Michael is an Emmy® nominated filmmaker and the founder of Thoughtful Robot. Michael’s second feature, Almost Sunrise, is a co-production with ITVS and POV. In July 2017 the film opened theatrically at the IFC Center in NYC, followed by a PBS national broadcast in November 2017 on POV.  The film was nominated for an Emmy® Award for Best Current Affairs Documentary, and won the CINE Golden Eagle Award for Professional Media in the category of “Nonfiction Content: Feature – Current Affairs or Investigations."

The film premiered at Telluride Mountainfilm in 2016, and has had 500+ screenings across the U.S., winning 5 awards including an audience award, jury prize, and impact award. Additionally, the film has been honored with media awards from government organization SAMSHA and the National Association of Social Workers. Almost Sunrise is supported by Sundance, Tribeca, Bertha, Chicago Media Project, Good Pitch, Fledgling Fund and Doc Society

In 2017 Michael also directed Voices of Resilience, a 15-minute standalone short film that serves as a companion piece to Almost Sunrise. Voices of Resilience aired on PBS in November 2017 following the national broadcast of Almost Sunrise. Voices of Resilience follows the struggles of a diverse group of veterans – that of a young man from Colorado, and a young couple in Saipan (one of many remote islands in the Pacific) where enlistment rates tend to soar higher than any other community in the U.S. population. Ultimately, Voices of Resilience offers inspirational examples of veterans who are opening up to ancient practices of yoga and meditation, warriors who are searching – and finally finding themselves – on a path towards inner peace.

In 2011 Michael's film, Give Up Tomorrow, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and won the Audience Award and a Special Jury Prizefor Best New Director. The film went on to screen in over 75 festivals in 40+ countries, winning 18 major awards including seven Audience Awards, four Human Rights Awards and the Activism Award at Michael Moore’s Traverse City Film Festival. In 2012 Give Up Tomorrow was selected for the Puma Impact Award and was nominated for an Emmy® Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism in 2013.

In 2005 Michael directed Caught in an Injustice, a one-hour documentary broadcast on Spanish National Television that received Special Mention at the 15th International TV3 Actual Awards. In 2010 Michael’s short film, Gerthy’s Roots, won the Belief Matters Award and was selected for the Media that Matters collection.

Originally from the Philippines, Marty moved to New York City in 2000 and worked in film distribution at Focus Features, booking the theatrical releases of independent, commercial and Academy Award-winning films. In 2004 he took a leap of faith to pursue his passion: documentary filmmaking. In 2005, he produced the one-hour film Atrapado en la injusticia broadcast on Spanish national television. He developed it into the feature-length documentary, Give Up Tomorrow. The film was an ITVS co-production and commissioned by BBC Storyville, with support from the Sundance Documentary Film Program, CAAM, Tribeca Film Institute, The Fledgling Fund, Bertha Foundation and BRITDOC, among others. To date it has broadcast in over 10 territories, including BBC, DR, SVT, Canal+ and as part of POV’s 25th anniversary season.

In addition to being nominated for an Emmy® Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism, Give Up Tomorrow received recognition from the Grierson British Awards, Cinema Eye Honors, Amnesty International’s Media Awards, and the Puma Impact Award. Recently, in March 2015, the film had a global broadcast on the BBC World News, and had over 30 million viewers worldwide.