An emerging auteur recognized by the Museum of Modern Art as a “rarity among the young generation of Filipino filmmakers for her muted, serene aesthetic", Isabel Sandoval is a US-based filmmaker who has written and directed three features. Isabel's third feature LINGUA FRANCA (2019), co-starring Eamon Farren (Twin Peaks: The Return), premiered at the Venice IFF, where she become the first trans woman director to compete at the festival. LINGUA FRANCA follows an undocumented Filipina trans woman Olivia (Isabel Sandoval) after she has secured a job as a live-in caregiver for Olga (Lynn Cohen), an elderly Russian woman in Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach neighborhood. Olivia’s main priority is to secure a green card to stay in America. But when she unexpectedly becomes romantically involved with Olga’s adult grandson Alex (Eamon Farren), issues around identity, civil rights and immigration threatens her very existence. Distributed by ARRAY, the film is now available to stream on Netflix.
