In time to close out Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage month arrives “Defy,” a nuanced, gorgeously captured short film that at once honors the collective experience of the AAPI community while illustrating the multi-dimensionality of those within it. 

The visual poem layers rich, exquisitely shot portraits of individuals from across the AAPI diaspora with their voices, each sharing observations of their own experiences being of Asian descent—good and bad. It was created by director Jon Jon Augustavo and cinematographer Mego Lin and is the debut project from A Bunch of Savages, a Los Angeles-based creative collective just launched by Augustavo and fellow Filipino-American creative execs Byron Atienza, former VP-global creative at Capitol Music Group, and Tara Aquino, an independent creative consultant and former head of content at Free the Work.

Augustavo, who is repped out of M ss ng P eces and has helmed projects for Adidas, Jordan, March for Our Lives, Shawn Mendes, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and more, teamed up with his frequent collaborator, Taiwanese-born cinematographer Lin (“In a New York Minute”) to create the film over three weeks in Los Angeles, each day traveling to different parts of the city to shoot. 

“My goal was to make something that felt like it was telling individual stories but also felt collective,” said Augustavo. “We’re always seen as one big group, which is problematic, because we have our own experiences.”

The result is a stunning medley of sentiment and memories, full of scenes that will likely resonate with those of AAPI descent. 

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“I feel like as Asians in America what binds us together are our fears and traumas in relationship to America, is very similar,” says one man in the film’s intro.

A woman then recalls always feeling like an “other, capital ‘O’ other,” while some recount moments of wanting to hide or deny their heritage. “Everywhere I would go, I’d walk ten feet in front of my mom, or if she’d pick me up from school, I’d duck in the car, trying to make sure that I wasn’t seen with any Asian people,” one man says.

Ultimately, the story takes a hopeful, empowered turn. “From my experience of being Black and Asian I’ve noticed the best way is to be who the fuck we really are,” one man says. 

“To be Asian American is actually a defiant act of identity and self-determination,” a woman expresses proudly.

The storytelling journey

Augustavo, who is half Filipino and half white, said he was inspired to create the film last year after the Atlanta spa shootings, but only recently felt he had the connections and resources to realize the project. 

In casting the piece, Augustavo sought subjects representative of the diversity within the community—those featured include Korean, Indian, Filipino, Tongan, Chinese, Indonesian, Thai, individuals of mixed descent and more. 

He was also deliberate about casting talent who had a bit of a following yet weren’t so widely known. “I didn’t want huge celebrities, because it can lose a little something when you get too famous,” he said.  Among those featured are UCLA football players Atonio Mafi and Siale Taupaki, skater Eunice Chang, actors Yoshi Sudarso and Timothy Granaderos, producer Nina Yang Bongiovi, poet Salvin Chahal and rapper Paulo “P-Lo” Rodriguez.

Augustavo explained that in creating “Defy” he had a three-part story structure in mind, tailoring questions to address each moment of the story arc. As shooting progressed, the process proved to be a journey, with Augustavo himself realizing the vast dimensionality of the AAPI experience. 

For example, certain parts of the film include women recalling moments of feeling fetishized by men. Those moments he found to be “really valuable—as a male, who doesn't go through that,” he said. “I’ve had women say that resonates with them or dudes go, ‘Oh, I didn't realize it was a problem to say that,’ [so] I'm glad that's in there.”

​​Also, when he first set out to do the film, he admitted that he “started out wanting to be more aggressive, angry in a way,” he said. “I definitely have a chip on my shoulder because I grew up in a certain way, and people made it really hard on me to be Asian.” But as he heard others’ stories, “I realized not everybody has the same journey, and the piece became more nuanced.”

The film is being shared on social media by the creators, talents and supporters, including Tribeca—the parent company to M ss ng P eces. It aims to increase support for Cafe Maddy Cab, the initiative founded by Maddy Park to provide free NYC taxi rides for Asian women, LBTQ+ and elderly in the midst of rising hate crimes against the AAPI community. 

A Bunch of Savages

“Defy” also serves as the opening act for A Bunch of Savages. Augustavo met fellow founders Atienza and Aquino last year and in them found kindred creative spirits who all had the drive to elevate Filipino-American culture. The collective’s name is a defiant subversion of words Theodore Roosevelt had used to describe Filipinos in the early 1900s. Its premise is straightforward: “to do cool sh*t that matters.”

“We want to be impactful,” Augustavo said. While the three founders will continue in their day-to-day gigs, A Bunch of Savages is next looking to support aspiring talents in Filipino-American, AAPI and underrepresented communities with workshops under the banner of “Savage Youth.”

“It’s about helping our community find our way and culture,” Augustavo said. “It can be fine art, music—anything we have access to, we’re going to help with. We want to utilize the connections we have to elevate the next generation of creators.”

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