The 2018 NYWIFT Ravenal Foundation Feature Film Grant was presented to Diane Paragas‘s musical drama Yellow Rose.
Yellow Rose is the story of Rose, an undocumented Filipino girl, dreams of one day leaving her small Texas town to pursue her country music dreams. Her world is shattered when her mom suddenly gets picked up by immigration and Customs Enforcement. Rose, facing this new reality, is forced to flee the scene, leaving behind the only life she knows, and embarks on a journey of self-discovery as she searches for a new home in the honky tonk world of Austin, Texas.
The film has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and screened to acclaim at festivals including the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, Urban World, and CAAM Fest, among others.
It has been picked up for distribution by Sony Pictures Worldwide.
Diane Paragas is an award-winning director, editor, cinematographer and producer of commercials, narrative features and documentaries.
In 2012, Paragas co-directed Brooklyn Boheme, a feature length documentary about an African American arts movement, with writer and critic Nelson George. The film featuring Spike Lee, Chris Rock and Rosie Perez to name a few. The film was acquired by Showtime and won a Black Reel Award for Best Documentary.
in 2019, Paragas wrote and directed her debut narrative feature, Yellow Rose, about an undocumented Filipino-American teen pursuing a dream to become a country music singer. The film won over a dozen Grand Jury Prizes during its festival run and will be released by Sony Pictures in 2020.
She is also in pre-production for a bold feature documentary about a wrongfully convicted undocumented immigrant called The Three Lives of David Wong that uses puppetry to tell its story. The film was is supported by The Sundance Institute, The Bertha Foundation Grant and CAAM. Paragas is a 2020 recipient of the prestigious Creative Capital Award and was named as A100’s Most Impactful Asians of 2020 alongside directors Bong Joon Ho, Taika Waititi and Lulu Wang.
