BASURERO is Eileen’s directorial debut. She is a Filipino-American filmmaker who has been described by mentor Anna Thomas (Screenwriter Frieda, Independent Feature Project Founder Los Angeles) as “an artist whose stories magically come to life like in a painting.”

Eileen is a graduate fellow of the prestigious American Film Institute and a recipient of grants like the Women in Film Scholarship Award, the AFI William J. Fadiman award for best screenplay in her AFI graduating class, and the ABC/DISNEY Talent Development Grant. She has worked in the ranks of international film and TV for fifteen years. She has worked as a producer in documentaries (NHK) and documentary series (CNN, Sundance Channel), in production management on New York indie films (Two Girls and a Guy, Welcome to the Dollhouse), as a screenwriter for Walt Disney Studios and Discover Channel and as a story development producer for both major and indie studios.

She has been mentored by seasoned filmmakers and producers: Philippine Directors – Auraeus Solito (The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros) and Isabel Sandoval (Lingua Franca). And in the US and Europe: Screenwriter- Anna Thomas (Frieda), Producer- Lydia Pilcher (Namesake, Darjeeling Limited), Actor-Producer – Forest Whitaker, Producer Kevin Chinoy (Tangerine, Florida Project), Producer Robert Chang (Advantageous), Editor – Harry Yoon (Revenant, Detroit), and Film Director – Eva Husson (Bang Gang, Girls of the Sun, Hanna).

Eileen’s writings and projects have been finalists at Sundance Screenwriting Lab, Sundance Film Festival, Film Independent (LA), Independent Feature Project (NY), Nashville’s Screenwriters’ Competition, and the Bahamas International Writing Residency.

First in her immigrant family to be born in the United States, Eileen grew up as the only Asian in her class in Richmond, Virginia- the historical capital of the Confederacy. Her vision is to tell stories about the Global Filipino Diaspora and History, the many layers of the Filipino face along with the deeply complex nuances of colonial psychology and Filipino identity.