PJ Raval is more recently known as an award-winning filmmaker than he is an ex-scientist born on Tax Day. Growing up as a queer, first-generation Filipino American in a small, white, conservative town in California’s central valley, PJ’s outsider experience greatly shaped his filmmaking practice. PJ’s work examines social justice issues through the voices of queer and marginalized subjects. Named one of Out Magazine’s ‘OUT 100′ and IndieWIRE’s ‘25 LGBT Filmmakers on the Rise’, PJ’s body of film work has been distributed widely internationally appearing on platforms including Netflix, Hulu, Showtime, Amazon Prime and PBS, and has been supported by the Ford Foundation, Bertha Foundation, Arcus Foundation, Sundance, Center for Asian-American Media, Tribeca Film Institute, the MacArthur Foundation and The Asian American Foundation (TAAF). PJ is a 2015 Guggenheim Fellow, 2016 Firelight Media Fellow, 2017 Robert Giard Fellow, 2021 Soros Justice Fellow, 2024 USA Artist Fellow and Producers Guild of America member, and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences where he also serves as the Asian Affinity Group Co-chair.
PJ’s recent film, WHO WE BECOME, is a coming of age documentary following the lives of three young Filipino American women in Texas during the COVID pandemic. The film is distributed by Ava DuVernay’s ARRAY Releasing and is currently streaming on Netflix.
PJ’s investigative feature documentary CALL HER GANDA highlights the story of Jennifer Laude, a local transgender woman who was found dead in a motel room in the port city of Olongopo, Philippines with a 19-year-old U.S. marine as the leading suspect. CALL HER GANDA world premiered at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival. The Hollywood Reporter hailed the film “As suspenseful as it is moving”, Chicago Reader called it “Potent and eye-opening”. CALL HER GANDA opened in theaters fall of 2019 earning over a dozen Grand Jury Best Documentary and Audience Choice Awards as well as several critics’ awards and nominations including a 2019 GLAAD Media Award, 2019 Gawad Urian Filipino Film Critics Award, and a 2019 Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences Best Documentary nomination. CALL HER GANDA aired on POV reaching millions of PBS viewers across the US and was awarded the 2020 Excellence in Documentary Award by the NLGJA Association of LGBTQ Journalists. The filmmakers also anchored an impact campaign with over 150+ community screenings including a closed door meeting with the US State Department.
PJ’s previous feature documentaries include the ITVS supported documentary BEFORE YOU KNOW IT which follows the lives of three gay senior men (SXSW World Premiere) hailed by indieWIRE as “A crucial new addition to the LGBT doc canon.” BEFORE YOU KNOW IT garnered several awards including “Best Documentary” at the Reeling Chicago Gay and Lesbian Film Festival as well as the “Audience Award” at both the Austin LGBT Film Festival and Montreal’s image + nation 26 Film Festival. BEFORE YOU KNOW screened theatrically in over 50 theaters in the US, Canada and the U.K. and was broadcast as the season finale on America ReFramed on WORLD Channel earning PJ the NLGJA Association of LGBTQ Journalists Excellence in Documentary Award in 2016. PJ also produced, directed, and shot (alongside collaborator Jay Hodges) the feature documentary TRINIDAD which uncovers Trinidad, Colorado’s transformation from Wild West outpost to “sex change capital of the world.” Called “a must see” by Ellen Huang of GLAAD, TRINIDAD won the Cleveland International Film Festival “Documentary Jury Award” and was broadcast on SHOWTIME as well as MTV’s LOGO network, STARZ, and Discovery International and continues to reach audiences around the world through New Day Films.
PJ produced, directed and shot the award winning short documentary COME & TAKE IT which captures Jessica Jin’s transformation from Chinese-American college student into one of America’s most irreverent anti-gun violence leaders. Co-directed and co-produced by Ellen Spiro (BODY OF WAR, TROOP 1500) COME & TAKE IT won the Audience Award for Best Documentary Short at both the New Orleans Film Festival and Sidewalk Film Festival and is distributed by Grasshopper Film. PJ is the director behind the community video series STORIES WITHIN, an AAPI storytelling project that recently won “Best Documentary Short” at the 2022 DisOrient Film Festival as well as being a Gold House Gold Futures Challenge Award recipient. The film is distributed by the pioneering American media center and distributor Third World Newsreel.
