In 2023 I studied abroad in Bodh Gaya, India with a Buddhist Studies program. I planned an independant research project, under the guidance of professors of Buddhist History, Tibetan Language, & Meditation Studies. Spending the last month of the program in Kathmandu and the Solukhumbu valleys of Nepal, I interviewed various monks, lay practitioners, and members of both rural and urban Buddhist communities— exploring the connection of local Buddhist material practices to the environment. 

In this film, narrated by my friend Tulku Nyoshul Khenpo Jamyang Zhopa, a Tibetan reincarnated lama, I hope to show how Himalayan Buddhist practices are often rooted in older indigenous practices which cultivate a harmonious relationship with the natural world. 

I also attempt to touch on the issue of the industrialization of religion, and how a local environmental activist and an emic anthropologist attempt to redeem their traditions. 

I sought to understand the nature of these material rituals, if people still believed there was an invisible power generated by them, and how this power connects to the earth. 

Who Has Seen The Wind had six educational screenings at The Burmese Vihar in Bodh Gaya, College of The Atlantic, USC, and Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences.

My friend Francesca D'Alessandro and I sought to explore aging and generational wisdom through hands and their work. 

Making Handfilm, we interviewed elders in our community of Los Angeles who had spent their whole lives working with their hands: A beekeeper who immigrated from Iran, a retired boxer who was once an Olympian for Nigeria, a prominent chef in the Chicano art community, a miniature artist & collector, a bass player, a violin player, an archivist of rare books, and a textile artist famous for using natural materials. 

In an etherial journey from subject to subject and theme to theme, we explore the seniors' relationships with their craft, the changes they've found with age and injury, and how they pass down what they have learned.

I had a vision of everyone whispering their secrets into the trunks of trees, and two people watching, refusing to let their secrets go. After my friend Gabriella Diaz agreed to produce the story, we put out a casting call and soon found my characters. Over the course of a few months, we filmed in Santa Cruz and Los Angeles— I wanted the short to take place in a fictional city, with both trains and redwood forests. When The Wind Blew Through The Trees premiered at the Latine Film Festival at USC and subsequently played at Festival Angaelica in Pasadena.