One Person, One Vote? Streaming Free in July

The Untold Story of the Electoral College streaming free on PBS App and PBS YouTube

It’s back! One Person, One Vote? is streaming FREE on the PBS App and PBS YouTube channel through July 30. This photo is where that journey began. This is what I looked like when I immigrated to the United States at eight months old.

Growing up, I was never perceived as American. “Where are you from?” people would ask. I’d say the Philippines, and even though it was once a U.S. colony, most had never heard of it. That is, until Imelda Marcos and her 3,000 shoes. Overnight, my country became something Americans recognized, for all the wrong reasons.

For a long time, America never felt like something I could claim as my own. But in first grade, at the library of my Catholic school in Jersey City, I chose a book about Frederick Douglass for my very first book report. As I grew up, I learned about the people who spent generations pushing this country closer to its ideals. I didn’t realize it then, but America was inviting me into its story.

Who would’ve thought this little Filipina baby would grow up to make a film about the strange way Americans elect their president, something so undeniably and inextricably American? I would’ve been the last one to guess, especially when I was rockin’ out pluckin’ a bass for a living. Somewhere along the way, I realized that being American isn’t defined only by ancestry or where we were born. It’s also defined by our willingness to participate in the unfinished work of building a more perfect union.

For me, it came as simply as waking up one morning with an electric calling, even though everything that ensued would be far from simple. I’d never made a film before. Making this one took every skill I had and demanded I learn a dozen more.

There were nights I asked myself if I was being a responsible mother. But I also knew I was teaching my daughter and son something I couldn’t teach them any other way: that you don’t abandon a thing you believe in just because it’s hard.

The five years it took to make this film were filled with countless rejections. Then there was the passing of my father. My divorce. A global pandemic. A front-row seat to the first non-peaceful transfer of power at our nation’s capital.

On January 6, 2021, during the insurrection, I was surrounded and threatened by protesters. In the melee, footage was stolen from my camera. Then I was saved by protesters who let me hitch a ride back to safety when I couldn’t find my car amid the curfew chaos.

And through all of this, I still had no major funding for the film.

Then, like a meteor landing in my backyard, came a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. It helped make the film possible and gave other funders the confidence to back it.

Still, I started 2024 with no idea if the film would ever find distribution, and I knew I had to get it out before the next presidential election. Many agents and outlets told me the film was important. They just didn’t think anyone would watch it. Netflix and Hulu both passed. They told me they needed docs about A-list celebrities, true crime, or sports.

Then, in the ninth inning, PBS Independent Lens acquired the film and made it the Fall 2024 season premiere. Suddenly, the film I’d worried no one would ever see was invited into millions of American homes. They also took me on a press tour that brought a Republican and a Democrat together for a civil dialogue despite their very different perspectives. Thank you, Lois Vossen and Independent Lens! Thank you, PBS!

Now, One Person, One Vote? is streaming free on the PBS App and PBS YouTube channel through July 30. Whether you’re watching it for the first time or sharing it with someone else, I hope you’ll take the opportunity to see it.

This is a film for the people, by the people. I made it for you. I made it for us.

As we approach America’s 250th anniversary, let’s recognize that we all have the power to shape what patriotism looks like. Let’s get to shapin’.