ETA

Place of birth:

Fountain Valley, California, USA:

Biography:

ETA is a first-gen Vietnamese American filmmaker and educator whose work blends observational realism with the supernatural to explore diasporic identity, inherited dreams and memory, and the unseen systems that construct our worldviews. Drawing from their trauma-informed teaching background and years organizing Black, Brown, and queer creative communities throughout LA, their films seek to expand who gets to occupy the center of genre cinema. Their award-winning gentrification horror short, "White Gaze", was a Seed&Spark Patrons Circle Pledge recipient and screened internationally, earning Best Horror Film at FICIMAD, the Grand Jury Award at Film Invasion, and Best Director at both Arthouse Film Festival and New York Odyssey Film Festival. Their documentary Confluence: A Meditation in Documentary Form, exploring queer Asian American and South Asian diasporic identity through music, screened at Academy Award- and BAFTA-qualifying festivals worldwide, including a special exhibition at the Busan International Short Film Festival. Their recent narrative shorts, "Are You Even Gay" and "Empathy Fatigue", have continued that festival trajectory, while their debut feature, "Menstrual", a sci-fi drama produced on a micro-budget, is beginning its festival run.