Mia C. Villanueva
BIOGRAPHY

Photographer and filmmkaer, Mia C. Villanueva was the recipient of the Kodak Film Scholarship for her films, Children Under 12 and On Sundays. Her films and photography have shown at the Visual Communications Film Festival, NewFilmWorks in New York, San Francisco International Asian American Festival, Lost Souls Gallery in Los Angeles, San Francisco International Asian Pacific Film Festival and the New York International Asian-American Film Festival. At the New York International Asian Film Festival, Villanueva was named a "Filmmaker to Watch For".

One of Villanueva's goals as an artist is to critically explore issues that influence local communities. Ideally, she uses photography and film as a tool to affect policy change & progressive change within communities. This is most evident through one of her past exhibits that documented a life changing experience of following some of Malaysia’s most prominent HIV/AIDS activists throughout Kuala Lumpur.

Featured in Director's Guild of America Magazine in 2004, Villanueva was the recipient of Visual Communication "Armed with a Camera" fellowship for her work. Villanueva’s photography has shown through Cornerstone Theater productions, T-Mobile webisodes, Official Sundance selection Pura Lengua and has also shows in numerous galleries throughout Los Angeles. Her work has been said to capture the honest and intimate soul of the person, animal, object and/or elements of nature. In her most recent exhibit, Villanueva explores the evolution of family in the 21st century and how conditioned pretenses clash with the modern point of view of layered dichotomies that are continuously evolving when it comes to the definition of family.