DIRECTING (RUYA)

RUYA

Writer/Director/Producer: Nicole Mairose Dizon
Director of Photography: Mike Maliwanag
Editor: Calvin Chin

When a T’boli dreamweaver goes into a coma, her anxious, insomniac daughter must dream and communicate with Fu Dalu, the Spirit of Abaca, to pick up where her mom left off on the next t'nalak.

OFFICIAL SELECTIONS
Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival 2025: Sunday (5/4/25) at 6:00 PM - Kuwetuhan Lives Program (World Premiere)

Wyoming International Film Festival 2025: Friday (7/11/25) at 9:50AM at SPA - Arthouse & Experimental Short Films Program (Wyoming Premiere)

DC Shorts International Film Festival 2025: Friday (9/5/25) at 11:30AM at Alamo Cinema DC - Are We There Yet? (DC Premiere)

Fil-Am Creative Film Festival 2025: Friday (9/26/25) at 3:00PM at Cal State LA - Sacred Bonds (Program)

Mystic Film Festival 2025: Friday (10/3/25) at 7:00PM at Mystic Luxury Cinemas - Film Noirish (Connecticut Premiere)

Urbanworld Film Festival 2025: Thursday (10/30/25) at 3:30PM EDT at Regal Union Square - Legacy (New York Premiere)

The Reel Champions Shorts Fest 2025: Sunday (11/2/25) at 1:00PM at LOOK Dine-In Cinemas

Rehoboth International Film Festival: Friday (11/7/25) at 11:00AM at CAT Main Theater (Delaware Premiere)

The New Mexico Asian American Film Festival 2025: Saturday (11/15/25) at 3:00PM at The Guild Cinema (New Mexico Premiere, 3405 Central Ave. NE, Albuquerque, NM, 87106)

MILESTONES
Hotlist / Final Top 10% out of 5,000 Submissions for Cleveland International Film Festival

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

RUYA is a personal reflection about purpose, self-limiting beliefs and creating in the face of self-doubt and fears. It shows a Filipina in her late 20s figuring out how to carry on her tribe’s tradition of dreamweaving when her anxiety and insomnia stand in her way. When Ruya’s mom goes into a coma, she feels the pressure of living up to her mom’s sacrifice after moving to the states. As she desperately tries to dream of the design for a timely order, she’s forced to examine her anxieties head-on throughout the night. Her fears of losing her mom, failing and diving into the unknown grew. It was only the subsiding of her anxiety that allowed her to move forward.

During the 2023 strikes, I thought about my purpose in art and my relationship with my creative self. I was recovering from a long bout of insomnia, burnout, undiagnosed (at the time) anemia that interfered with my sleep. It had been 2 years since I directed anything outside of work. I didn’t recognize myself in the midst of my anxiety and all of the external factors I had no control over. I wanted to remember: Why does art matter to me? Could I still create? With time away from work, I stayed up late that summer obsessing over finding the perfect idea–only to worsen my insomnia in the process.

But the answer lied in those sleepless nights—I revisited an idea I shelved about the T’boli dreamweavers in Mindanao. Though I don’t identify as T’boli, I was drawn to the idea that we can stand in our way even for a communal dream and calling we’re born into. As the granddaughter of an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW), I’ve never seen a story about a T’boli dreamweaver as an OFW pursuing their dream of dreamweaving in modern America. While the T’boli face different pressures and challenges than Filipino Americans, I learned they would struggle to dream and weave from time to time. The quick, disorienting archival image sequence in my film implicitly reclaims some of the forgotten legacy of Filipino Americans before my generation. Though the film isn't centered on our history in America, this nightmare shows Ruya's subconscious and her experience of crippling anxiety from the weight of her mom and ancestors' sacrifices.

At a time when many of us feel lost about our direction in life, I hope this film reminds people that we can always come back home to ourselves and dream.