Nich Perez - nich l. perez

Nich L. Perez

Nich L. Perez is a Filipino-American filmmaker, educator, and collaborator. He creates film grain and pixels through personal human connections, carving narratives with the lens of empathy and community. As the founder and director of the Nonprofit Film Collective, a grassroots group of storytellers, “Nick” transcends traditional boundaries by collaborating with nonprofits, communities, students, and institutions to tell meaningful stories with tangible, real-world, positive impacts.

Nich participated in the Human Rights and Photography Program at Tisch School of the Arts at New York University with the Magnum Foundation. He collaborated with the Coalition for the Homeless and the unhoused clients of Wards Island in New York City in 2014.

He founded the NonProfit Film Collective in 2014 and continues to collaborate with artists, filmmakers, musicians, and media creatives, connecting them with nonprofit partners, schools, and communities. Outside of industrial and commercial media work, his experience extends from working with churches and disenfranchised populations to partnerships with organizations like Eleanore's Project, UNICEF, and Catholic Relief Services.

Directing students while filming a scene for BRO.

Collaborations across time zones

Nich’s latest feature-length film, 'letters to eleanore,' offers a poignant exploration of disability and hope. This award-winning documentary, like most of his films, was produced jointly with his university students and is currently in film festivals. He teaches in various universities and liberal arts institutions, including Grinnell College and Washington and Lee University, where he continues to work on media projects that tackle complex subjects with sensitivity and insight, utilizing media arts and practice as a powerful tool for advocacy and storytelling.

He has filmed, taught, and collaborated in close to a hundred countries: experiencing a breadth of humanity, interacting through multiple languages, connecting with people from varied cultures and economic backgrounds, and living these experiences with students.

The Communications Professors, with Professors Ann Baldinger and Bob Williams, 2015.

Before doing his academic fellowship in the USC School of Cinematic Arts, Nich has been teaching as an Assistant Professor in Film, Media, and Communication Studies in various institutions, including Holy Cross College at Notre Dame, IN, Grinnell College, and Washington and Lee University.

The Journalism and Mass Communications Faculty and Staff at W&L University, 2024.

Student filmmakers, after screening their films

With Amidani, one of the children from Guadalupe in Monterrey, Mexico, while filming a documentary.

With multiple films and media projects in the pipeline, including XR documentaries, Nich continues to push boundaries and challenge perceptions through his work in an ever-evolving media landscape and in both fiction and nonfiction, producing media that captures beauty, inspiration, and authenticity.

Austin, Texas on 35mm film.

A love letter to Cinema; a reel from nearly a decade of projects across the globe.

With the words from the great Ingmar Bergman's Laterna Magica (1987), The Magic Lantern: An Autobiography, as translated by Joan Tate (1988)

For a copy of his CV, collaborations, and questions, kindly hit him up on the submission form below:

Thanks for reaching out.I look forward to collaborating with you!

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I live, therefore I make films.

I make films, therefore I live.

Life.

Movement.

~ Jonas Mekas