Michael E. Flores

Hi, my name is Michael E. Flores. 

As of October 2023, I am freelancing for short term projects.

A little about my process: I am a journalist, which means I report. Good reporting means digging into the details of history, fact-checking it among many sources, and corroborating statements. I am backed by my background in sociology. The best sociology pairs critical discourse with history and statistics. To give you a sense of how that works, my last paper was on the role of religiosity in fascism in the January 6th insurrection. I was able to make a statistical correlation while digging back into history from the 19th century.

I take on-the-ground reporting and researching seriously, like most good reporters. Perhaps my difference is that I take a post-colonial approach -- I prioritize the voices of the disempowered. I understand the overlapping relationships between capitalism, racism, sexism, and imperialism. I follow the academic traditions of Frantz Fanon and Edward Said. It was useful in writing about a mass shooting in a Chinese neighborhood in California. I brought in the history of colonization of parts of Asia, and how that affects the mental health of the elderly diaspora.

My current medium is documentary filmmaking. My first film was on the rise of the son of a dictator in the Philippines, and my personal ties to it. As an example of my ability to produce and find good subjects for a film, the government arrested an interviewee as political retribution for being an outspoken critic. I cut my teeth in reporting as a daily news journalist for a Los Angeles public radio station.

My projects include subnational diplomacy and climate change, indigenous voices, and Hawaiian hula groups.

I am informed by my experience as an Army medic with a deployment to Iraq from 2006-08, and growing up in a disadvantaged community.