Jean Claire Dy is a Filipino-Chinese filmmaker, writer, and media artist from Mindanao, Philippines. In this interview, Jean shares her journey as a storyteller, exploring how film, writing, and visual art intersect in her work. She reflects on the power of storytelling in uncovering hidden truths, amplifying marginalized voices, and fostering healing in conflict-affected communities. Claire also discusses her creative process, her cultural identity’s influence, and art’s role in justice and transformation. Through her insights, we get a deeper look at the impact of storytelling beyond the screen.

Founder of Stories Beyond, an initiative to tell restorative and transformative narratives of communities beyond the single story, Jean Claire Dy is a Filipino-Chinese filmmaker, writer, and media artist from Mindanao in the Philippines. She is a PhD candidate in documentary filmmaking at the Victorian College of Arts at the University of Melbourne in Australia. She holds a Master of Arts in Media Studies and Film from the New School in New York, which she completed under the International Fellows Program of the Ford Foundation. Her film A House in Pieces, co-directed with German filmmaker Manuel Domes, won the best documentary film awards from the Kasseler Dokfest in Germany and the USA’s Mimesis International Documentary Film Festival.

A House in Pieces has also earned a Gawad Urian nomination in 2020. Her experimental short film There Is Nothing Here was also screened at the Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival in 2022 in the Czech Republic. Claire’s films and video art installations have been screened and exhibited worldwide in various festivals and exhibitions. Her literary works have been published in several scholarly journals. She is finishing another feature-length documentary film, Shining Echoes, which she hopes to release in 2025. Claire has earned a fellowship at the Connecting Stories Program of the Scottish Documentary Institute. She also studied Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality storytelling at the Salzburg Arts Academy in 2021. Recently, she returned to creating visual art, paper collages, and abstract pieces, which she plans to exhibit in several galleries worldwide. She has previously created performance art and interactive media pieces and dabbled in movement and sound-based art forms.

1.  Your work spans film, video, sound art, and interactive media. How do these disciplines come together in your storytelling process? 

My storytelling process is deeply rooted in my foundation as a creative writer, which began during my undergraduate studies in creative writing. There, I learned the fundamentals of what makes a good story—compelling characters, layered conflict, and the delicate balance between showing and telling. This training has been the backbone of my creative practice, shaping how I approach narrative structure and emotional resonance across different media. As my work has expanded into film, video, sound art, and interactive media, I’ve carried those storytelling principles with me, adapting them to the unique strengths of each discipline. Film and video provide the visual grammar for my stories, where framing, composition, and movement create meaning and mood.

Sound art allows me to deepen my narratives’ emotional and atmospheric layers, using sonic textures to evoke tension, memory, or intimacy in ways that transcend the visual. Interactive media transforms the storytelling process further by making it participatory. Through choice, exploration, or interaction, audiences become co-creators of the narrative, shifting storytelling from a linear presentation to a dynamic, shared experience. This invites multiple interpretations and fosters a deeper connection between the story and its audience. At the core of my process is the belief that storytelling is about creating connections—bridging gaps between perspectives and experiences.

By integrating the foundational elements of creative writing with the immersive potential of multimedia, I aim to craft narratives that are not only seen and heard but also felt and experienced. Each medium I work with enriches the others, forming a dynamic interplay that transforms the story into a living, evolving encounter.

Even at nine years old, I understood that the story behind the image was incomplete. I began imagining the lives, struggles, and victories hidden beyond the frame, longing to take part in the telling of those tales.

Jean Claire Dy

2. With a background in writing, media, and performance, how has your creative evolution shaped your ongoing book project and collaborations?  

My writing, media, and performance background has profoundly influenced my ongoing book project and my collaborative endeavors, shaping them into dynamic, multidimensional explorations of story and meaning. These disciplines have taught me to approach narrative not just as a linear progression of events but as a layered experience that engages the senses, emotions, and intellect. As a writer, I’ve developed a strong foundation in crafting compelling characters, nuanced conflicts, and resonant themes—skills central to my book project.

However, my experience in media and performance has expanded my perspective, encouraging me to think beyond the page. I approach the book as a living, breathing entity, experimenting with form, rhythm, and voice to evoke a cinematic quality in the prose, as if the reader is stepping into a vividly constructed world. Collaborations, too, are a vital part of my creative process. My work in media has taught me the value of integrating multiple perspectives, while performance has shown me how to communicate stories in an immediate and visceral way.

These experiences have informed my approach to co-creation, where I view my collaborators not just as contributors but as essential voices that shape and enrich the work. This collaborative spirit has allowed me to push boundaries, experiment with hybrid forms, and create interconnected and multidimensional work. Ultimately, my creative evolution has taught me that storytelling is most potent when it is fluid and adaptive—open to the possibilities of different mediums and the transformative power of collaboration. This philosophy drives my book project and my partnerships, enabling me to craft narratives that resonate on multiple levels and foster meaningful connections.

3.  “A House in Pieces” explores complex trauma in post-conflict communities. What role do you see art playing in transitional justice and healing?  

Art plays a vital role in transitional justice and healing, particularly in post-conflict communities, where trauma often resides in spaces beyond the reach of formal justice systems. Projects like A House in Pieces demonstrate how art can serve as a bridge between the personal and collective, offering a platform to confront, process, and communicate experiences that are often too painful or complex to articulate through conventional means. In transitional justice, art provides an avenue for deeply personal storytelling yet universally resonant. It gives survivors the agency to shape their narratives, reclaiming their voices in the face of oppression or erasure.

