Creating Impactful Narratives (Filmmaking for Beginners)

Explore the elements that create thought provoking stories and narratives that emotionally resonate, from the perspective of a documentary filmmaker and film festival programmer.

Alyx Bui (they/them) is an Edmonton-based activist, filmmaker, writer, and tabletop role-playing games designer. They seek to increase more accessible and authentic queer Asian representation, faces, and stories in the media and play. In 2019, they debuted with a short film, “Sane-ish Middle Class Asians.” In 2020, they co-directed, wrote and edited a Telus Storyhive documentary called Coffee to the People, focusing on the only queer, Filipinx-owned coffee shop at the time in Edmonton, Intent Coffee. They were a film curator for ClexaCon (2019) and NextFest (2022). Currently, they are a programmer with the Canadian Film Festival and their work can be found at the CBC, HitPoint Press, DMsGuild and Paizo’s Pathfinder Lost Omens: Tian Xia Character and World Guides (2024) and Draconic Index (2026).