Cebuano Filmmaker Eden Sabolboro Wins Emmy for Senghor Reid Documentary

US-based Cebuano filmmaker Eden Sabolboro’s documentary Senghor Reid: Make Way for Tomorrow is this year’s winner in the cultural documentary category of the Michigan chapter of the Emmy Awards. It follows the life and work of renowned Detroit-based artist and educator Senghor Reid whose multidisciplinary visual approach fuses painting, photography, and video to explore the human condition and the environment.

Like a diary in moving images, Senghor shares the creative process of his paintings, the meaning of colors, and how his mother Shirley Woodson, a multi-awarded artist, has influenced his craft. His works have also become a vehicle for his activism, which include advocating for clean drinking water in Detroit City and the eradication of environmental racism affecting communities of color residing near polluted soil and waterways.

ALSO READ

What I've Learned: Carlos Siguion-Reyna

40 Years of Laughter: The Legacy of Comedy Director Tony Y. Reyes

The Art of Senghor Reid

These are the heavyweight narratives that Sabolboro, 37, aimed to retell. “I hope the film stirs a realization on how interconnected we all are with our environment, our communities, and our histories. I hope the film leaves an impression that despite the looming challenges in a continuously uncertain world, there is still room for beauty, growth, and collective progress if we remain engaged and compassionate,” she said.

The documentary was shot in 2022 at a tumultuous period of the artist’s life during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We were not just curious about Senghor's work and artistic process on the surface, but we wanted to examine how his present mental and emotional journey connected with his works,” said Sabolboro who produced and directed the film under Reel Clever Films LLC, the company she founded alongside husband Thaad. She went on, saying: “I also felt immediately drawn to a few of the large-scale pieces I saw in the studio, something about the way Senghor captures bodies of water and people feels so tangible, so alive.”

The project definitely had its share of challenges. For a film that visually needed to rely on water, the harsh seasonal conditions in Michigan prevented her from setting and meeting strict deadlines. Moreover, the “pièce de résistance,” as Eden describes the sequence, involved submerging Senghor in a lake at a freezing temperature.

“We wanted the audience to get to know him as a person, his motivations, his inspirations, and his hopes for the future, and how all of this informs his future movements as an artist. We were incredibly fortunate to have the city of Detroit where Reid grew up in and to be an incomparable backdrop for this story. In some ways, the film is also very much a love letter to Detroit and to its artistic community,” she shares.

Cebuano filmmakers Thaad and Eden Sabolboro founded Reel Clever Films LLC in Detroit City, Michigan.

From Cebu to Detroit

Detroit has been Sabolboro's home since she and Thaad migrated in 2014 from Cebu. “We were initially motivated by the fact that at the time, Michigan had a growing and thriving film industry because it had generous production incentives. We were absolutely confident of securing entry-level production jobs upon arrival in Michigan,” she recalled. However, when they arrived in Detroit, the city had just declared bankruptcy, which was recorded as the largest municipal bankruptcy filing in the United States according to The New York Times.

“All the ‘initial confidence’ we felt faded, and as a new immigrant, navigating all of that while trying to make any sense of being in a new country was deeply overwhelming. Not to mention, I immigrated pregnant with our first child (Dallas, now nine years old) with very little positive outlook of how to make sense of it all. I remember plunging into deep bouts of depression in those early days, yearning to pack it all up and head back home in Cebu where everything was familiar and within reach,” she continued.

In Cebu, prior to moving overseas, Eden had a steady career. She was a news presenter and disc jockey for a local radio station while developing her own fashion blog. But she was no stranger to the silver screen. She starred in the independent movie Ang Mga Damgo ni Eleuteria, a nominee for best picture at the 6th Cinema One Originals Film Festival in 2010. Thus, in 2014, she and her husband produced the independent movie Padulong sa Pinuy-anan, which became an entry to the Cinemalaya film festival.

“As a filmmaker who immigrated from Cebu a little over ten years ago here in the United States, it still feels surreal to have been recognized by the Emmys. It's definitely not something that I had in my bingo card, especially with the way our people have been conditioned about the harsh realities of immigrating to the US,” she said. “One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that you can’t just rely on passion alone. It takes a lot of grit and a lot of heart. It also takes strategy and big picture thinking.

Artist and activist Senghor Reid (center, holding the Emmys) with the production crew.

Voice of the Underrepresented

With the recognition at hand, Eden is optimistic that it will fuel her future projects. Currently, she is working on her first-ever full-length documentary, chronicling the life and the impact of a Filipino-American musician in the industry and how Filipinos contribute to the modern American culture. Two of her films she has newly produced, Well and The Fight Continues are lined-up for the Bronze Lens Film Festival in Atlanta and New Orleans Film Fesival.

“Since the very beginning, I've been true to my commitment of elevating underrepresented voices such as myself both in front of and behind the camera,” Eden enthused, assuring her audience about the true mission of her craft. “I'm continuing to expand and develop my work that way. I’m always going to be drawn to narratives that explore identity, justice, and belonging, reflecting experiences that mirror my own and those of the people I care about.”