So, That Happened”: Sheila and Imran haven’t seen each other since college, but when Imran moves back to Austin, an opportunity arises for the pair to get acquainted once more.

Watch the NFMLA interview with Neha Aziz, director of “So, That Happened”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_LZZWfu1ig

“Sunflower Girl” directed by Holly M. Kaplan

About Holly: Holly M. Kaplan is a writer and director of mixed Cantonese heritage born and raised in New York City. She was selected for NALIP and Netflix's Latino Lens: Narrative Short Film Incubator for Women of Color to write, direct, and produce "Sunflower Girl." Holly has worked as a Co-Executive Producer/Director's Assistant on Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin and was a former apprentice to the late Independent producer/director Ben Barenholtz. She earned her BA in Film & Media Arts from American University. Currently, Holly is developing the feature-length script of Sunflower Girl with Stowe Story Labs.

About “Sunflower Girl”: When a 13-year-old Chinese-American girl has the opportunity to go skateboarding with her crush, it comes at the cost of abandoning her little sister.

Watch the NFMLA interview with Holly M. Kaplan, director of “Sunflower Girl”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrxchANdTkw

“Bodies” directed by Luca Bueno

About Luca: Luca Bueno is a Brazilian-born director, producer, and writer with a multicultural background, having lived in South America, France, and the U.S. At 15, he became Brazil’s youngest credited crew member on The Dreamseller (2016). His directing credits include "Bodies" (2024), "Luna" (2022), and "Skyward" (2025), with Luna earning multiple festival awards. Luca holds a Bachelor's in Film Production and a Master's in Directing from Loyola Marymount University. Now based in the U.S., he continues to create films while engaging with an audience of 120,000 on social media.

About “Bodies”: Two LAPD officers respond to a disturbing call in an immigrant neighborhood, where Officer Alvarez confronts an unsettling truth that tests his duty, empathy, and cultural identity.

Watch the NFMLA interview with Luca Bueno, director of “Bodies”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQjwg0RwsjA

“Cartes” directed by Rhym Guissé

About Rhym: Rhym was born to an Algerian mother and a father from Mali. She grew up in the Ivory Coast before moving to Louisiana and earning a writing degree.  Rhym has a prolific career in entertainment as an actress and director. She is a 2023 CDDP (Commercial Director Diversity Program) fellow and strives to create narrative features with female leads challenging the status quo.

About “Cartes”: An undocumented Malian goes through great lengths to continue working for a non-profit organization she loves.

Watch the NFMLA interview with Rhym Guissé, director of “Cartes”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Syw1dlTTa5w

“Unwavering” directed by Alexandra Hsu

About Alexandra: Alexandra “Alle” Hsu is a Chinese American director/producer from Orange County, California. Alle has directed several short films: "Sophie" (HK)," "Our Way Home" (US), "Rencontres Paysannes" (France), "POP!" (US), and "Unwavering" (US), which have screened at over 20 festivals worldwide including having premiered at Oscar-qualifying festivals Austin, Foyle, and Bend, to name a few. Alle has been a part of prestigious programs SFFILM FilmHouse, CBS Leadership Pipeline, WIF Mentoring, Asian Women Empowered, Unlock Her Potential, Gold House Futures, KSW Interdisciplinary Writers Lab, and the CQNL Storylines Lab. FilmHouse supported her feature Queens, inspired by a family story around the 1960s New York Worlds Fair, which was also a Finalist for the SFFILM Westridge grant, a semifinalist in the Big Vision Empty Wallet Level Up Lab and a Finalist in the Giant Leap Accelerator.  At CQNL, she developed a feature about her great-grandmother, Zhang Youyi.  With a background in documentaries, she strives to tell stories truthfully and authentically, while shining a light on stories that have been left untold and that stimulate conversations. Alle received an MFA from NYU Tisch and a BA from Scripps College double majoring in Media Studies and Asian Studies.

About “Unwavering”: Carolyn Kim joins a college student movement for Ethnic Studies in 1968. Inspired by real events.

Watch the NFMLA interview with Alexandra Hsu, the director, and Christine Hughes, writer of “Unwavering”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYzv8KAKcK8

“Lola” directed by Grace Hanna

About Grace: Grace is a Filipino-American director who excels in genre filmmaking and world-building. Finding magic in the mundane is at the heart of the stories they tell. Their film, “Lola,” has screened at UTA x Gold House, AFI Fest, FilmQuest, and LA Asian Pacific Film Festival, among others, and won awards from the Television Academy, the Directors Guild of America, Imagine Entertainment, Adobe, and Indy Shorts International Film Festival, where they won the Directorial Debut Award. Their latest project, ""Halcyon Days,"" is sponsored by Film Independent and received Panavision's NFP Grant. Grace was a semi-finalist for the Commercial Director Diversity Program and is a member of the Alliance of Women Directors. Their work has been shortlisted by Disney, Sundance Sloan, and Sony.

About “Lola”: A thirteen-year-old science prodigy journeys into her grandma's deteriorating mind to save one precious memory they have together.

Watch the NFMLA interview with Grace Hanna, director of “Lola”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVwI60qFBCA

“Deep Into the Forest” directed by Xinhao "Violet" Lu

About Xinhao: Xinhao "Violet" Lu is a Los Angeles-based Asian writer and director. His most recent film, Deep Into the Forest, premiered at 2024 Tribeca Festival and the 9th CAA Moebius Film Festival, and has been officially selected by lots of international film festivals. His dark comedy short film Red Man won Best Experimental film at the 2023 LA Shorts International Film Festival. His first short film Reunion Night was nominated for Best Film and Best Cinematography in "Mao" International Film Week in China. Prior to his MFA in Directing from the AFI Conservatory, he studied Finance at Tianjin University of Finance and Economics in China. He loves to explore the impact of the times on ordinary people and to speak out against social inequality.

About “Deep Into the Forest”: A talented orienteering athlete makes an unexpected decision under the injury of his foot and the pressure of being pushed to compete at a national competition by everyone.

Watch the NFMLA interview with Xinhao "Violet" Lu, director of “Deep Into the Forrest”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmePz6Nu21w

Main image: "Lola"