Filmmakers

Born in Panama, Anayansi Prado earned a B.A. in broadcasting and film from Boston University. In 1998, Prado moved to Los Angeles where she founded Impacto Films, a production company geared toward the production of documentaries with a social impact.

A recipient of two John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation grants, Prado directed Maid in America, Paraiso for Sale and was the co-director and co-producer of a documentary on the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, a cross-country trip designed to bring awareness and change to the working conditions of immigrants in the United States.

Hugo Perez is a filmmaker and writer whose work often focuses on his Cuban heritage. He is a recipient of the 2009 Estela Award for documentary filmmaking as well as the prestigious 2008 Rockefeller Foundation/Tribeca Film Institute Emerging Artist Fellowship in support of his feature screenplay Immaculate Conception. His short film, Betty La Flaca was… Show more the winner of the 2006 HBO/NYILFF Short Film Award and is being broadcast on the HBO networks through Fall 2008. His previous short film Juliet Y Ramon was broadcast as part of the 2005 Showtime Latino Filmmaker Showcase, and was recently re-broadcast on the PBS series Reel New York. Hugo is producer and director of the feature documentary Neither Memory Nor Magic, which is narrated by the Academy Award-nominated Patricia Clarkson and edited by Academy Award-nominated filmmakers Francisco Bello and Tim Sternberg. Perez is also the producer and director of the documentary Summer Sun Winter Moon, which aired on PBS in November 2009. Hugo has studied writing with Gabriel Garcia Marquez, collaborated with Pulitzer prize-winning novelist William Kennedy, and served as a guest artist for acclaimed theater director and artist Robert Wilson. His writing has been featured in the New York Times Magazine and Salon.com, and his films have screened at venues such as MoMA and the Smithsonian. Show less

Pamela A. Aguilar is an award-winning documentary filmmaker with over ten years of experience producing innovative and informative programming for PBS.  She co-produced the Emmy-nominated documentary The Longoria Affair (Independent Lens, 2010) about the racial divides in a South Texas town, that led to the uprising of the Latino Civil Rights… Show more Movement.  She also produced two hours of the nationally acclaimed four-part PBS series Latin Music USA, covering the contributions of Latin sounds in American music. Other public media credits include Beyond Brown, Matters of Race, and FRONTLINE. Theatrical documentary credits include Bigger, Stronger, Faster, Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead, and Shut Up and Sing, as well as the co-production of an investigative documentary on No Child Left Behind Legislation for the Emmy Award-winning series, CNN Presents.  She’s a graduate of New School University, a CPB/PBS Producer’s Academy Fellow, and currently resides in New York City. Show less

Laura Varela is a San Antonio-based documentary filmmaker and media artist who has received awards from the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture, Humanities Texas and Latino Public Broadcasting's Public Media Content Fund. In 2015 she won the San Antonio Film Festival's City on the Rise Best Director Award.

She received her B.S. in radio, TV and film from the University of Texas. Her documentary, As Long as I Remember: American Veteranos examined the steep personal toll of the Vietnam War on three artists from south Texas: visual artist Juan Farias, author Michael Rodriguez and actor/poet Eduardo Garza.

Edwin Martinez is a Bronx-born filmmaker who recently completed his first feature documentary To Be Heard, winner of both the Metropolis Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the DOC NYC film festival. As a cinematographer he has worked on several feature-length fiction and documentary films including Rachel Is, Leave No Soldier, Las Marthas, and What Alice Found… Show more (winner, Special Jury Prize, Sundance). After graduating from the SUNY Purchase Film Conservatory as a Gates Millennium Scholar, he earned a Master's in Education Policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and has worked as an instructor in various youth media programs in Boston and New York City. Edwin is developing a new feature-length project while producing shorts for educational, government and non-profit organizations. He also likes to bake. Show less

David Alvarado is a documentary filmmaker with a passion for science, philosophy, and human rights. His feature documentary The Immortalists premiered at SXSW in 2014. He operates Structure Films, a start-up documentary film company in New York that focuses on how science and technology are transforming society. He began his career at PBS station KERA… Show more in Dallas, Texas, and earned his M.F.A. from Stanford University’s Documentary Film program. Show less