CAST

Elena Bautista as herself

CREW

Jessica Sison: Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Editor

Elise Lebec: Composer, Sound Designer, Sound Mixer

Catherine Kelly: Motion Graphics Designer, Animator

Betty Bautista-Ladiana: Translator, Music Researcher

Miraflor Spingola: Translator

Gudelia Sison: Translator

Elena Bautista

Elena was born on April 19, 1907, in Moncada, Tarlac, Philippines. She is the eldest daughter of the late Macario Adsuara (of Spanish Ancestry) and Francisca Pascua. She married the late Felix Rodriguez Bautista, and their marriage lasted until his death 53 years later.

In 2007, she celebrated her 100th birthday. The party was attended by over 200 friends and relatives from the Philippines and from around the US. Eight of her eleven children are still alive, and she has ten grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

Elena is the grandmother of Jessica Sison, director of Kuna Ni Nanang (My Mother Said).

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Jessica Sison

In film school, Jessica Sison decided to rebel against the stereotypes placed on Asian-American females by making a parody of Hong Kong action films as well as an homage to Jean-Luc Godard. That film, Newton's Law, was chosen as the closing film of San Francisco State University's Film Finals Festival and has gone on to screen at the Film Arts Festival, the Humboldt Film Festival, UC Berkeley's Alternative Requirements Festival, and the Women Make Movies Film Festival.

After graduation, she spent 3 years of post-production work in film, television, and corporate projects before focusing her editing talent on documentaries. Her documentary work has screened in film festivals all over the world, and her broadcast work has shown on PBS, the Oxygen Channel, the WB, ImaginAsian, and The Filipino Channel.

Kuna Ni Nanang is her documentary directorial debut. Jessica is passionate about documentaries and continues to edit for other producers and directors. Her next documentary is about her family’s unusual participation in the Bataan Death March during WWII.

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Elise Lebec | eliselebec.com

Elise Lebec's original piano style mixes hauntingly beautiful melody lines with tempo changes and stunning dynamics to create an absolutely unique sound. She works and has performed with prominent musicians, including Sheryl Crow and Nigel Kennedy. In addition, her songs and vocals were featured in the independent feature, Americanizing Shelley. Her third album, Possible Dreams, is currently available at Borders Books & Music and Barnes & Noble where she is the featured artist at their California stores.

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