Filipina director Joella Cabalu brings NFB documentary First Comes Love: Nakabingwit to Toronto's Reelworld festival
Filipina director Joella Cabalu's National Film Board of Canada documentary First Comes Love: Nakabingwit, which follows three Filipina-white couples, screens in Toronto on 25 October at the 2026 Reelworld Film Festival before festival dates in Vancouver and St. Catharines in November.
A new documentary by Filipina director Joella Cabalu examining interracial relationships will screen in Toronto on Sunday, 25 October as part of the 2026 Reelworld Film Festival, Mabuhay Canada reported. The festival lists the screening as the film's Ontario premiere.
First Comes Love: Nakabingwit, Cabalu's latest documentary feature as writer-director, is produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). It follows three Filipina-white couples and, in the NFB's words, lingers after the meet-cute, when conversations about race, class and difference enter the picture. It features Toronto-based Justine Abigail Yu, founder of Living Hyphen.
Cabalu told Mabuhay Canada the idea came from an experience more than 10 years ago, when a friend exclaimed "you're winning", a moment that made her wonder whether other Filipino women in similar relationship dynamics felt the same way. In 2020, she received a research grant from the Canada Council for the Arts and held focus groups with Filipino Canadians in relationships with white partners, where colonialism, multiculturalism, and labour and class came up as themes. The film's title draws on nakabingwit, a fishing term that has come to be used colloquially for catching a rich white husband.
"Come for the rom-com, and stick around for the harder conversations," Cabalu said, adding that she hopes people come away from the film feeling lighter.
After Toronto, the film continues its festival run with a November screening at the Vancouver Asian Film Festival and at the Mighty Niagara Film Festival in St. Catharines, Ontario, according to Mabuhay Canada.
Key facts
- First Comes Love: Nakabingwit screens in Toronto on 25 October at the 2026 Reelworld Film Festival.
- The documentary is written and directed by Joella Cabalu and produced by the National Film Board of Canada.
- It follows three Filipina-white couples.
Official sources
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