One thing I’ve become more excited about in the last 3-4 years is DPing the work I direct. I’ve DP’d 3 of my smaller features and tons of work for hire. I started out on DSLRs but I shot my most recent film Hummingbird on a Red weapon. I had a great AC and a gaffer who stayed a step ahead of me. My point is, I find when I shoot certain projects myself there’s more intimacy, more emotionally connected imagery, a cleaner line from thought to action. I’m nailing the piece as I see it in my head and not that I don’t love working with DPs but I’m embracing this idea of an auteur on certain work. I like the idea that I can write, direct, shoot and edit my movies and do it in 8k! Again - I don’t think this is the right approach for every film or for every person but I’m developing a philosophy around this style. I think there was a time when something like this felt like it was taking on too much but it’s 2018 and with so much power in our small cameras and laptops, the project of filmmaking has totally changed. I believe we can use the tools in personal ways more like word processors and photoshop. Films don’t have to be these huge soul sucking, financially draining, long term collaborative mash ups. They can be smaller, more focused and craft driven from the eye of a singular creator with end to end skills. Sets can be more intimate, the actor's experience can be more centered without the huge mechanics of production crushing them at every turn. There’s so many advantages to taking a leaner approach to filmmaking and I want to keep growing in this thought. Other than that, I only want to communicate how much I’d love to be a part of this fellowship. Sundance is one of the first places that showcased my work and it’s a place that centers the process for filmmakers. I’ve spent every year since Punching at the Sun, my first feature that screened at the festival in 2006, making work that highlights the experiences of underrepresented communities. Sometimes I was teaching “at-risk” youth, sometime I was making sci-fi or comedies about Asian-Americans before it was cool. I took a path that wasn’t a careerist, Hollywood path. I lived at my parents house, took care of an ailing mother and upped my skills in the dark. The talk around diversity and inclusion in the industry wasn’t very developed and social media wasn’t what it is today. It’s significant I’m still here, making films and in a time where the world is opening up to our stories. Our work is proving to be profitable. What I know for certain is I still have so many stories to tell. I feel like I’m just getting started and my best is in front of me. An opportunity to build again with Sundance in the space I am today would mean the world to me. It would give me a bounce that could catalyze my art. .