STAFF

Carlos A. Gutiérrez, Co-founder and Executive Director

Carlos A. Gutiérrez is Co-Founding Executive Director of Cinema Tropical, the New York–based media arts non-profit organization founded in 2001 that is the leading promoter of Latin American cinema in the U.S. and a recent recipient of the National Society of Film Critics’ Film Heritage Award. As a guest curator, he has presented film series at institutions including The Museum of Modern Art, Film at Lincoln Center, the Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of the Moving Image, BAM Film, and Anthology Film Archives. He has co-curated the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar twice (2007 and 2025), and currently serves as Artistic Director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s Latin Wave film festival and Co-Director of Cinema Tucsón. In 2025, he received the Leading Light Award at the DOC NYC Visionary Tribute. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and serves on Film Forum’s Board of Directors. He has also served as a juror, nominator, and panelist for international film festivals and funds including IDFA, Tribeca, Mar del Plata, New Orleans, Valdivia, Doclisboa, Morelia, Seattle, Margaret Mead, DocsValencia, SANFIC, the Sundance Documentary Fund, Tribeca Film Institute’s Latin America Media Arts Fund, and the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative.

Mary Jane Marcasiano, Director of Development and Special Projects

Mary Jane Marcasiano is the president of her eponymous design company in New York City and actively involved in the arts and non-profit community in NY, Brazil and West Africa.  She is a graduate of Parsons School of Design/The New School, and in 2019 she received a Masters Degree from NYU Gallatin focusing on the intersection of Art, Nonprofits and Social Change. She is recipient of the Cartier, DuPont, Cutty Sark and Wool Knit Awards, and has designed costumes for DanceBrazil, the New York City Ballet, the Brazilian films: Até Quando (2008), Reaching for the Moon (2013), and for Grammy award winning singer Angelique Kidjo. Marcasiano has produced several films in Brazil: Ginga (Gustavo Moraes, 2004), Reaching for the Moon" (Bruno Barreto), Alair Gomes (Gustavo Moraes, in development), and in the U.S. a documentary film, Jack Lenor Larsen (2016) with CheckerBoard Films. For three years she served as the President of the Board of Directors of DanceBrazil, a non-profit foundation dedicated to cultural exchange between Brazil and the U.S. She is the programmer for Cinema Tropical’s Music+Film series and founder of their Brazilian film initiative Janeiro in New York. In 2007 Marcasiano created the Made With Love Project, a non-profit global initiative dedicated to raising funds and awareness for NGOs aiding women and children in need in Brazil, Africa and Haiti.

Samuel Didonato, Assistant Director

Samuel Didonato is a graduate of The International School of Film and Television in San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba (EICTV) where he graduated with a specialty in Film Production. He holds a BA in History with a focus on the formation of collective memory and popular imagination. While at the EICTV he worked on fiction and nonfiction productions from development to distribution, working collaboratively with international directors. Prior to working in film, he worked as a community organizer and media coordinator, contributing video and written reporting for Unicorn Riot, Truth Out, Democracy Now! and NPR. He also was a member of Rebel Lens Baltimore and a committee member of Neighborhood Voices, where he co-organized community arts workshops and taught photo and video workshops in Baltimore.

Natalia Hernández Moreno, Researcher and Outreach Director

Natalia Hernández Moreno is film researcher mainly interested in Latin American filmic archives, adaptation studies, and visual thought. She holds a summa cum laude BA in Literature from Universidad de Los Andes (Colombia) and is a New York Film Academy screenwriting, filmmaking, and producing/film finance alumna. Prior to joining Cinema Tropical, she worked as script researcher and PA for various independent productions in Bogotá and interned in Development for Paramount Pictures at their Manhattan headquearters. She is currently an MA student at NYU Tisch’s Martin Scorsese Department of Cinema Studies. As a part of the Cinema Tropical team, she is a frequent contributor for TropicalFONT and leads the research for the upcoming 25th Anniversary edition projects.

Juan Pedro Agurcia, Cinema Tropical Awards Producer

Juan Pedro Agurcia works in cinema production, programming, promotion and distribution. He has been the Producer of the Cinema Tropical Awards Program since 2019. He was the Producer of the UnionDocs Breakout Symposium 2021, the Online Producer of the 67th Flaherty Film Seminar: Continents of Drifting Clouds and the Producer of the event New Nature: An Immersive Media and Climate Science Exchange, sponsored by the Goethe-Institut. He is co-founder and programmer of Tercer Cine, the only independent exhibition project in Honduras, for whom he recently served as Lead Producer and Curator of Fragments and Memories: Human Rights Film Festival. He is also the co-founder and editor of Corrientes, a trilingual digital platform dedicated to expanding access and opening conversation with and through experimental Latin American cinema.

Mara Behrens, Art Director

Mara Behrens is a Silicon Valley creative director with more than 15 years of global experience who is passionate about combining effective brand integration with seamless user experience and design. She has directed market strategy, shaped brand identity, and provided innovative user-centric experiences across multiple platforms for a diverse array of clients. She is a keen believer in using metrics and building sustainable processes in her work, a result of professional and holistic experiences with diverse cultures in countries ranging from Venezuela and France to Mexico and the United States.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Cinema Tropical's programs are made possible with the support of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathleen Hochul and the New York State Legislature. They are also supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the National Endowments for the Arts.