About

Chet Canlas is a San Francisco-­based independent filmmaker and cinematographer who has produced, written and directed documentaries and short format multimedia projects on San Francisco’s historyand culture and traditional Philippine culture. He has also served as the cinematographer for over a dozen short narrative films and one feature film.

He is a recent Center for Asian American Media short film contest winner whose film, Chinatown is the first official entry in the May 2018 CAAMFest film festival.

Mr. Canlas’ productions include:

  • Rise of the I-Hotel (2005}, a 43-minute retrospective documentary on San Francisco’s 1977 International Hotel Eviction (funded by a California Council for the Humanities California Stories grant).
  • The Philippine Experience (2004 ), a 3-part documentary series on traditional Philippine music and dance.
  • Runbutans (2004 ), a documentary on a San Francisco running group.

The I-Hotel Speaks series of short multimedia projects co-produced with the Manilatown Heritage Foundation:

  • Threads of Life: The Mabilong Weavers of Kalinga (2017)
  • Chinatown: A poetic short film expression of San Francisco’s Chinatown neighborhood (2017)
  • Launching Point: The Photographs of Tony Remington (2017)
  • Legacy: The Photographs of Chris Fujimoto (2017)

Chet Canlas served as a cinematographer for Whatcha Gonna Do About It Productions’ independent thriller Rabbits and Wolves, and its 30 for 30 series of short narrative films.

He studied broadcasting and filmmaking at City College of San Francisco with David L. Brown and Barbara Brubaker.