DEI
An angry man finds himself in an unlikely body on Dia de los Muertos.
An angry man finds himself in an unlikely body on Dia de los Muertos.
When Bryan, a red-faced American man joins in a rally supporting ICE agents raiding a Latino household on Dia de los Muertos (during Halloweekend), he catches the attention of an angry and heartbroken Carla - the teenage daughter of the household. Carla then takes solace at their Ofrenda, cursing Bryan to hopefully not return to life until he learns what it means to be human - to feel her pain and sorrow. With energies and spirits awake on this spooky weekend, the curse works, and Bryan's soul swaps into the body of the Latina teenager, on an important night in a community he so fears.
Jill V. Dae is a writer, director, and producer from Hong Kong, now based in Los Angeles.
Jill's genre-bending work fuses surrealism with social commentary, stemming from a background in photojournalism. Her directorial works have premiered at Oscar-qualifying festivals such as Palm Springs (“Honeywell”), LA Shorts (“The Discovery”), and most recently “DEI”, currently entering the festival circuit. She was named “30 Under 30 Filmmakers to Watch” by the LA Film Awards for her debut short Rebirth, now curated into Southeastern University’s filmmaking curriculum.
As a writer, Jill’s alternate-history pilot “UMERIKA” won the Fresh Voices International Screenplay Competition and received its Diversity & Inclusion Award. Her feature screenplay “Sonata” was a 2025 WIF x Black List Feature Lab and 2019 Screencraft Film Fund finalist. As a producer, Jill has under her belt multiple feature films and shows with distribution on AppleTV, Amazon Prime, Vudu, DirecTV, making her a proud member of the Producers Guild of America. She is also a member of Alliance of Women Directors, Film Fatales, and Women in Film, where she was a selected mentee.
A trilingual third-culture kid, Jill unabashedly crafts stories through a cultural kaleidoscope - holding a mirror up to society. Embracing her global background and multidisciplinary artistic roots, she approaches each set with a deeply collaborative spirit rooted in empathy and vivacity - (the name of her first Youtube channel!).
She is a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin. Hook 'Em \m/
Lochlyn Munro - Bryan
Maeve Garay - Carla
Anirudh Pisharody - The Voter