VIVI

Kim Adis is a British-Filipino actress whose work spans film and television, bringing depth and versatility to a range of roles. Born in Cebu City, Philippines, and raised in northern England, Kim has built a dynamic international career. 

Kim’s film credits include Falling (2024), Shadow Land (2024), and The Turning (2020). On television, Kim has had notable roles in series such as Foundation (2021), Young Wallander (2022), The Witcher: Blood Origin (2022), and Get Even (2020), showcasing her range across genres and formats. 

Kim’s performances are marked by emotional nuance, strong screen presence, and a commitment to character authenticity, and she continues to build a diverse body of work in both British and international productions.

JESS

Jacq (Lisa Jacqueline Starrett) is an actor, trauma psychologist, and mental health coordinator whose work bridges performance and emotional insight. Jacq appears in Taga (2025) and has a wide range of film and television credits, including Get Away (2023), The Trophy (2020), and appearances on The Bold and the Beautiful and numerous shorts and independent projects that showcase their versatility and dedication to meaningful storytelling. 

In addition to acting, Jacq is active behind the scenes as a Mental Health Coordinator on film and television, supporting thoughtful portrayals of trauma and wellbeing. They serve on the board of the Association of Mental Health Coordinators and are Chief Operating Officer of Project Contrast, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting and amplifying LGBTQ+ youth. 

Jacq’s work is marked by empathy, authenticity, and a commitment to stories that resonate on both emotional and cultural levels.

Kai / The Monster

Ian S. Peterson is an award-winning Artist from Silicon Valley California. He has been performing since the age of seven after picking up various performing skills such as card magic, juggling, and unicycling. While growing up in The Bay he was fortunate enough to participate in over 50 productions across the peninsula. He was immediately drawn to improv and as president of his ITS drama club, directed/performed for various improv troupes throughout his education. After auditioning and then being accepted into multiple BFA Acting programs, he was thrilled to join the California Institute of the Arts' Class of 2022 BFA acting program. As of 2024, he works professionally as a Film/TV/Commercial actor in Los Angeles. SAG-Eligible. Since entering the industry in 2020 Ian has accumulated over 1000 days on sets of all sizes, both union and non-union. Commercially his credits include working for Google, Meta, Vogue, Microsoft, Samsung, Pepsi, Netflix, Makita, Adult Swim, and many more. Ian is also a professional DP and Gaffer. He was recently nominated at Cannes Shorts for Best Cinematography. Aside from performing, Ian is a USCG Captain and enjoys sailing, making films, fitness, riding the unicycle, singing, playing the piano, computer graphic design, web design, and improv/sketch comedy.

DUMA

Bong Cabrera is an award-winning film and theater actor from the Philippines. He is an Asian Cultural Council Fellow in 2010, which brought him to New York to do advanced acting studies (Viewpoints, Suzuki, Meisner, Alexander Technique, Awakening your True Voice, Improv, etc.) and observe Theater Companies (Ma-yi, SITI Company, Universes, Lamama, Public Theater,etc.) and Universities like YALE SCHOOL Of DRAMA. He also won acting awards from the Accolade Global Film Competition and URDUJA Film Festival (Best New Actor) for the film “The Sun Behind You”, Cine Filipino Festival (Best Supporting Actor) for the film “The Guerilla is a Poet”, Cinema One Originals Film Festival (Best Actor) for the film “Sa Ilalim ng Tulay” (Under the Bridge), and from GAWAD BUHAY (PHILSTAGE AWARDS) (Best Supporting Actor) for the play “The Coup”. He is one of the lead actors in the film “Leonor Will Never Die” playing RUDIE which won a Jury Prize at the WORLD CINEMA COMPETITION OF SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2022, Amplfied Voices Award at the Toronto International Film Festival 2022, and other festivals around the world. Internationally, he performed in Berlin, Tokyo, Shanghai, Nagoya, Singapore, and New York. In between working and filming projects, and collaborating with his theater company, KOLAB CO., he also teaches theater classes at De La Salle College of Saint Benilde, and the Philippine High School for the Arts. Recently he’s been helping friends with casting actors in their projects, so when an international project asked him to become a casting director, he accepted the challenge and took this job as one of the jobs among other things he can do as a freelance artist. He’s currently an International Schools Theater Association (ISTA) artist and facilitates Drama workshops in ISTA theater festivals around the globe.

RAFA

Joey sometimes acts when friends or his partner ask him to— and he does an amazing job.

