AERIN FORTES


Aerin Fortes is a Pinay filmmaker, lover, and educator. As a scholar of affect theory and cultural production, she recently completed her Master’s degree in English in May 2025. Her time in graduate school was spent presenting her research while directing, DPing, and producing music videos for local indie artists. The first short film she produced, Love, Mai, premiered at Viet Film Fest 2023. Her scholarly and creative interests intersect through her passion to center Southeast Asian life across the diaspora and shape narratives that highlight beauty and complexity in life’s mundanities.

Filmmaking, writing, and researching help us remain curious about each other and the world around us. In all that she does, Aerin prioritizes feeling as a way of knowing. By navigating the world through this sensitivity, she crafts works in art and education that call for light, wind, and liberation.

Let’s make something together :~) Kindly reach Aerin at faefortes[at]gmail.com.


I find inspiration in grocery stores and the incredible people in my life. I hope to one day learn to ride a bike, have a very organized fridge, and lay atop a snowy hill feeling at peace.

I spend my time listening to Dijon, Esme Emerson, the Hang the DJ score by Alex Somers and Sigur Rós, and the Minari score by Emile Mosseri, to name a few.

The last book I read was Immaculate Conception by Ling Ling Huang and I am currently reading Paper Names by Susie Luo.