PJ Raval

PJ Raval is a queer, first-generation Filipinx American filmmaker whose work examines social justice issues through the lived experiences and stories of queer and marginalized communities. Recognized as one of Out Magazine's OUT 100 and named American Documentary | POV’s Creative Visionary of 2024, PJ’s films have been featured on platforms like Netflix, Hulu, PBS, Discovery, and Showtime.

PJ’s acclaimed documentary BEFORE YOU KNOW IT—a poignant portrait of three gay seniors—was hailed by indieWIRE as “a crucial new addition to the LGBT doc canon” and earned the 2016 NLGJA Association of LGBTQ Journalists Excellence in Documentary Award. His follow-up film, CALL HER GANDA, investigates the murder of trans woman Jennifer Laude by a U.S. Marine in the Philippines. Broadcast on POV (PBS) in 2019, the film was nominated for a Philippines Academy Award for Best Documentary and sparked an extensive impact campaign, including over 150 community screenings and a closed-door meeting with the U.S. State Department.

PJ’s most recent work, WHO WE BECOME, is a coming-of-age documentary that follows the lives of three young Filipino American women in Texas during the COVID-19 pandemic. Distributed by Ava DuVernay’s ARRAY Releasing, the film is currently streaming on Netflix. He is currently in development to direct a feature narrative screenplay, LOVE VISA, co-written by Eileen Cabiling. LOVE VISA received the SFFilm Rainin Screenwriting Grant and Derek Nguyen of the Population is set to produce.

As an accomplished cinematographer, PJ shot the Academy Award-nominated documentary TROUBLE THE WATER. He is also a co-founder of the NEA-supported queer arts organization OUTsider and serves on the steering committee of the Asian American Documentary Network (A-Doc). A Soros Justice Fellow, Guggenheim Fellow, and USA Artist Fellow, PJ is a member of the Producers Guild of America and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where he serves as Chair of the Asian Affinity Group.

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