Joey Scoma is an Emmy nominated editor and all around cinephile. Most recently he edited the feature length documentary on the eccentric new wave band DEVO, which had its world premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. In addition to his ongoing doc projects, Joey has also been an active member of the short-form comedy collective 5secondfilms since its inception in 2008. Their slogan is “wasting your time, but not very much,” so that pretty much sums it up. The end.

WRITER-DIRECTOR

Jill Sachs is a mixed Filipina-American writer-director, passionate about using genre to challenge oppressive narratives and amplify the voices of those whose fears and desires are often overlooked. Jill earned her MFA in Directing from AFI, and is a recent Finalist of the Disney-AFI Underrepresented Storytellers Initiative and 2023 CAPE Julia Gouw Short Film award. She won 2nd place at the 2024 Screencraft Short competition, with her travel/folk horror, Taga. Her films have won awards at festivals like BendFilm, Cinequest, Mallorca, Filmquest and more. Jill currently works in animation at Psyop, and enjoys backpacking, art and all things spooky.

PRODUCER

Joyce Liu-Countryman is a producer of color whose slate centers intersectional and underrepresented identities. She was a 2023 Film Independent Project Involve Creative Executive Fellow and LA Media Fund Fellowship recipient. Joyce holds an MFA in producing from the AFI Conservatory and an MS in clinical psychology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison where she first shared a stage with her now partner on their production services company, Eat With Me Productions. Their award-winning feature, EAT WITH ME, premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival, screened at over 40 festivals across the globe and streams on Peacock. Her dark comedy short with Margaret Cho, A FAMILY GUIDE TO HUNTING, premiered at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival. Her work as an Associate Producer includes the Emmy-nominated THE GREATEST NIGHT IN POP and TEMPLE OF FILM: 100 YEARS OF THE EGYPTIAN THEATER.

PRODUCER

Growing up, Louise Barretto has always had a passion for intimate stories that connect viscerally. Like in well crafted coming-of-age stories, it’s like you discover a part of yourself as you experience what the characters go through. Before moving to Los Angeles, she has worked as a TV producer for MTV Philippines' weekly show Timeout. She co-produced No Vows, No Cows, which is a Film Independent Project Involve 2022 short. As a producer, she is in post production on a proof-of-concept short titled Family Guide to Hunting starring Margaret Cho, Kahyun Kim and Keong Sim. She has produced music videos for Iggy Azalea, Aidan Bissett, Elle E.D. Working across mediums, she’s produced magazine covers for Wonderland, Harper's Bazaar, Glamour, The Wrap and has worked with talent such as Christina Aguilera, Saweetie, Kim Petras, Keiynan Lonsdale. She is also the Production Director for ABOOKOF Magazine.

PRODUCER

Kristine de Leon is a Manila based Producer, who specializes in international co-productions. She produced RADIKALS, a short film selected for Semaine De la Critique at Cannes 2024, and is currently producing RIA, developed at Festival de Cannes La Résidence. She is a graduate of Busan Asian Film School, and has participated in Produire Au Sud, La Fabrique Cinéma, SGIFF Asian Producers Network, QCFC Eave Marketing Class.

CINEMATOGRAPHER

Geia De Vera, a Quezon City-based cinematographer, is celebrated for her vibrant and meticulous storytelling that highlights women in sports, subcultures, and diasporic narratives. A graduate of Ateneo de Manila University with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication, she earned the Loyola Schools Award for the Arts in Visual Arts: Cinematography in 2023. Her work includes Arvin Belarmino’s Radikals (2024), which premiered at Cannes' 63rd Semaine de La Critique and toured global festivals like Winterthur, Curtocircuíto, and Red Sea. She also shot Jake Muñoz's The Boxer and the Astronaut (2023), which debuted at the VC Film Fest in Los Angeles, and Diana Galang’s The Water We Swim In (2023), an advocacy film for the Active Vista Human Rights Film Festival. Selected as one of 24 fellows for the CHANEL X BIFF Asian Film Academy, De Vera received the ARRI Award for her cinematography on Errands (2024) at the Busan International Film Festival. Currently, she is collaborating on Jill Sachs' folk-horror short Taga and Arvin Belarmino's debut feature RIA, a Cannes La Résidence project and Sorfond Award winner.

