EU Alum Directs First Feature and Wins Streaming Distribution via Tubi

Cast and crewmembers of 40 Before 40 prepare to roll a take outside of Cureton Hall on April 4, 2024. (Alyssa De Jesus)

“40 Before 40” is the directorial debut of Alyssa De Jesus, Elmhurst University class of 2022 alumni. In late 2025, the film was selected as one of 21 total features to win free distribution on Tubi in a partnership with Tubi and Kickstarter.

De Jesus is the daughter of Vilma Llaguno, the film’s writer and producer, and the owner of Dream Team Productions. “40 Before 40” is inspired by Llaguno’s life. The two worked closely alongside Michael G. Flores, director of photography,

In an exclusive interview with The Leader, De Jesus elaborated on her creative process, noting her experience as an actress. During the casting process, her knowledge impressed Llaguno and Flores, leading to her taking on the directing role.

“We were doing callbacks and deciding who was going to narrow down who was going to play each of the different characters,” said De Jesus. “I’m also an actor, so I know what it’s like to do callbacks.”

While “40 Before 40” is her first feature-length film, De Jesus told The Leader that she has been inspired to direct and make films since a young age.

De Jesus explained, “since I was about 10 years old I was making iMovies with friends.”

“I was writing these stories, filming them, casting my friends in it,” she continued. “I didn’t know at the time I was directing.”

The film centers on Veronica Rios, who works to cross off a list of 40 things she wants to accomplish before she turns 40 next year, in honor of her late father who was unable to complete many of his dreams.

Much of De Jesus’ directing is influenced by and striving toward describing the “female lens.”

She explains, “there’s a sense of identity that gets lost from a lot of women.”

With a primarily female Latina cast, “40 Before 40” does approach gender roles and expectations for women, particularly from a multicultural perspective.

The openness to breaking standard roles continued off-camera and behind the scenes as well. De Jesus describes a positive and highly communicative culture on set as imperative for the film’s production.

“A big thing we welcomed on my set was also speaking up,” said De Jesus. “Naturally, I live my life very aware of the differences that men and women have to face sometimes, especially in a work setting. I wanted to make sure that when we were on set there was no uncomfortable power dynamics.”

As the film neared the completion of post-production, the team became aware of a contest from Tubi and Kickstarter called the FilmStream Collective Fund. The project took film submissions from a wide variety of genres and winners received financial support and guaranteed streaming on Tubi, which claims to have had over 10 billion hours of watch time in 2024.

De Jesus explained, “by the grace of whatever you believe in, we got contacted by one of the members who were deciding what movies got picked and they let us know they were picking 21 films and of them we were one of the films that were getting put on Tubi.”

Along with the notification that they had been selected, De Jesus and the team had just under three weeks to have the film packaged for release online. “40 Before 40” premiered on Tubi on Nov. 7, 2025.

Tubi is a free, ad-supported platform, and many of the films selected from the FilmStream Collective vary in genre. De Jesus said these were both benefits of the program.

“We really loved that Tubi and Kickstarter collabed together, and that it’s a free platform, because it’s accessible.”

De Jesus noted that she and Llaguno are in the process of writing at least two more feature films, including a drama and a sequel to “40 Before 40.”

You can watch “40 Before 40” for free on Tubi here.