An actor-turned-filmmaker with a passion for food, a staging gig behind a Paris cookie counter, and a Taiwanese-American baker with a delightfully romantic story: Mix them up, add a dash of serendipity, and you get the unlikely (yet delicious) recipe behind \u201cCookie, Love\u201d (2026). We spoke with documentarian Sari Arambulo about how her nine-minute passion project was whisked away to Tribeca for its world premiere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s funny to think back on that exact moment. I was staging at Jean\u2019s cookie store and completely falling in love with her in the process. She has such an amazing spirit, and I really resonate with her philosophy on cookies\u2014her wabi-sabi approach to her craft. At the same time, I had this long list of creative to-dos, and the last thing on it was to make a short film. I actually thought I\u2019d make a narrative proof of concept for a pilot I\u2019d written, but once I started thinking about preproduction, I realized I didn\u2019t have enough time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then it hit me that Jean\u2019s life held all the themes I love to explore. She\u2019s Taiwanese American, living in Paris, making a name for herself with American cookies in the French pastry capital of the world. That whole idea crossed my mind, and I thought, there\u2019s definitely a story here. She\u2019s someone you can\u2019t help but want to be around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a Filipina American, I resonated with her right away. When she told me she was a Taiwanese American woman living in Paris, I just connected with it. I\u2019ve also spent a lot of time in France\u2014I\u2019ve studied the language since I was 16, and I did a foreign exchange program at that age, where I met my French best friend\u2014so I feel this strange kinship with the country. I\u2019ve always admired people who can build a life there and truly thrive in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On a darker note, I\u2019ve experienced moments of feeling unseen or misunderstood there, too, and Jean and I could talk about that, but we could also just bond over our love of France. Even down to the words she\u2019d use: She\u2019d say something like, \u201cI\u2019ll recuperate my key,\u201d and because I speak French, I knew she was thinking in French and speaking in English. As a filmmaker, I love to uplift Asian American stories\u2014particularly about women\u2014and Jean encapsulates all of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was more over time. As you get older you build a bigger body of work, and I noticed I kept getting drawn to food: food at the intersection of multiculturalism, food as a vehicle for self-expression. I like to use it as a cultural touchstone to talk about larger themes\u2014identity, but also finding a sense of belonging and home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whether it\u2019s a pilot or a feature, my work is always about food, but also about finding home, belonging, and ultimately love. Early in my screenwriting journey, someone read a sample of my food feature and said, \u201cIt sounds like you like to write about love,\u201d and I thought, whoa, I do. At the time I didn\u2019t see it. Now, looking at my work with a bird\u2019s-eye view, that\u2019s definitely a throughline\u2014and it certainly comes across in \u201cCookie, Love.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I really wanted to create different worlds within the documentary. We see Jean in her kitchen, thriving in her element; then, when we turn to love, we\u2019re in her home, opening the letters between her and her French husband.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m a foodie, and I\u2019m inspired by food pieces; \u201cChef\u2019s Table\u201d (2015) was a huge reference. I\u2019ve always loved how that series treats its tabletop setups. I find them elegant, bold, and dynamic, so I wanted to figure out Jean\u2019s take on the tabletop. We built shots with a red felt background\u2014red is her signature color at the store\u2014and you see hands placing photos down, almost like she\u2019s piecing together the bits of her life in real time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the same time, I wanted everything composed, leaning into her quirky, bright spirit, so there are Wes Anderson\u2013style wide shots, like Jean picking up eggs and carrying them across the frame. Then, in the kitchen, I wanted to be right there with her, so we went handheld. And I wanted the food to be its own character, so there are slow-motion shots that lean into its beauty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n