(From left to right) Juan Pablo González, Loira Limbal, Jessica Beshir, and Raúl O. Paz-Pastrana
The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation announced few days an appointment of 188 Guggenheim Fellowships to a distinguished and diverse group of culture-creators working across 52 disciplines. In the Film-Video category, four Latinx filmmakers have been included: Jessica Beshir, Juan Pablo González, Loira Limbal, and Raúl O. Paz-Pastrana.
Beshir is a Mexican-Ethiopian filmmaker, producer and cinematographer based in Brooklyn, who graduated in Film Studies and Literature at UCLA. Her short documentary He Who Dances on Wood (2016) was selected for Hot Docs and won Best International Documentary Short at Edmonton Film Festival and the Jury Award at Anchorage International Film Festival. Hairat (2017) premiered at Sundance, was screened at IFFR and IDFA and won several awards at various other festivals. Beshir is a recipient of the Sundance Documentary Film Program, Jerome Foundation and NYFA Fellowships. Her debut feature Faya Dayi (2021) earned the Grand Prix at Visions du Réel 2021 and the IDA Documentary Award for Best Cinematography and was shortlisted for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar. The film was a New York Times Critics’ Pick and was broadcast in PBS’ prestigious series POV.
Limbal is an award-winning Caribbean filmmaker and DJ from San Juan, Puerto Rico. She is interested in the creation of art that is nuanced and revelatory for communities of color. Limbal’s most recent film, Through The Night, is a feature documentary about a 24-hour daycare center. Winner of the DuPont Award and New York Times Critics’ Pick, Through The Night had its world premiere at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival and aired on the POV series in May 2021.
Born in Atotonilco el Alto, Jalisco, Mexico, filmmaker and CalArts faculty González grew up amid the ranching and agricultural communities in Guadalajara. His work spans fiction and nonfiction. His debut feature, Dos estaciones, had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and won Best Feature at at the Gotham Awards in 2022. His medium-lenght film Caballerango, is an intimate portrait of rural Mexican life amidst the deepening presence of tragedy and loss. His work has been screened at Cannes, Rotterdam, IDFA, BAM, Mexico City Cinemathèque, and other international venues. He was also named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film” in 2015.
Paz-Pastrana is a Mexican immigrant filmmaker, cinematographer, and multimedia creator. His work intersects experimental non-fiction, participatory filmmaking, and visual ethnography to explore themes of belonging, alienation, and the concept of “home.” His films, including The Art of Remembering / El arte de recordar, OME, The Ground I Stand On, have screened at museums and festivals worldwide including at the Sheffield Doc/Fest in the U.K., The Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico (CCA), MASS MoCA Museum in Massachusetts, Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI) in New York City, and at the Guadalajara International Film Festival (FICG) in Mexico among many more.
Each fellow receives a monetary stipend to pursue independent work at the highest level under, in terms of founder Senator Simon Guggenheim, “the freest possible conditions.”
