Saturday, December 5, 2026
4-6 pm
FREE
In the new CAAM-funded digital series Meals That Made Us, director Nisha Balaram sets out to explore how Asian Americans are using food to shape identity, nurture one another, and imagine new futures. Set against the rich culinary backdrop of San Francisco and its surroundings, the series ventures far beyond the city’s elite restaurants. Everyday people find meaning in unexpected places, whether it’s foraging as a connection to ancestral experiences, elevating institutional meals with cultural care, or creating third spaces that nourish bodies and hearts. Moving between intimate interviews and sweeping cultural commentary, Meals That Made Us shows that cooking and eating are evolving traditions that are both connections to the past and the groundwork for new communities.
ABOUT THE PANELISTS
Czarina Garcia (Moderator)
Czarina Garcia is the Media Fund Manager at the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), where she oversees the administration of public media funding initiatives and grants aligned with strategic organizational goals. Originally from the Philippines, she holds a bachelor’s degree in Communication Arts from De La Salle University-Manila and an advanced certification in Strategic Management of Digital Assets and Services from San José State University’s School of Information. Since relocating to the Bay Area and joining CAAM in 2017, Czarina has driven key programs across the organization, contributing to CAAMFest and impactful CAAM co-productions – including PBS Digital Studios web series “A People’s History of Asian America” and the Daytime Emmy-nominated “Historian’s Take”— alongside her work as a freelance video producer.
Nisha Balaram (Director, Panelist)
Nisha Balaram is an Oakland-based documentary filmmaker, creative director, and producer. She is the director of Meals That Made Us, a Center for Asian American Media (CAAM)-funded series exploring identity, memory, and heritage through food, which premiered at CAAMFest 2026. Balaram also directed the short documentary Flight Line, currently making its festival debut. Through her production company, Mystery Squid Films, she creates nonfiction projects for organizations including Google Arts & Culture, National Geographic Society, PBS, and the California Academy of the Sciences. Balaram has worked across both independent and institutional productions, serving on the producing teams of Voices Rising: The Music of Wakanda Forever (Disney+), VOCES: Latino Vote 2024 (PBS), and the Emmy-nominated El Equipo (PBS). Balaram’s work has been supported by the North Star Fellowship and the Chauncey Bailey Fellowship, and she is an alum of UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism documentary program and Proximity Media’s nonfiction internship.
Cindy Li (Featured in the Film, Panelist)
Cindy is a forager and educator passionate about reconnecting community with the natural world. She grew up foraging with her family, and now hosts flora and fungi nature walks in the Bay Area, working with kids and adults. She cares about food sovereignty and empowering marginalized groups in outdoor spaces. She also runs Uproot Teas, a small batch loose leaf tea company. You can find her on social media at @cindydoedee.
Aruna Lee (Featured in the Film, Panelist)
Aruna Lee is the founder of Volcano Kimchi, a San Francisco-based fermentation company established in 2014. Growing up in a Buddhist mountain temple in Korea, she developed a deep appreciation for seasonal ingredients, mindful cooking, and the tradition of sharing food. Her temple upbringing continues to inspire her work today, crafting vegan, organic kimchi that honors Korean traditions while embracing the creativity of fermentation. Inspired by California’s changing harvests, Aruna creates both familiar and unexpected kimchi. Through farmers markets, workshops, and collaborations, she shares a simple belief: fermentation connects us to the land, to culture, and to one another.