Photo by Ana Catalá
This Friday, José Rodríguez will be leaving his job as Director of Documentary Programs at the Tribeca Film Institute (TFI), where he oversaw the growth and funding for all of the documentary programs, and led the institute’s TFI Latin America Media Arts Fund that became one of the most important launchpads for Latin American cinema in this country.
A native of Puerto Rico, José joined the Tribeca Film Institute in 2010 as an entry-level Programs Associate, and his passion, dedication, and professionalism quickly earned him a leadership role. He grew into his position as the institute started expanding, and in his tenure he oversaw the day-to-day operations and strategic vision for all of TFI’s documentary film programs—the Tribeca All Access Program, the TFI Documentary Fund, the Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund—including funding support and mentorship initiatives.
Between 2009 and 2018, the TFI Latin America Fund supported numerous innovative filmmakers living and working in the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America whose work reflected their diverse cultures in the fiction or documentary forms. The program comprised seed funding, master classes as well as documentary pitch workshops.
The TFI Latin America Fund fostered the careers of several Latin American filmmakers who would become key figures in the international film scene including Maite Alberdi, Everardo González, Petra Costa, Jorge Thielen-Armand, Natalia Cabral, Oriol Estrada, and Alonso Ruizpalacios, just to name a few. A complete list of TFI Latin American Fund grantee projects is available here.
Additionally, José’s work also supported numerous U.S.-based Latinx filmmakers who received support from the different TFI programs including Michèle Stephenson, Cecilia Aldarondo, Alex Rivera, Cristina Ibarra, Rodrigo Reyes, and Francisco Bello, among others.
TFI announced some weeks ago that the organization was pausing its programs and activities, and was shuttering all operations this September due to the pandemic. For 20 years, the organization had supported numerous local, national and international filmmakers. TFI’s disappearance will leave a big empty space in the media landscape of this country.
Throughout the years, José became a close friend of Cinema Tropical, having served as a juror for Cinema Tropical Awards, participating in several of our activities, and being an important figure and leader of our ecosystem. Generous and a beloved figure in the local and international film community, José has also directed two successful short films that have played at numerous film festivals: Adolescence (2017), Mama, Mama (2018), and Vampin’ (2020).
More often than not, we forget that an organization’s or institution’s most precious asset is its staff, those who go out of their way to give back to the constituencies they service. We celebrate José’s dedication and passion for having supported so many projects, and salute his commitment to filmmakers. He has recently announced that for the next few months he’ll be working with the Points North Institute team to help them launch their Artist Programs initiatives for the upcoming season. We wish him all the best in his future professional endeavors, and want to express our solidarity, hoping we can as a community find ways to help him continue in his great work.
