Patrick Epino is an American filmmaker from San Francisco.

Career

His feature film ''Mr. Sadman'' made for the

Independent Feature Project The Gotham Film & Media Institute (also simply the Gotham), formerly known as the Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), is a membership-based, not-for-profit organization dedicated to independent film. It offers programs that assist independent fi ...

(IFP) Independent Filmmaker Labs is a satirical dark comedy about a

Sadam Hussein Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until his overthrow in 2003 during the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He previously served as the vi ...

body-double loses his job and moves to Los Angeles in search of a new start. It stars Al No'mani,

Scoot McNairy John "Scoot" McNairy (born November 11, 1977) is an American actor. He is known for his roles in films such as '' Monsters'' (2010), ''Argo'', ''Killing Them Softly'' (both 2012), '' Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice'' (2016), '' Speak No Evil' ...

Rudy Ramos Rudy Ramos (born September 19, 1950) is an American actor and musician. His acting career has covered six decades, and includes recurring roles on '' The High Chaparral'', ''Hunter'', and ''Yellowstone''. Early life Ramos was born and raised in L ...

Tim Kang Yila Timothy Kang (born March 16, 1973) is an American actor. He is known for his role as Kimball Cho in the television series ''The Mentalist'' and Gordon Katsumoto in the reboot series ''Magnum P.I. (2018 TV series), Magnum P.I.'' Early life a ...

Amanda Fuller Amanda Fuller (born August 27, 1984) is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for being the second actress to portray Kristin Baxter on the ABC/Fox sitcom '' Last Man Standing''. Career Early career In ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'', Ful ...

, and Cameron Bender and has received positive reviews from

LA Weekly ''LA Weekly'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, California. The paper covers music, arts, film, theater, culture, and other local news in the Los Angeles area. ''LA Weekly'' was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin (among others), ...

, Giant Robot Magazine and more, and Epino was also selected by the film magazine ''The Independent'' as one of its "10 Filmmakers to Watch" for that film. Along with

Stephen Dypiangco Stephen Dypiangco is an American filmmaker. He was a Producer of Marketing and Distribution for Luke Matheny's Oscar-Winning short film, '' God of Love.'' He was also a Producer of Marketing and Distribution for Mark Wexler's documentary '' How t ...

he makes up the "National Film Societ

which is part of

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

and makes original web content related to films, filmmaking and film festivals that is viewable online. Other than ''Mr. Sadman,'' Epino has directed a short film entitled "Void" under a Visual Communications "Armed With A Camera" Fellowship for Emerging Media Artists which premiered at the

Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (LAAPFF) – formerly known as VC FilmFest – is an annual film festival presented by Visual Communications (VC). It was established in 1983 by Linda Mabalot as a vehicle to promote Asian Pacific Amer ...

. He has directed and written another short film entitled "Spunk" which appeared at a number of film festivals, including SingaFest. He has also served as a Producer on the short film, ''A Crossroad Called Manzanar''. Epino's most recent film, which he co-wrote and co-directed with

, is ''Awesome Asian Bad Guys'', which stars a number of Asian American actors who played villains in 1980-1990s action movies, such as

Al Leong Albert Leong (born September 30, 1952) is an American retired actor, martial artist, stuntman, and stunt co-ordinator. Often credited as "Asian Bad Guy", Leong was Hollywood's henchman of choice throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Characterised by h ...

Yuji Okumoto is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Chozen Toguchi in the film '' The Karate Kid Part II'' (1986) and its sequel television series ''Cobra Kai'' (2021–2025). He has also appeared in the films '' Better Off Dead,'' ''Real Ge ...

and

George Cheung George Kee Cheung (born February 8, 1949) is a Hong Kong actor and stuntman with an extensive career in American television and film dating back to 1975, often playing Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Mongolian parts. His career has foc ...

. The film/series also stars

Tamlyn Tomita Tamlyn Naomi Tomita (born January 27, 1966) is an American actress. She made her screen debut as Kumiko in '' The Karate Kid Part II'' (1986) and reprised the character for the streaming series '' Cobra Kai'' (2021). She is also well known for ...

Dante Basco Dante Roman Basco (born August 29, 1975) is an American actor. He is known for his role as Rufio, the leader of the Lost Boys, in Steven Spielberg's ''Hook'', Dolph in the cult film '' But I'm a Cheerleader'', the lead character Ben Mercado in th ...

Randall Park Randall Park (born March 23, 1974) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is best known for his roles as Agent Jimmy Woo in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, FBI Special Agent Edwin Park in the Netflix series '' The Residence'' (2025), Louis Hu ...

, Aaron Takahashi and more. The film/series made its debut at the 2014

CAAMFest CAAMFest, known prior to 2013 as the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF), is presented every May (Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month) in the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States as the nation' ...

and also made its Los Angeles premiere at the 2014

. As an actor, he played the role of "Troy" in H.P. Mendoza's award-winning

dark comedy Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...

film

Bitter Melon ''Momordica charantia'' (commonly called bitter melon, cerassee, goya, bitter apple, bitter gourd, bitter squash, balsam-pear, karela, karavila and many more #Uses, names listed below) is a tropical and subtropical vine of the family Cucurbitac ...

. Produced by ABS-CBN's Cinematografo initiative, the film placed on over a dozen "Best of" lists before being distributed on Special Edition Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD via

Gravitas Ventures Gravitas Ventures is an American film distribution company owned by Shout! Studios. The company was founded by Nolan Gallagher in Los Angeles in 2006, and moved its headquarters from Los Angeles to Cleveland in 2019. It focuses on the distribu ...

on October 1, 2019. Epino is the producer of Long Distance, a documentary podcast and video series about stories in the Filipino diaspora, created and hosted by Paola Mardo. The show has landed on numerous "Top 10" lists and was an inaugural member of the

Google Podcasts Google Podcasts was a podcast application developed by Google and released on June 18, 2018, for Android devices, and released on iOS devices on March 24, 2020. On September 28, 2023, Google announced that it would shut down the service in the ...

Creator Program. He is also the host of the Oakland Warriors Podcast, a sports entertainment podcast focusing on all things

Golden State Warriors The Golden State Warriors are an American professional basketball team based in San Francisco. The Warriors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference. Founded in 1946 i ...

and the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

. The show is produced by National Film Society and is a part of The Basketball Podcast Network. Epino is a graduate of the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

and earned his MFA in Cinema from the film program at

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It was established in 1899 as the San Francisco State Normal School and is ...

. He is also from San Francisco, California and is of

Filipino American Filipino Americans () are Americans of Filipino ancestry. Filipinos in North America were first documented in the 16th century and other small settlements beginning in the 18th century. Mass migration did not begin until after the end of the Sp ...

descent.''Id.''

Filmography

* ''

'' (2018) - Actor: "Troy" * ''Awesome Asian Bad Guys'' (2014) - Writer, Director (with

) * ''Mr. Sadman'' (2009) - Writer, Director * ''Void'' (2005) - Writer, Director * ''Spunk'' (2004) - Writer, Director

References

External links

Asians on Film Interviews Patrick Epino

Fil-Am Ako Interview with Patrick Epino

National Film Society Youtube Channel

National Film Society Tumblr
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Epinom Patrick Film directors from San Francisco Living people Year of birth missing (living people)