Through film, photography, soundscapes, or visual art, these stories can reach broader audiences, fostering empathy and understanding while challenging dominant narratives that often simplify or obscure the realities of conflict. Art also has the power to humanize those who have been dehumanized by violence, creating space for reflection, dialogue, and reconciliation. It can act as a communal ritual, helping individuals and communities externalize grief, confront loss, and envision paths toward healing. In this way, art complements transitional justice’s legal and institutional frameworks by addressing emotional and psychological dimensions that formal processes often overlook.

In healing, art is not only therapeutic but also transformative. It allows individuals to engage with their trauma in a way that is safe, creative, and empowering, turning pain into a catalyst for growth and change. For communities, artistic expression fosters a sense of solidarity and shared purpose, reminding people of their resilience and capacity to rebuild. Ultimately, I see art as a crucial tool in transitional justice—one that creates spaces for truth-telling honors the complexity of human experiences, and inspires hope for a more inclusive and equitable future

4.   Your research often focuses on gender, memory, and trauma. How has your own identity as a Filipino-Chinese woman shaped your creative lens?  

My identity as a Filipino-Chinese woman has profoundly shaped my creative lens, especially in exploring themes of gender, memory, and trauma. Growing up at the intersection of two cultures, I’ve experienced both the richness of hybridity and the tensions of navigating belonging and systemic marginalization. These experiences have heightened my sensitivity to intersectionality and how societal structures frame who is heard, remembered, or excluded. Filipino history, marked by colonization and resilience, and Chinese values of family and tradition deeply influence my work, particularly in exploring intergenerational trauma and communal memory. This dual heritage drives me to embrace complexity and nuance, amplifying marginalized voices and crafting stories that challenge reductive narratives. Through my art, I aim to foster understanding, healing, and solidarity across diverse contexts.

5.  You’ve engaged with diverse art forms, from classical Indian dance to virtual reality. How do these experiences influence your current projects?  

Engaging with diverse art forms, such as classical Indian dance and virtual reality, has significantly shaped my approach to storytelling. Classical Indian dance, with its intricate gestures and storytelling through the body, has deepened my understanding of how movement can transcend language to communicate emotion and narrative. This influences my filmmaking, where I focus on physicality, choreography, and pacing to create emotionally resonant stories. It also informs my approach to rhythm and visual elements, ensuring they contribute meaningfully to the narrative’s emotional arc.

Virtual reality has further expanded my storytelling practice, allowing me to immerse viewers in a narrative in ways that challenge traditional cinematic boundaries. I’m planning a VR project to explore themes like memory, trauma, and healing, merging visual storytelling with interactive, participatory qualities. These experiences and my current work in a paper collage remind me that art is a constantly evolving language. By integrating these diverse practices, I aim to create work that is not only compelling but pushes the boundaries of how stories are told and experienced.

In a world shaped by the narratives of power—often wielded as weapons of control—storytelling becomes an act of resistance.

Jean Claire Dy

6.  Stories Beyond aims to challenge single narratives. How do you approach uncovering and representing these transformative community stories?  

Uncovering and representing transformative community stories requires a deep commitment to ethical storytelling and participatory methods. With Stories Beyond, my approach centers on collaboration, respect, and accountability, ensuring that telling these stories is as meaningful and transformative as the narratives themselves. My current PhD research examines documentary filmmaking as a form of affective witnessing. In this process, the filmmaker not only observes but also engages emotionally and ethically with the lived experiences of others. This perspective shapes how I approach Stories Beyond, encouraging me to move beyond detached representation and instead foster authentic connections that honor the emotional and social complexities of the stories being told. Central to my methodology is the principle of co-creation.

I work closely with community members, engaging them as active participants rather than passive subjects. This involves building trust through dialogue, creating spaces where individuals feel safe to share their experiences, and allowing them to guide the storytelling process. By sharing authorship, I aim to reflect their lived realities’ diversity, nuance, and depth rather than imposing a single interpretive lens. When representing these stories, I strive to avoid sensationalism or reductionism. Drawing on my research into affective witnessing, I approach filmmaking as a medium that can evoke empathy and emotional resonance while maintaining a critical awareness of power dynamics. Participatory methods, such as workshops, focus groups, and community screenings, allow participants to shape how their stories are told and shared, ensuring their agency and perspectives remain central.

Ultimately, I see storytelling as a collaborative act of empowerment that enables communities to reclaim their narratives, challenge oppressive frameworks, and imagine new possibilities. By integrating participatory methods with the insights from my research on affective witnessing, Stories Beyond seeks to tell impactful stories and foster healing, solidarity, and meaningful social transformation.

Jean Claire Dy’s work is a powerful reminder that storytelling is more than just entertainment; it’s a way to spark change and create connections between people. Her approach to filmmaking, art, and writing reflects her deep belief in the transformative power of narratives, especially in helping communities heal from trauma and reclaim their stories. By combining her diverse skills and backgrounds, she continues pushing the boundaries of what art can do to build empathy and understanding across cultures and experiences. To learn more about Jean, click the following links to visit her profile.

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