FIRST ASSISTANT DIRECTOR

Ryanne Murcia is a Manila-based regional filmmaker with a passion for telling compelling stories from the Philippines. She has directed five short films, including Apasol (Chasing Sun), which competed at Cinemalaya 2015, and Entre Medio del Fin, a Gawad Urian nominee. She is currently developing her debut feature film, The Widow, a Philippine–French co-production.

Ryanne also works in various key roles in both Filipino and international film productions, including Assistant Director, Casting Director, and Acting Coach. Her recent projects include Radikals (Semaine de la Critique, Cannes 2024), Amoeba(Singapore), She Makes and Unmakes (Germany), and the award-winning Filipino films Women of the Weeping River and John Denver Trending, among others.

In addition to her filmmaking career, Ryanne serves as Mindanao Representative for the National Committee on Cinema of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA). She is also the Festival and Artistic Director of Festival de Cine Paz Mindanao, and a former faculty member at Ateneo de Zamboanga University.

EDITOR

Joey Scoma is an Emmy nominated editor and all around cinephile. Most recently he edited the feature length documentary on the eccentric new wave band DEVO, which had its world premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. In addition to his ongoing doc projects, Joey has also been an active member of the short-form comedy collective 5secondfilms since its inception in 2008. Their slogan is “wasting your time, but not very much,” so that pretty much sums it up. The end.

SPFX MAKEUP ARTIST

Pothmolita Dou, widely known as Apple, is an esteemed Cambodian makeup artist. Her contributions to the industry have been recognized through the prestigious Ve Neill Makeup Artist top 5 of Legendary Scholarship, which she received in 2016. With this scholarship, she attended the renowned Cinema Makeup School in Los Angeles, California, where she excelled and earned a diploma in Beauty & Special Effects Makeup. Apple had the privilege of being trained by esteemed Hollywood artists such as Ken Diaz, Leonard Engelman, Don Lanning, and Michael Spatola, which helped hone her skills. She has worked on numerous projects, including movies, commercials, music videos, and photoshoots in both Asia and the United States. Some of her notable works include First They Killed My Father, Hex, Before the Fall, The Forest Whispers, Lisa and Liza. Apple is passionate about inspiring future generations of Cambodian makeup artists to pursue the same career path and to achieve greater success. 

COMPOSER

Denise Santos is a 2x Emmy-nominated and 1x Emmy-winning Filipina composer and multi-instrumentalist based in Los Angeles, California. Her music has been heard in a multitude of movies and tv shows, most recently in “Parallel” (VOD), “The Moment: How Sports Changed the World” (BBC Select), “Island of the Sea Wolves” (Netflix), “Eden: Untamed Planet” (BBC America), and “Primates” (PBS), for which she was awarded the 2021 News & Doc Emmy for Outstanding Music Composition. That same year, she was also awarded the ASCAP Foundation Michelle & Dean Kay Award for emerging composers in the LA area, recognizing her body of work and promising career. She trained at Hans Zimmer and Sony/ATV’s Bleeding Fingers Music where she was an in-house composer for many years before going independent in 2022. Largely influenced by alternative, classical, pop, and world music, Denise loves to blend these different genres to create uniquely powerful compositions that help uplift diverse stories, filmmakers, and creators. When not in her studio, Denise loves to host gatherings, watch concerts, go thrifting, and spend quality time with her husband Josh and their dog Biscuit.

PRODUCTION DESIGNER

Roma Regala is an accomplished production designer whose work spans narrative features, genre films, and international projects, known for immersive world-building and bold visual storytelling. Their credits include BuyBust (2018), On the Job 2: The Missing 8 (2021), Under Parallel Skies (2024), Fruitcake (2024), The Caretakers (2025), and Taga (2025).

Roma won the Gawad Urian Award for Best Production Design for BuyBust and has received multiple nominations from Gawad Urian, FAMAS, the Star Awards, and the Young Critics Circle. They also bring extensive television experience, with work on major Filipino series such as Be Careful with My Heart, Princess and I, and My Guitar Princess. Their designs consistently elevate story through richly detailed, emotionally grounded environments.

COSTUME DESIGNER

Jac Pequena is a Costume Designer and Wardrobe Stylist based in Manila, Philippines. With a keen eye for detail and a passion for fashion and art, she brings characters to life through her innovative designs and styling. Jac has worked on various films, advertisements and television projects, showcasing her ability to blend cultural elements with contemporary trends. Some of her previous works include Uninvited, Under Parallel Skies and Friendly Fire. Her work not only enhances visual storytelling but also reflects her commitment to elevating the art of costume design in the industry.