Marissa Aroy

Marissa Aroy is a Filipino American, Emmy Award-winning director, best known for her work in the United States. She received a News and Documentary Emmy Award for the documentary, Sikhs in America,[1][2][3][4] and an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Historical Programming for The Delano Manongs: Forgotten Heroes of the United Farm Workers.[1][2]

A Fulbright Scholar, Aroy was listed as one of the "Notable Asian Americans in Entertainment" by the Center for Asian American Media and cited by BuzzFeed as one of the "Legendary Filipino Americans in the US."[5] She was the Asian Centennial Distinguished Film Fellow in Residence[6] at The College of William and Mary where she also received the Hatsuye Yamasaki Award for Asian American Visionary Leadership.

“I want someone to see our brown faces on the screen and feel proud of who we are as a people,” she said. “To see all the challenges we’re faced with in the world and to know that there are Filipinos who speak up, who fight for justice, who are heard and who are seen," she said in an article titled, "Director's Chair: The documentary filmmaker Marissa Aroy ’95 has already won an Emmy. Now she’s at work on an upcoming Smithsonian exhibit."[2]

Education

Aroy got her undergraduate degree in Psychology at Boston College and later received a Master's in Journalism where she specialized in documentary film and broadcast journalism at UC Berkeley. She spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic working in the public health sector and creating a film about HIV/AIDS in the Dominican Republic.

Filmmaking

Aroy directed a darkly suspenseful short film, Recipe (formerly known as "Losing Cock). Filmed in the Philippines, "Recipe" was based on the short story written by award-winning writer Marivi Soliven.[7][8]

Grand Café, an educational telenovela, was a six-part series directed by Marissa Aroy and shown in the United States.[9][10]

Aroy produced and directed the documentary Sikhs in America for which she received an Emmy. She also received an Emmy nomination for her PBS documentary The Delano Manongs: Forgotten Heroes of the United Farm Workers. This documentary highlights the role of Filipinos in the Delano Grape Strike of 1965 in California and the formation the United Farm Workers.[11] "My goal," said Aroy in an interview for caamedia.org, "is to get Filipinos to learn about this history and be proud of it and have a better understanding of our contributions to the American fabric."[12]

Aroy is co-founder of Media Factory, where her and her partner created interactive video elements about climate change with Bill Nye the Science Guy for the Chabot Space & Science Center, and has worked with various companies and non-profit organization to create videos and serialized content. Aroy worked with UNICEF as a video producer/communications specialist in the UNICEF New York headquarters before spending four months writing and filming stories in the Typhoon Haiyan-affected areas of the Philippines soon after the disaster.

In 2016, Aroy debuted her short film TGIF- Thank God I'm Filipino! - a response to the lack of Filipino American representation in pan Asian American media at the time.[13]

In 2024, Aroy was commissioned to work with the Smithsonian Museum of American History on short documentary films that will part of a exhibition on Filipino American objects and history.[2][14] The exhibit will run from December 2025 to November 2027.[15]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Williams, Jennifer L. (16 March 2022). "Filmmaker to document Asian history at W&M for centennial". News at W&M. College of William & Mary. Archived from the original on 27 March 2025. Retrieved 9 December 2025.
  2. ^ a b c d Maguire, Cheryl (Fall 2024). "Director's Chair: The documentary filmmaker Marissa Aroy '95 has already won an Emmy. Now she's at work on an upcoming Smithsonian exhibit". Boston College Magazine. Boston College. Archived from the original on 19 February 2025. Retrieved 9 December 2025.
  3. ^ "An Emmy Goes to 'Sikhs in America' documentary". SikhNet. 13 May 2008. Archived from the original on 21 May 2025. Retrieved 22 August 2024.
  4. ^ Arora, Avneet (20 September 2018). "'Sikhs in America' episode aired on CNN wins an Emmy Award". SBS. Archived from the original on 10 December 2025. Retrieved 9 December 2025.
  5. ^ Tan, Avianne (31 October 2015). "Lea Salonga And 33 Other Epic Filipino-Americans Got Together For A Big Family Photo". BuzzFeed. Archived from the original on 7 June 2023. Retrieved 9 December 2025.
  6. ^ "Marissa Aroy - Asian Centennial Distinguished Film Fellow in Residence". College of William & Mary. 2021. Archived from the original on 23 June 2025. Retrieved 9 December 2025.
  7. ^ McDaniel, Amy (31 December 2014). "Marissa Aroy - Recipe (Excerpt)". Everyday Genius. Archived from the original on 21 August 2017. Retrieved 9 December 2025.
  8. ^ Soliven, Marivi (31 December 2014). "A Recipe to End 2014 with a Bang". Marivi Soliven. Archived from the original on 10 December 2025. Retrieved 9 December 2025.
  9. ^ "Grand Café English Creators". Grand Café English. Archived from the original on 20 February 2025. Retrieved 9 December 2025.
  10. ^ "Episodes". Grand Café English. Archived from the original on 19 February 2025. Retrieved 9 December 2025.
  11. ^ "About". Delano Manongs. Archived from the original on 7 March 2025.
  12. ^ Perri, Ashlyn (3 October 2014). "Filmmaker Advice: Marissa Aroy". Center for Asian American Media. Archived from the original on 15 March 2025. Retrieved 9 December 2025.
  13. ^ Nadal, Kevin (5 October 2016). "Why We Celebrate Filipino American History Month". HuffPost. Archived from the original on 4 October 2025. Retrieved 9 December 2025.
  14. ^ Lapastora, Charlie; Gonzalez, Irene (25 October 2025). "Stockton's Filipino American National Historical Society unites community with the past". CBS Sacramento. Archived from the original on 10 December 2025. Retrieved 9 December 2025.
  15. ^ "How Can You Forget Me: Filipino American Stories | Smithsonian Institution". Smithsonian Institution. 2025. Retrieved 9 December 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.