I didn't have dreams of becoming a filmmaker as a kid.
 

I was just a Filipino-American kid who was born in Queens and grew up in a Los Angeles suburb in the 1980s. It was a difficult period to be a brown Asian back then. 

 

My parents set out for me and my sister to fully integrate into American society to best pursue the American Dream.  A relentless diet of American sports, mac and cheese and embodied the spirit of the All-American except on the outside and culture-wise, where I was burdened with being Filipino.  No ube lattes back then. 

 

Cheering on U.S.A. during the 1984 Olympics, I wanted to know what it was like to pursue something so lofty.

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That curiosity led me to West Point, where I studied economics, learned leadership and competed on the gymnastics team. Learning how to lead a team under extreme duress like bullets flying fascinated me, like the physics of executing a full twisting double back somersault 20 feet in the air and blindly landing on your feet was fascinating.  I didn't stay in the Army for very long. 

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Gymnastics brought me into the film business. I was accepted into the Directors Guild of America Training Program which led to more than twenty years working as a first assistant director on studio films and television, working with cinema and TV legends everyday. 

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I was selected for the ABC–Disney Directing Fellowship in 2012 alongside Ryan Coogler, Regina King, and Anne Renton.  I thought I was on the perfect path only to discover I didn’t want to do episodic TV even though that was my mother tongue for decades as an AD. I simply didn’t have the same story perspectives as the showrunners who were making TV at the time. I would have experimented more with the form and balked at whitewashing Asian characters.

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Eventually, I burned out. I tried to kill myself.  Left my career. 

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Enter Paris. Living as an immigrant again gave me enough distance to look back at America, Hollywood, and myself. I realized I still loved the movie business—the work part, the making part. I just needed to find another way to do it.

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I tested my ideas with Je m'appelle Alvie Balicoco.  Quite pleased with the results and while I am dedep in post-production I am also building my international finishing team with my filmmaking approach in mind. Concurrently, I maintain a film collective in Paris and seeking the same in Dublin.  My French level is B2.

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I love live music, play competitive tennis and I have a sweet tooth.