In its twenty-first season, the Armed With a Camera (AWC) Fellowship for Emerging Media Artists develops the next generation of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander artists to connect our communities through the stories of the VC Archives.

Visual Communications seeks to cultivate a rising generation of artists committed to social and political changes and movements, while preserving the legacy and vision of our communities. We seek to support artists who are committed to empowering communities and challenging perspectives through their creative works.

We are thrilled to welcome six filmmakers to our 2023-2024 AWC cohort!

Alfred Bordallo

Alfred Bordallo (b. 1999) is a CHamoru visual artist from Guåhan currently based in Los Angeles. His work focuses on recollecting and honoring the fragmented and, more importantly, repurposed facets of CHamoru identity through the analog mediums of photography and video. Bordallo’s self-taught practice began in 2018 while attending the University of Southern California, and has since grown into editorial shoots for fashion and music, live-visual (VJ) sets accompanied with lo-fi hip-hop, and to video art installations that interrogate CHamoru identity within the context of indigineity, diaspora, and imperialism. 

 

Bryson Nihipali

Bryson Nihipali is a visual artist born and raised in Los Angeles with a passion for both photography and filmmaking. With ancestral ties to the Hawaiian and Philippine Islands, he draws much inspiration for his photographic work from his family and their rich cultural heritage. He is a current undergraduate studying Communication and Cinematic Arts at USC. As an aspiring filmmaker, he aims to focus on the indigenous diaspora and share his unique perspective with wider audiences. Embracing his diverse background and experiences, Bryson's artistry reflects a deep connection to his roots and a drive to create impactful visual stories.

 

Honestine Pa'ala-Fraser

Honestine Pa'ala-Fraser is a writer and social media professional born and raised in the Los Angeles area. She graduated from CSU Long Beach with a BA in Communication Studies and went on to Syracuse University to receive her MS in Digital Communications. Her work can be found in publications like Teen Vogue, POPSUGAR, and HuffPost. She is passionate about storytelling and sharing the stories of the Pasifika community and is extremely excited to be a part of this year's cohort!

 

Kayli Kimura

Kayli Kimura is a Japanese-American creative director, visual storyteller, and talent manager. Her work spans across various genres with a focus on non-fiction storytelling and musically-driven films. In addition to her directorial and cinematography work, Kayli worked in the camera department for a variety of commercials, TV shows, documentaries and music videos including projects for Netflix, Hulu, Food Network, PBS, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Telfar. Kayli is the creative director and manager for Queens, NY-born, Nigerian-American rapper, AKINYEMI. Kayli was born and raised in Boulder, CO and recently relocated to LA after living in NYC for almost 5 years. She graduated from Bowdoin College in Maine with majors in Sociology and Environmental Studies and a minor in Music.

 

Paula Kiley

Paula Kiley (she/her) is a multimedia journalist and documentary filmmaker who strives to tell stories that connect and empower people with information, the truth, and most importantly — one another. She most recently worked on a feature documentary titled Body Parts, a Sundance-selected film that explores the evolution of desire and “sex” on-screen from a female perspective — allowing women to reclaim the parts of themselves that have been objectified and exploited for decades. Paula received her BA in journalism and a minor in film at Cal State Long Beach and is currently a digital content coordinator at PBS SoCal where she produces arts and culture stories in the Greater Los Angeles area.

 

Zaynah Waseem

Zaynah Waseem is a graduate student at the University of Southern California pursuing her Master of Arts in Visual Anthropology. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Global Studies and Media & Cultural Studies from the University of California, Riverside. As a Pakistani-American, her work uplifts the diverse stories of South Asian, Muslim communities through ethnographic film, media production, digital storytelling, and archival research. Having grown up in various communities across the world, Zaynah has a special interest in exploring themes like memory, belonging, diaspora, immigrant experiences, third culture identities, and migration. Her most recent project was with NPR’s Next Gen Radio, through which she produced a non-narrated audio piece and a multimedia story. She is now working on her first documentary film as part of her master’s thesis project.