Writer / Director / Editor / Producer

Nicole Valencia is a San Diego/LA based photographer, director, and DP. Like Honey is her first film.

She directs, shoots, and crews in the stills and camera department for a variety of clients and projects. After receiving a B.A. in Comparative Literature from UCSB, she worked in marketing for action sports and streetwear brands before leaving the industry to pursue photography and filmmaking. She is interested in underrepresented narratives that blend naturalism with the unconscious.

Her recent work includes two narrative short films “Like Honey” (2022) and “Farewell,” (2022) which are active in the festival circuit. She is currently in production as the Director and DP of “Angel” (2023) a short film about a woman’s surrealistic encounter with the divine.

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I grew up straddling the US-Mexico border. Born in LA and raised in Tijuana, I have become familiar with inhabiting the in-between, privy to the startlingly beautiful stories that fill these spaces. It is these stories that I want to showcase — the ones that we don’t often get a chance to see, because most of us simply aren’t looking.

There is more to Mexico than drug trafficking and incessant violence. I’d like to bring a humanistic eye to stories that probe into the nature of what it is to be a person in this big wide world.

I wrote this story because I wondered: what might compel someone to join a cult? Aren’t we all just searching for purpose, meaning, and more? I hope that I was able to paint an empathetic view of why someone might be vulnerable enough to accept the reality of what a cult might look like, and to demonstrate that we all have a sense of intuition and personal agency to ultimately decide what’s best for ourselves.

I cast raw, local talent (Iveth Ruso, Camarena del Toro, Josemar Gonzalez Lizarraga) and shot on location in my hometown of Tijuana, Mexico. With naturalistic cinematography by Ray Gallardo (Callejero) and a score by harpist Shelley Burgon (First Cow), Like Honey tells the story of a sweet dream gone awry.