Where is a good example?

"I recently made a trip to Portsmouth, (a major port in Southeast England) to make a sales video for a friend's company. I spent three weeks working, all expenses paid, but I also got to spend some time in London, traveled to Poole in Dorset to meet up with friends I had known in Hawai'i and also visited Burton-on-Trent in the Midlands, again to see friends."

Making the sales video (for BoatScrubber Marine, a company that markets a kind of car-wash system for boats) helps Castillo finance documentaries about topics close to her heart and which have become her trademark: the cultural, social and historical aspects of life that are familiar or a part of her Filipina-American background.

What was a highlight?

"A day in London! I took a river trip down the Thames from the Embankment at Charing Cross to Greenwich Pier (a 2›-hour roundtrip) to meet a friend and was struck by all the new development and how much the riverside area had changed. Gone were the old warehouses and in their places are fine apartment buildings, lofts and some very bold architecture; the riverside was completely different from when I was there 11 years previously. My friend and I spent the day at Greenwich Market searching for a kite."

(Greenwich Market was established and granted a Royal Charter in 1849. It's packed with more than 120 arts and crafts stalls, exotic foods and on most days will have live music ranging from jazz to classical to blues performed by students at nearby Trinity College of Music.)

What is your perfect day on vacation?

"In short: a museum, a meal and a market ... especially a market. My pleasure when I travel is to observe the people, and markets are a great place to do that. They show you what it is ordinary people sell and buy, and what their lives require, whether they live in Korea or Hawai'i or London. I love to visit markets. Also I like to find something unusual to take away, something that will give me a feel for the locality. In Greenwich I found cappuccino-flavored Turkish Delight, a delicious traditional English candy."

What do you never travel without?

"My radio, so that wherever I am I can hear the news, either the BBC or Voice of America. I was on a train from New York City to Miami and I listened to Al Gore's entire speech at the 2000 Democratic National Convention.

"I prefer to hire film crews and equipment in the place where I'm going so I don't carry (equipment) with me. That way I get to meet people from other production crews such as the amazing war photographer I worked with when filming "Simple Courage" in Belgium. Interestingly, he was equally enthusiastic about working with a Hawai'i filmmaker. Because of these contacts, I have friends all over the world. However, now that filming is digital, I'm shooting more and more myself. "

What are you working on now?

"A travel project of sorts. A trilogy of short films for the 2006 Filipino Centennial Celebration, which will be a nationwide and local celebration. I'm working on three portraits of Filipino-Americans: Corky Trinidad, political cartoonist with The Honolulu Star-Bulletin; Domingo Los Banos, a World War II veteran and chaplain; and Norma Vega Castillo, a Filipina war bride who is my mother.

"These are short 15-minute portraits and the challenge is to find the essential experience for each of them as an immigrant and how their lives have been shaped by having a foot in both countries."

Where next?