Jon Jon "JJ" Augustavo
Briefly describe your Filipino heritage.
I'm mixed. My father is German, Swedish, Finnish - American and my mother is Filipino. She emigrated to the US with her parents when she was about 1 years old to Alaska. She comes from Ormoc City, Leyte and we are Visayan and Ilocano.
What inspires you to achieve your goals?
It's kind of two totally different parts of myself and my brain that keep me going. First off there's this insatiable need, a yearning to create and share myself. Sometimes I wish I didn't have this feeling, but it's always there, burning and changing and growing. It's this desire to take my thoughts and energies and transform them into moving images, and wanting to tell stories that keeps me going in this erratic career that is filmmaking.
Secondly, as I've grown and matured something else matured and that's the need to be a voice and face for my community and for those who have had their own voices taken away. With every year that I've gained more knowledge and success I've wanted to share that with others and help those with less access to achieve or even know they can have goals, especially for FilipinoAmericans. For me, it's important to be outspoken and continue to push for our community and to be someone that lets younger creatives and dreamers know it is possible.
Who are some of the most influential people in your life?
It would be sexy to say some atypical filmmaker or writer or artist, which I do draw a lot of creative inspiration from. But to be honest the folks who influence me the most are my friends and family, my peers -- those who I speak with daily or who share their own work with me.
It's my friends and family who push me to be better, and who give me a sense of immediacy and hold me accountable to not only be successful but to do well for others. Many of my peers are the ones who inspire me with their own work and also who critique mine and allow me to grow. And they are also the first people to support whatever projects or events I am trying to create.
Having community, like real face to face, honest community is the most important thing in helping you achieve goals and dreams. Showing folks how much you care about them, allows them to care about you ever more.
What would you say to other Filipinos who aspire to do what you’re doing?
If another Filipino American wants to go down the path of directing and filmmaking I would say, do it. I can't lie and say that it will be easy or that there is any set path for how to make it in filmmaking -- but just know that if I can do it -- you can too. In an industry where there are still almost no Filipino Americans in my position, let alone anywhere on the creative side, it is possible, I promise. I came with no connections, no money, no nothing -- but I have managed to carve out a career I am proud of and am still growing in. But also if you go down this route, be unapologetically you. Nobody wants some safe, boring version of you -- they want the real you and if you haven't figured out what and who that is -- it may be a longer journey-- but the quicker you can find comfort in your skin, the more easily you will find success in any endeavor, not just filmmaking.
What single achievement are you most proud of?
During the pandemic I took part in a program called Young Storytellers, where I taught underprivileged youths in LA how to write a short film script and then they got to see it acted out at the end of the term.
I would say this is one of the things I am most proud of. Spending time with these kids was hard, and I was more or less teaching -- it was really tough, but also really fun and rewarding. So again this may not be the most sexy answer, compared to winning awards and all that other stuff -- but I think a lot about this class and how it made me feel -- how it gave me purpose in a time where we all felt like we had very little.
I felt like I was actually doing something that mattered and affecting these kids’ lives. And how special it is they were sharing their minds and time with me each week also. So yeah, this is one of the greatest things I've done in my career.