Florante Aguilar is the leading figure in Philippine guitar music today. He champions Philippine music through the medium of film, recordings and live performances.

His arrangements and compositions reveal a sophistication and deep understanding of the form, successfully crafting the right balance between respect and redefinition of a tradition.

His constant search for a tradition-based contemporary Filipino sound led him to champion harana music - songs used in the now-vanished Filipino courtship ritual of serenading. Aguilar's compositions, which use strong Philippine motifs in a modern context, include works for guitar, octavina, violincello, percussion, as well as song cycles and a zarzuela.

Read more about Florante at www.florante.org

Benito Bautista won the award for Best Cinematography at the New York International Film and Video Festival in 2006 for his feature length documentary film, The Gift of Barong. This film is about two generations of Filipino-American surfers from the Bay Area who travel to the Philippines to immerse in the culture, surf the islands and rediscover themselves.

Benito is also a writer, director, producer, sound recordist, editor and founder of Wanderlustproject Film, a San Francisco based company. He has recently completed work on his short film Number Four, and served as a production assistant for the critically-acclaimed Gus Van Sant motion picture Milk, starring Sean Penn.

Visit Benito's website at
www.benitobautista.com

An independent ethnographer, photographer, film documentarian and explorer, Fides is the Executive Director of New Art Media and founder and co-director of Pacific Ethnographic.

She produced the documentary Weaving T'nalak, the visual essay Mindanao by SkyLab, Florante Aguilar’s Lalawigan and curated the T'boli textile exhibit T'nalak - The Spirit of Fu' Dalu.

She was a founding member of Likha Pilipino Folk Ensemble and has performed with the Alleluia Panis Dance Theater. Fides also directed the musical Love in the Time of Breast Cancer by Gayle Romasanta. She lives in San Francisco with her children Isa, Rafael and Juliette.

Visit Pacific Ethnographic at
www.pacificethnographic.org

Peggy is a graduate of the University of the Philippines and obtained her MFA in Motion Pictures and Television with emphasis on Cinematography from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.

Awards include:

• Best Cinematography - 2006 San Francisco International Women's Film Festival
• Best Emerging Filmmaker - 2005 San Francisco International Women's Film Festival

Peggy has shot, directed, written and collaborated on over 20 films dealing with diverse themes and cross-cultural subjects. Her works are distinct for their heart, energy and perspective.

In 2008, she founded Head of the Dog Pictures, a creative agency based in San Francisco, California.
She lives in San Francisco with her partner Lourdes Figueroa, a poet and freelance photographer. They are happy when sunburnt.

Visit Peggy's website at
www.peggyperalta.com

Emma studied Cinema at San Francisco State University. She has collaborated in several short films, music videos and feature length documentaries such as The Gift of Barong.

She is currently a writer, director, assistant director, editor and casting director for the San Francisco based Wanderlustproject Films.