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Episode 373: Joella Cabalu’s rom-com documentary delves into interracial relationships

Episode 373: Joella Cabalu’s rom-com documentary delves into interracial relationships

Sabrina Furminger
Podcasts

Filmmaker Joella Cabalu returns to the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to discuss her highly anticipated “rom-com documentary” First Comes Loves: Nakabingwit. This National Film Board of Canada production has its world premiere at the 2026 Vancouver International Film Festival. The film follows three Filipina–white couples whose whirlwind love stories unfold alongside hard conversations about race, belonging, and what it takes to stay together. The Tagalog word “nakabingwit” refers to catching a big fish but colloquially, it means you caught a rich white husband. When talking to other Filipino Canadians, our valiant filmmaker discovered this word carries complex feelings of both pride and shame. Framing these stories is Joella’s own meta-narrative. Through a playful voice-over and fictionalized scenes, she revisits racially charged moments from her romantic life, which are evocatively depicted by actors Gabrielle Jacinto and David Lennon in the style of popular romantic films like When Harry Met Sally and Before Sunrise. 

In this fun and fascinating episode, Joella speaks with Sabrina (a biracial women who is in a interracial marriage with a biracial man) about the joys and challenges of interracial relationships, the intergenerational healing that comes from having tough conversations, why she hired an actress to play her in this film, and what’s a rom-com documentary, anyway? 

Episode 373: Joella Cabalu’s rom-com documentary delves into interracial relationships
Sabrina Furminger
Episode 372: Nhi Do and Gabriel Carter

Episode 372: Nhi Do and Gabriel Carter

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