Borderlands Studios, the groundbreaking initiative within The Sidney Poitier New American Film School in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University, has announced an series of master classes and screenings aiming to challenge, reimagine, and reshape how we see the borderland amid the current political and cultural conversation, featuring the 2024 Borderlands Visionary Fellows: Cecilia Aldarondo, Aurora Guerrero, Peter Bratt, and Rodrigo Reyes.
Founded by celebrated filmmakers and MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellows Alex Rivera and Cristina Ibarra, Borderlands Studios is committed to developing and producing stories that challenge conventional narratives about the borderlands. Each Borderlands Visionary Fellow has received a $50,000 unrestricted grant and access to ASU’s filmmaking facilities to develop new films.
Filmmakers Rodrigo Reyes, Cecilia Aldarondo, Aurora Guerrero, and Peter Bratt have built careers telling stories that defy stereotypes and illuminate the lived realities of migration, identity, and resistance. Now, in this critical moment, they come together to share their insights through in-depth master classes, offering students, artists, and the public a rare opportunity to learn from some of the most innovative voices in contemporary cinema.
Rodrigo Reyes is a Guggenheim Fellow and an award-winning filmmaker whose work has been featured in the prestigious documentary series Independent Lens. His master class will explore his life as a filmmaker and aims to lessons and key insights from his creative process. Reyes will screen his documentary Sansón and Me, winner of the Best Film Award at Sheffield DocFest and nominee for Best US Latinx Film at the 14th Cinema Tropical Awards.
Guggenheim-winning writer-producer from the Puerto Rican diaspora Cecilia Aldarondo will discuss “Dispatches from the In-Between,” a reflection on the ever-present tension between aquí y allá – here and there – that permeates her films. Aldorondo will screen her documentary You Were My First Boyfriend, in which she revisits her 1990s adolescence a generation after she thought she'd left it all behind. Aldarondo has also won the Cinema Tropical Award for Best US Latinx film in 2022 for her feature Landfall.
Aurora Guerrero will take participants on her “Unimaginable Journey” as a filmmaker from a working-class, first-generation background to the creator of an award-winning feature film. Guerrero will screen Mosquita y Mari, which was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award, a Sundance Film Festival audience award, and the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award, and won Best US Latinx film at the 2016 Cinema Tropical Awards.
Peabody Award-winning and Emmy Award-nominated filmmaker Peter Bratt dives into his approach to documentary and feature filmmaking, covering topics including developing a story, fundraising, working with actors and non-actors, using storytelling as an agent of change and staying resilient in the face of a thousand "No's." Bratt will screen his award-winning 2017 documentary Dolores, which focuses on the life of Dolores Huerta, the labor activist and civil rights leader who co-founded the United Farm Workers with Cesar Chavez. Dolores was also nominated for Best US Latinx film at the 2018 Cinema Tropical Awards.
This series will take place this Spring at ASU California Center Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles. Learn more about it and Borderland Studios at: https://news.asu.edu/20250313-arts-humanities-and-education-borderlands-studios-launches-master-class-and-screening
