We are one. We are Many.
CLIENT
Airbnb
ROLE
Video Producing, Video Editing, Post Production Supervision
OVERVIEW
A heritage month film celebrating Airbnb’s AANHPI employee community, built around an original poem and brought to life through intimate remote interviews, personal archival photography, and an evolving visual language designed to reflect individuality, memory, and collective identity.
THE ASK
Create a film for AANHPI Heritage Month that honors the diversity within the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander community. The foundation was an original poem written for the project — a unifying text that could be read collectively by employees while also anchoring deeply personal stories. The goal was to pair that collective voice with individual ones: five AANHPI employees sharing what their identity meant to them, in their own words.
CHALLENGES
Remote production fundamentally changes what footage you have to work with. Without a crew on-site, there's no B-roll, limited space and lighting control, and no visual texture outside of a talking head in front of a home or office setup.
Getting the interviewees to go deep was another consideration. Asking employees to share personal stories about their cultural identity requires a level of trust. A generic production setup or the wrong interviewer could produce surface-level answers. We needed someone the interviewees could genuinely open up to.
THE STRATEGY
We made several deliberate creative choices to overcome the constraints of remote production while giving the piece a more cinematic and emotionally intimate feeling.
Collaboration and trust
The project was shaped through close collaboration with the requesting partners, whose passion and perspective helped guide the creative direction throughout production. To create a greater sense of trust and vulnerability on camera, we cast project partner Hoon Kim — an Asian American employee — as the primary interviewer, allowing conversations to feel more personal and culturally grounded.
Designing for the edit
To create natural transitions without traditional B-roll, interviewees were directed through simple on-camera movements and gestures that could later serve as editorial bridges and rhythm points.
Community-sourced imagery
Members of Airbnb’s Asian Employee Resource Group contributed personal photos and videos, bringing emotional specificity and authenticity to the visual storytelling.
An exploratory visual language
The motion treatment for archival imagery was inspired by the feeling of navigating a digital canvas — slowly drifting, zooming, and discovering moments rather than presenting them as a traditional slideshow.
MY ROLE
I served as the Producer on this project end-to-end, shaping the concept in close partnership with the requesting stakeholders to ensure the creative vision and community voice remained aligned throughout the process.
From there, I cast Hoon as interviewer, directed the remote interview protocol, sourced community visuals, and developed the motion concept for the graphic treatment.
I also acted as a Supplemental Editor on the poem sequence, cutting the section featuring multiple participants reading the poem so the lead editor could remain focused on the broader story. In post, I collaborated closely with the editor, colorist, and audio designer to help bring the final piece together.
OUTCOME
The finished piece premiered ahead of a fireside chat with Airbnb Chief Experience Officer Hiroki Asai, reflecting the significance the project carried internally. The response quickly grew beyond its original audience, sparking a grassroots push for external release and contributing to positive sentiment around Airbnb as both a brand and a place to work.
Internally, the project became an important credibility moment for Airbnb’s in-house production team, OnAir, leading to a wave of new creative requests across both cultural storytelling and broader company initiatives.
The response from participants and partners reinforced the emotional impact of the piece. Daniela Castañeda from Airbnb’s Diversity & Belonging team shared: “I get chills every time I watch it… telling stories in a way that helps us all see the humanity within ourselves.” Interview participant Ajmal reflected that the team’s energy during production made him feel “comfortable in front of the camera,” and that the project’s impact was “a result of all of your hard work.”
The video ultimately won a Telly Award in the Diversity & Inclusion category.
Great projects are built together
PRODUCTION CREDITS
