Chilean-American film producer, programmer and writer Juan Cáceres Carreño died this past weekend of undisclosed causes at the age of 48. The news of his passing was announced on social media by members of his family and friends. A beloved figure in New York City’s film world, Cáceres Carreño was a fierce champion of U.S. Latinx and Latin American cinema, and served as head programmer of the Urbanworld Film Festival.
Cáceres Carreño’s professional career started with an internship in John Leguizamo’s production company Lower East Side Films. In a 2015 interview with Remezcla, he told the story of getting the internship after meeting Leguizamo’s mother at a restaurant, where he waited tables. His responsibilities in the company grew and he became a development assistant.
Cáceres Carreño was a founding member and director of programming for the HBO New York International Latino Film Festival between 1999 and 2012. He also served as a programming associate for the Tribeca All Access program produced by the Tribeca Film Institute. He was the co-creator of LatinoBuzz, a weekly column dedicated to U.S. Latinx and Latin American cinema, which was part of the IndieWire network; and his writing has also appeared in Huffington Post, Remezcla, and various other media outlets. In 2020 he participated as a jury member for the Cinema Tropical Awards.
In addition to his curatorial and journalistic work, Cáceres Carreño was a filmmaker. He produced Gary Terracino’s 2012 debut feature Elliot Loves, starring Elena Goode, Jermaine Montell, and Robin de Jesus. He also served as an associate producer of the 2014 drama Emoticon ;) by Livia Di Paolis. More recently, he was working on the dramedy A Love Supreme, a concept pilot supported by Warner Bros. Discovery' One-Fifty incubator and HBO Max Pa'lanté Promise program.
In 2016 he was included in IndieWire’s list of “20 Latin Americans Making a Difference for American Independent Film Today,” compiled by journalist Carlos Aguilar. “I’ve never really advocated the theory that we have to support a person of color just because they are a person of color. You are actually doing more damage if they have a lot to learn about the craft. However, we can support them through nurturing their filmmaking and storytelling through labs and education, which I’ve done for many years” Cáceres Carreño told IndieWire.
