Isabel Sandoval reveals 'ambivalent relationships with the Philippines'

"Lingua Franca" filmmaker Isabel Sandoval revealed feeling "self-conscious and paranoid" as a trans woman when she went back home to the Philippines in 2019.

In an episode of "The Howie Severino Podcast," Isabel said her October 2019 visit was the first time she's been back since she transitioned.

"I feel like I have an ambivalent relationship with the Philippines because the last time I was there, this was October 28, 2019, just a month after Venice," Isabel said.

That was also a few months after trans woman Gretchen Diez was disallowed to use the women's bathroom and was handcuffed by a security guard.

"In the US, in New York, whenever I go out of the house, I never ever felt conscious about being transgender or anything like that," Isabel said.

"But when I landed at NAIA and that was just three months after this big news about this transgender woman getting dragged out of the women's bathroom by this female security guard — I don't know, like when I was in NAIA and I was walking into the woman's bathroom, I felt self-conscious and I felt paranoid."

She added, "And it's just unfortunate because I should not feel that way about my home country. If there’s one place I should feel safe to be who I am and to just be and exist, it should be the Philippines."

Despite the discrimination faced by the trans community in the country, Isabel said that this is still the place she grew up in and she will continue to "make films about not just her experiences as a Filipino but our collective history as a country."

Isabel made headlines with her film "Lingua Franca," the first film ever to be directed and starring an openly trans woman of color to make it to the Venice International Film Festival.

She is set to start shooting her new film "Tropical Gothic" in Cebu in 2022. — Kaela Malig/LA, GMA News