In addition to his feature documentary work, PJ has collaborated on a collection of highly charged, not-safe-for-work videos with performer and “provocateur” Paul Soileau a.k.a. CHRISTEENE under the name “Three dollar Cinema”. Their work has screened at SXSW, Oberhausen, Homo A Gogo, Mix NYC, and various underground, above ground, and art venues internationally. Banned from YOUTUBE and FACEBOOK alike (MmmHmm…), their collaborative efforts is best summed up by The Hollywood Reporter as “…something you desperately wish you could un-see…” Their collaborative work was nominated for an Austin Critics Table Award in 2010, and in 2012 PJ and Paul were invited to the CentralTrak Artist Residency Program, University of Texas Dallas to create a new video series based on stories from the Old Testament. The artist residency resulted in the creation of the high-spirited televangelist duo Reverie & Randee also known for their telethon charity work for the queer transmedia arts festival OUTsider of which both PJ and Paul are co-founders.
Early in his career, PJ also directed and produced several award winning short films including: 100% COTTON (Best Narrative Short Chicago LGBTQ Film Festival), LEAD ROLE: FATHER (Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival Golden Reel Award), A BOY’S MOUTH (Director’s Award, Santa Cruz Film Festival), and NET06 (Black Maria Film Festival Short Film Award).
Also an award-winning cinematographer, PJ’s work has earned him awards such as the ASC Charles B. Lang Jr. Heritage Award as well as the Haskell Wexler Award for Best Cinematography. PJ has been featured in American Cinematographer and shot the 2009 Academy Award nominated and 2008 Sundance Film Festival Documentary Grand Jury Award Winner TROUBLE THE WATER produced/directed by Tia Lessin and Carl Deal (FAHRENHEIT 9/11). Manohla Dargis with The New York Times called the film “SUPERB… One of the best American documentaries in recent memory.” PJ’s feature cinematography credits also include, the 2006 Independent Spirit Award nominated narrative feature ROOM (Sundance, Cannes Directors Fortnight), the Los Angeles Film Festival Narrative Feature Award winner GRETCHEN, and SUNSET STORIES directed by Silas Howard (FX POSE) & Ernesto Foronda (BETTER LUCK TOMORROW).
PJ also lensed FOURPLAY, four true tales about sexual intimacy, his second feature with acclaimed director Kyle Henry (ROOM), executive produced by Michael Stipe and Jim McKay. FOURPLAY TAMPA, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival as well as Sundance, and FOURPLAY SAN FRANCISCO was awarded “Best Narrative Short” at the 2011 NewFest NY LGBTQ Film Festival. PJ also shot HABIBI RASAK KHARBAN a story of forbidden love and the first fiction feature set in Gaza in over 15 years directed by Susan Youssef (Fipresci Prize Best Feature, Winner Best Arab Feature Dubai International Film Festival, Official Selection Venice Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival 2011) as well as PRIMATE CINEMA: APES AS FAMILY the first film created for a chimpanzee audience directed by Rachel Mayeri (Sundance, Berlinale 2013). PJ lensed Bryan Poyser’s highly anticipated feature LOVE & AIR SEX (SXSW, BFI London). Variety praised PJ’s cinematography by writing, ”d.p. PJ Raval makes everything else look every bit as professional as a studio comedy, while capturing the flavor of Austin’s most popular bars, restaurants and hangouts.”
As a community organizer and advocate, PJ helped co-found Queerbomb a free, all inclusive and non-corporate alternative Pride celebration in Austin, TX and is a co-founder and former board president of the queer transmedia arts organization OUTsider. He serves on the Steering Committee of the Asian American Documentary Network (A-Doc) where he also serves as the Impact Initiative Project Co-lead.
In his spare time PJ tries to keep his plants alive and his cats from destroying them.