Thank you for taking the time to check out my page! My name is Valeria, and I’m an experimental filmmaker, mixed-media animator, and producer based in New York City. I’m excited to share that I’ve been selected for UnionDocs’ Audio & Performance Lab (APL), a collaborative program that brings together artists from various disciplines to create innovative, sound-based performances that bridge documentary storytelling practices.

To make this opportunity possible, I’m seeking support to cover the program fees, which are $2,000. As a recent college graduate navigating the challenges of being an artist in NYC, I’m juggling multiple jobs to make ends meet. This funding will go directly toward the program fees at UnionDocs, helping push my work forward while supporting their efforts to foster creative talent and build community.

In recent years, my work has fused documentary and animation through an experimental lens. I’ve created a claymation short addressing the lack of protocol for sexual violence in public schools, as well as a hybrid 3D/stop-motion animation exploring 1950s Ponce, Puerto Rico. In these and other projects, image and materials are central to how I construct narrative, build worlds, and develop a visual language in which medium and form become tools to explore relational practices. My creative work has expanded into video art, where I utilize video synthesis and audio-reactivity to explore how technology reconfigures and distorts our perception of the body and the world. These converging interests are transforming the way I tell stories, and I am grateful to refine and grow this approach through the program.

Although experimental art and performance operate in a different space than film, I value the lessons that emerge from the intersection of the arts, and I see the APL program as a unique opportunity to explore this intersection with sound as a central element of immersive storytelling. As part of this cohort, I look forward to challenging and deepening my understanding of world-building, documentary storytelling, and performance, while expanding my directorial practice and collaborative methods with seasoned artists and mentors. At a time when public media funding is threatened and political forces attempt to control which histories are told, I feel an urgency to reflect on the kind of storyteller I want to be, the communities I want to work with, and the ways art can methodically amplify lived experiences while challenging dominant narratives. In reflecting on these questions, I recognize that my approaches to narrative and collaborative staging will shape my creative voice across storytelling in film and video.

My goals for the program are to explore new ways that sound, creative staging, and performance can immerse and position the viewer within both familiar and unfamiliar narratives. By creating a performance together for our December showcase, I hope to strengthen my active listening through learning from the diverse perspectives and practices of my collaborators. I also aim to refine my voice as a filmmaker and artist, using this experience to shape my next project and strengthen my foundation in performance and contemporary art. Ultimately, I want to use these skills to contribute to the communities I am part of and to harness art as a tool for dialogue and social change.

Thank you so much for your support, whether financial or by sharing this campaign with others. Every bit helps and brings me one step closer to taking this next step in my creative journey!

Con amor siempre,
Valeria

Valeria Perez-Pijuan is an experimental filmmaker and mixed-media animator based in New York. Their practice draws on personal memory, embodied history, and societal taboos, employing visual languages rooted in material and audiovisual deconstruction. Weaving fragmented memories and marginalized histories throughout their work, they invite communal reflection on identity, resilience, and collective experience.