In this episode, filmmaker and writer Quyen Nguyen-Le talk about their films, generational divides, queer stories, and struggles with self-identity.

Quyên Nguyen-Le (they/them) is a queer vietnamese american filmmaker and writer. Born to refugee parents in the place where Chumash and Tongva lands meet (San Fernando Valley, Los Ángeles), Quyên’s work focuses on the ways histories emerge in the quotidian everyday. Their short films Nước (Water/Homeland) (2016) and Hoài (Ongoing, Memory) (2018) have screened in film festivals, museums, art galleries, universities, libraries, and community spaces worldwide. Recently, Quyên’s documentary The Morning Passing on El Cajón Boulevard, a segment of a 4-part feature anthology, premiered as the Opening for the 20th San Diego Asian Film Festival.

In the past, Quyên was a recipient of the Emma L. Bowen Foundation’s Fellowship at Focus Features/NBCUniversal (2011-2013), Visual Communications’ Armed with a Camera Fellowship (2016), the National Multicultural Alliance’s documentary fellowship with the Center for Asian American Media (2018), and Points North Institute’s North Star Fellowship (2019). Quyên holds B.A. in Comparative Literature and Philosophy, Politics & Law from the University of Southern California.