Jason Houston and Dewi (day-wee) Sungai Marquis-Houston are life and creative partners who have been building a foundation of friendship, trust, empowerment, and creative expression since 2010. Our combined decades of experience and commitment to collaboration is manifested in our visual storytelling company, eight16 creative.

We are committed to art and action that elevates Indigenous wisdom and patterns of thinking. Our collaborative approach honors agency for those whose stories we are helping to share as well as the animate sovereignty of the stories themselves. We serve to correct harmful narratives that carve destructive paths into our communities and minds.

We are dedicated not only to the finished product, but also the path that gets us there. Commitment to authorship, ethical and appropriate representation on and off screen in front of and behind the camera, relationship, reciprocity, respect, and agency guide our heterarchical practice. We recognize the incredible honor and responsibility that comes with collaborating with people who trust us to help share their stories.

We do commissioned documentaries, editorial assignments, purpose-driven campaigns, branded and commercial gigs with aligned partners, photography, and independent creative nonfiction projects.

MY NAME IS NOT AMY

Against the backdrop of the worst wildfire in Colorado history, a mixed-race Native Bornean filmmaker examines the truth of her transracial, transnational adoption into white suburban America, triggering an awakening that challenges memory, coloniality, and the adopted name she was given.

World Premiere: 2024 Denver International Film Festival. Official Selection at Flagstaff Int’l Film Festival, and Colorado Dragon Boat Film Festival. Best Documentary Short at Buffalo Int’l Film Festival.

If you want to support this project, please visit our fiscal sponsorship page at Denver Film. For screening requests, visit mynameisnotamy.com.

DIRECTOR AND EDITOR: Dewi Sungai
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Jason Houston
MENTOR: John Van Wyck / Cine Fe
MUSIC: Includes “After the Storm” by Kevin Richard Martin + Hatis Noit, and “Aura” by Hatis Noit

WITH ADDITIONAL SUPPORT FROM: Cine Fe, Studio IX Mother Project, BGDM, Kin Theory, Film Fatales, Adoption Mosaic, Right Relationship Boulder, all of the Ancestors whose names we know and don’t know, Spirit Guides, Grandmother Earth, and our Medicine Family

Tax-deductable donations through Denver Film. Click for more info