
Desireena is a queer immigrant filmmaker born in Manila and living in NYC since the age of 11. In her works, she explores collective history and the representation of marginalized communities, especially as it pertains to LGBT and people of color. A graduate of NYU’s film program and its Interactive Telecommunications Program, she was nominated for an Emmy in 2002 and won a GLAAD Media Award in 2009 for her work with the seminal LGBT television program In the Life on PBS. Her films and interactive video installations have shown at MIX NYC, Queens Museum of Art, and the British Film Institute, among other venues. Most recently she received an Artist As Activist travel and research grant from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation for her work-in-progress documentary To Germany, With Love which poses the question: Can an act of radical forgiveness create a more peaceful world?