Zeinabu irene Davis is an independent filmmaker and Professor of Communication at the University of California, San Diego. Her work is passionately concerned with the depiction of women of African descent. Her dramatic film entitled Compensation (1999) features two inter-related love stories offering a view of Black Deaf culture. New Yorker Magazine critic Richard Brody has named it as one of the best American independent films of the 20th century. Criterion and Janus Films will re-release the film in Fall 2024. She recently completed a dramatic short about a COVID-19 experience entitled Pandemic Bread, which has played at 8 festivals and earned nominations for Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actress for Becca Godinez at the San Diego Film Awards 2024. She is working on a documentary, Stars of the Northern Sky, which tells the stories of abolitionists Sojourner Truth, Phyllis Wheatley, and Marie Joseph Angelique.

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Facilitating the conversations are award-winning filmmakers and SDFC co-founders Benito Bautista and Emma Francisco Bautista, and Alicia de Leon Torres, Deputy Director of the Nemeth Foundation and SDFC Board Member. Sound design and edit by SDFC Technical Director, Miko Aguilar. Key art design by SDFC Communications & Social Media Manager, Tiara Liz Deriquito.

Nemeth Narratives is presented by The Nemeth Foundation in partnership with San Diego Filipino Cinema and New Americans Museum

sdfilipinocinema.org

Founder and managing director for BFT, Consultants, Dr. Ontai works with business managers, corporate leadership, and higher education practitioners in providing professional development training to improve people communications skills in management and teaching. Using neuroscience as the basis for improving people communications, strategies and skills are designed around the individual's emotional and cognitive strengths and weaknesses.

He has over 20 years of teaching in post-secondary education at two urban campuses, in addition to serving as interim campus director. He served as undergrad and graduate student advisor, faculty training lead, and doctoral student advisor. He is currently an adjunct professor at California Southern University, where he serves as committee member for doctoral learners completing their dissertations.
He is a peer-reviewer for American Education Research Association, AERA, and has served as a peer-reviewer for the University of New Mexico Mentoring Institution.

Dr. Ontai is also a licensed architect with over 25 years of diversified practice and freelance consulting work. His award-winning firm is recognized for designing school facilities and affordable housing, In addition, his firm has designed office buildings, shopping centers, restaurants, private residences, and public structures.

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Facilitating the conversations are award-winning filmmakers and SDFC co-founders Benito Bautista and Emma Francisco Bautista, and Alicia de Leon Torres, Deputy Director of the Nemeth Foundation and SDFC Board Member. Sound design and edit by SDFC Technical Director, Miko Aguilar. Key art design by SDFC Communications & Social Media Manager, Tiara Liz Deriquito.

Nemeth Narratives is presented by The Nemeth Foundation in partnership with San Diego Filipino Cinema and New Americans Museum

sdfilipinocinema.org

Jelynn Sophia Malone's journey from a dancer with the Samahan Filipino American Performing Arts and Education Center to a Hollywood figure and entrepreneur highlights her cultural richness and success. With over 19 years in media, she excelled as an actress and TV host for networks like ABC, CBS, NBC, MTV, and E!. As Co-Founder & Chief Brand Officer of Mostra Coffee, Jelynn's strategic vision has earned the company top accolades, including the 2020 Roaster of the Year and the 2022 US Coffee Roasting Championships. Co-founding Mostra with Beverly Magtanong, she aims to support Philippine coffee farmers and eradicate poverty. Jelynn's life blends cultural pride, artistic achievement, and entrepreneurial success. She is married to James Malone and has two daughters, Max and Harlowe, embodying the power of dreams and positive change.

Social media: @jelynnmalone | @mostracoffee

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Facilitating the conversations are award-winning filmmakers and SDFC co-founders Benito Bautista and Emma Francisco Bautista, and Alicia de Leon Torres, Deputy Director of the Nemeth Foundation and SDFC Board Member. Sound design and edit by SDFC Technical Director, Miko Aguilar. Key art design by SDFC Communications & Social Media Manager, Tiara Liz Deriquito.

Nemeth Narratives is presented by The Nemeth Foundation in partnership with San Diego Filipino Cinema and New Americans Museum

sdfilipinocinema.org

Lianne A. Urada, Ph.D., MSW, LCSW, is a tenured professor of Social Work at San Diego State University and Associate Adjunct Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health in the Department of Medicine at UC San Diego. Her research focuses on developing ways to address human trafficking, homelessness, HIV, and historical community trauma, locally and globally, including a randomized clinical trial to help people who are suffering from the opioid overdose crisis surrounding U.S. public libraries.

Funded by the Nemeth Foundation to investigate the nature and extent of human trafficking and sexual exploitation among U.S. college students, Dr. Urada surveyed nearly one thousand college students from over 12 campuses in southern California (San Diego/Imperial Valley). One out of five reported experiencing force, fraud, or coercion into selling sex as a college student. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Dr. Urada is a three-time UCLA Bruin graduate.

