Desireena Almoradie

Desireena Almoradie (she/they) PRODUCER, DIRECTOR, CAMERA, EDITOR emigrated from Manila, Philippines at the age of eleven, settling in the borough of Queens, New York with her family. She graduated from NYU with a BFA in Film and a Master's degree at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP). Her works explore collective history with a focus on queer and/or BIPOC lives. She was nominated for an Emmy and has won a GLAAD Media Award for her work on In the Life, the seminal LGBT news magazine that aired on PBS for two decades. She co-founded the Diverse Filmmakers’ Alliance (DFA), a collective of filmmakers from all backgrounds working to diversify the filmmaking landscape.

Her feature documentary “The Worst Thing”, released in 2019, won the jury award for Best Documentary at the 2020 Snowdance Independent Film Festival in Landsberg, Germany, and was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 2020 Queens World Film Festival in Queens, NY.

Desireena was awarded a NYC Women's Fund for Media, Prism Foundation Grant, the Barbara Hammer Experimental Filmmaking Grant, and the New York State Council on the Arts grant for their documentary Because of You: A History of Kilawin Kolektibo, a collaboration with Barbara Malaran.

Most recently she won a 2025 Writers Guild Award for Best Promotional Writing for a series of Get Out the Vote ads for the non-profit organization Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

Because of You: A History of Kilawin Kolektibo

October 22, 2025 By Desireena Almoradie and Barbara Malaran

Please join Thirdworld Newsreel and the Documentary Forum at CCNY for a screening and discussion of the documentary film Because of You: A History of Kilawin Koletibo, co-directed by Desireena Almoradie and Barbara Malaran. The co-directors will be joined by past participants of Kilawin Kolektibo.