We are thrilled to announce the Mentors for Round One of the 2025 – 2027 Zhao-Chen Family AAPI Voices Fund!
(From left to right: Nicole Docta, Bhawin Suchak, and Ramona Diaz)
NICOLE DOCTA is an award-winning documentary filmmaker who has focused her career on socially impactful projects and BIPOC stories. She offers her unique lens as a Korean-American transnational, transracial adoptee raised in Wisconsin. Nicole was part of the producing and impact teams on the Peabody Award-winning THE JUDGE (TIFF 2017), Emmy and Anthem Award-winning BELLY OF THE BEAST (HRWFF 2020), and duPont Award-winner THROUGH THE NIGHT (Tribeca 2021).
BHAWIN SUCHAK is an educator, filmmaker, and the co-founder and co-executive director of Youth FX, a nationally renowned media arts organization. He is also co-director of NeXt Doc, a year-round fellowship program of Youth FX that exists to amplify the voices of emerging documentary filmmakers of color. Bhawin is the director, cinematographer and editor of Outta The Muck (2023), a feature documentary supported by Sundance Institute, ITVS, Just Films, Black Public Media and Southern Documentary Fund which aired on PBS’ Independent Lens series.
RAMONA DIAZ is a Peabody, Gotham, IDA, Emmy award-winning, Gawad Urian (Philippine Critics), PGA and Independent Spirit award-nominated Filipino American filmmaker. Her films have been screened at Sundance, Berlin, Busan, Tribeca, SXSW, IDFA, HotDocs, and more. Ramona’s independently produced films have been nationally broadcast on PBS, Arte, and the BBC, amongst others. Her latest film, And So It Begins, was selected as the Philippines’ entry to the 97th Academy Awards in the Best International Feature category.
We are so grateful to these filmmakers and look forward to all that they will contribute to the projects in this round of the Zhao-Chen Family AAPI Voices Fund.