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Facilitating the conversations are award-winning filmmakers and SDFC co-founders Benito Bautista and Emma Francisco Bautista, and Alicia de Leon Torres, Deputy Director of the Nemeth Foundation and SDFC Board Member. Sound design and edit by SDFC Technical Director, Miko Aguilar. Key art design by SDFC Communications & Social Media Manager, Tiara Liz Deriquito.

Nemeth Narratives is presented by The Nemeth Foundation in partnership with San Diego Filipino Cinema and New Americans Museum

sdfilipinocinema.org

Mylinh Arnett grew up in San Diego and tries to take in as much art as possible in her local community. Some years ago, when she was working as an attorney, she was really missing creativity in her everyday life. She told her friends she wanted to be around more artists. Her friend Bill Male took her at her word and asked her to take on his foundation, the William Male Foundation. Today, she finds it so fulfilling to be part of an organization that provides funding to artists in San Diego. She regularly meets so many artists who inspire her with their passion for their work. She looks forward to reading, seeing, listening to, and experiencing what your creative minds are producing.

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Facilitating the conversations are award-winning filmmakers and SDFC co-founders Benito Bautista and Emma Francisco Bautista, and Alicia de Leon Torres, Deputy Director of the Nemeth Foundation and SDFC Board Member. Sound design and edit by SDFC Technical Director, Miko Aguilar. Key art design by SDFC Communications & Social Media Manager, Tiara Liz Deriquito.

Nemeth Narratives is presented by The Nemeth Foundation in partnership with San Diego Filipino Cinema and New Americans Museum

sdfilipinocinema.org

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Facilitating the conversations are award-winning filmmakers and SDFC co-founders Benito Bautista and Emma Francisco Bautista, and Alicia de Leon Torres, Deputy Director of the Nemeth Foundation and SDFC Board Member. Sound design and edit by SDFC Technical Director, Miko Aguilar. Key art design by SDFC Communications & Social Media Manager, Tiara Liz Deriquito.

Nemeth Narratives is presented by The Nemeth Foundation in partnership with San Diego Filipino Cinema and New Americans Museum

sdfilipinocinema.org

Alberto López Pulido is the founding chair of the Department of Ethnic Studies and has been on the faculty at the University of San Diego since 2003. He grew up in the South Bay and lived a life between borders and Fronteras that highly influenced his fronterizo ways of understanding the world. He received degrees in Sociology and Chicano Studies from the University of California, San Diego, and represents one of fifty-seven students who would graduate from the Mexican American Graduate Studies Program at the University of Notre Dame.

Dr. Pulido aligns himself with several community organizations, none more important than the Chicano Park Steering Committee who serve as the stewards of Chicano Park in San Diego, California. Alberto's scholarly commitment to relevant education rooted in a community epistemology guides his work as Director of the Turning Wheel Mobile Classroom Project – a project that provides a mobile space for supporting the urgent needs and challenges of our local communities. The Turning Wheel Project represents a partnership between the University of San Diego and the Chicano Park Museum and Cultural Center. Dr. Pulido also serves as Vice-Chair of the CPMCC’s Board of Directors.

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Facilitating the conversations are award-winning filmmakers and SDFC co-founders Benito Bautista and Emma Francisco Bautista, and Alicia de Leon Torres, Deputy Director of the Nemeth Foundation and SDFC Board Member. Sound design and edit by SDFC Technical Director, Miko Aguilar. Key art design by SDFC Communications & Social Media Manager, Tiara Liz Deriquito.

Nemeth Narratives is presented by The Nemeth Foundation in partnership with San Diego Filipino Cinema and New Americans Museum

sdfilipinocinema.org

Lee Ann Kim is a former TV journalist, community advocate, artist, yoga teacher, and founder of the San Diego Asian Film Festival, one of the largest film festivals of its kind in North America. Lee Ann started the Festival in 2000 and served as Executive Director of the film festival and its presenting nonprofit, Pacific Arts Movement, for 16 years.

For more than 14 years, she also worked in broadcast television, during which she earned an Emmy for investigative reporting at KGTV, the ABC affiliate in San Diego.

Currently, Lee Ann serves as a commissioner for the City of San Diego's Arts and Culture Commission. She is also the co-founder of the viral flashmob group of middle-aged women called Ajumma EXP. She is the proud mother of two young men, and celebrates more than 27 years of marriage with Louis Song.

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Facilitating the conversations are award-winning filmmakers and SDFC co-founders Benito Bautista and Emma Francisco Bautista, and Alicia de Leon Torres, Deputy Director of the Nemeth Foundation and SDFC Board Member. Sound design and edit by SDFC Technical Director, Miko Aguilar. Key art design by SDFC Communications & Social Media Manager, Tiara Liz Deriquito.

Nemeth Narratives is presented by The Nemeth Foundation in partnership with San Diego Filipino Cinema and New Americans Museum

sdfilipinocinema.org