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Set Hernandez
- Location:
- United States
- Languages:
- English, Spanish, Tagalog
- Issues:
- Disability Rights, LGBTQIA+, Health/Healthcare, Racial Injustice, Mass Incarceration & Criminal Justice Reform, Refugee Crisis and Immigration, Labor issues, Human Rights
- Expertise:
- Educational materials, Impact Producing, Consulting, Impact Strategist/Advisor, Campaign Implementation, Crafting Classroom Materials, Designing impact guides, Mentorship, Training
- Cultural/racial identity:
- Pilipino, Southeast Asian
- Self identification:
- In-flux
Bio
Set Hernandez is a filmmaker, writer, and community organizer whose roots come from Bicol, Philippines. Unapologetically queer and undocumented, their filmmaking uplifts and complicates stories about their communities. An audio-centric film, Set's documentary feature debut UNSEEN (POV/PBS, 2024) received an Independent Spirit Award among other accolades. The film is groundbreaking as one of the first media projects ever to be led by an intersectional team of queer, undocumented immigrant, and disabled/blind artists. Their past film work includes COVER/AGE (2019) about healthcare access for elderly undocumented adults, as well as impact producing for CALL HER GANDA (Tribeca, 2018) about US militarism and anti-trans violence in the Philippines. They also served as impact producer for IN PLAIN SIGHT (2020), addressing the culture of mass incarceration in the country through skytyping planes that placed abolitionist messages across the continental US. Their filmmaking has been supported by the Sundance Institute, NBCUniversal, Firelight Media, Doc Society, Open Society Foundations, and Ford Foundation, among others. Since 2010, Set has organized around migrant justice issues, from deportation defense to healthcare access. They co-founded the Undocumented Filmmakers Collective, which promotes equity for undocumented immigrants in the film industry. In their past life, they were a linguist, focusing on bilingualism. Their writings and contributions have been featured in Rappler, Documentary Magazine, Democracy Now, and beyond. Above all, Set is the fruit of their family’s steadfast love and their community’s generosity.
