In 2017 I got selected to participate in a documentary filmmaking workshop, organised by YSEALI and conducted by American Film Showcase. The 12 selected participants were from the ASEAN region and gathered in Luang Prabang, Laos for a week to create films together.

I was grouped together with 3 other participants who were from Laos, Philippines and Cambodia. Within a short span of a week, we explored Luang Prabang to find potential stories, pitched them to the panel of mentors and immediately headed out to produce the short film. By the end of the week, our final films were screened at the Luang Prabang Film Festival.

My team did a short documentary of a family whose main source of livelihood had always depended on the Mekong river, but recent constructions of dams started to threaten the ecosystems in the waters and the livelihood of this family.

The week spent in Luang Prabang remains deeply memorable to me even till today - I still have visual memories of the quiet grandiosity of the Mekong at 4am when we sat in little boats to film the shrimp-catcher. There was no one else in the river but us; there was a very profound stillness and it felt like time had stood still.

It was also very inspiring to be amongst excited and talented young individuals from the region. At that time, I had only just graduated from university and was new to filmmaking, but in that course were people who had already spent several years being journalists for women’s rights, LGBTQ issues and several other political issues. Youth was not wasted on the young, I remember thinking to myself, and began to believe that I too could use my voice for something greater.