April 15, 2013
Instituto Cervantes

Presented as part of the 14th edition of the Havana Film Festival in New York

A special edition of the TropiChat series featuring four accomplished Latino filmmakers living in New York City. The discussion, moderated by Cinema Tropical's Carlos A. Gutiérrez, will focus on the opportunities and limitations for Latino artists in the U.S. and in Latin America. 

Participants:

Roberto Busó-García was born and raised in Puerto Rico. He has written, directed and produced six short films, a dramatic mini-series and two feature-length films for more than 18 years. He has served as a member of the jury of the Colombia and Puerto Rico Film Funds, the New York International Latino Film Festival, the American Black Film Festival and the Puerto Rico International Film Festival. In 2012 he premiered his debut feature Los condenados / The Condemned, which had a theatrical run in Puerto Rico and more recently in New York and Los Angeles, distributed by Strand Releasing. He worked as a film acquisitions executive in New York and was responsible for bringing award-winning Spanish-language shows like "Epitafios" to US audiences through HBO.

Paola Mendoza, was named one of Filmmaker Magazine 25 New Faces of Independent Film. She was most recently tapped to write and direct the film Half of Her for ITVS. She also helmed the documentary La Toma, which was commissioned by the Nelson Mandela Foundation and Tribeca Film Institute. Mendoza made her narrative directorial debut with Entre Nos, which had its world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival where it was awarded Honorable Mention and it went on to win over ten awards at film festivals around the world. Mendoza also directed the feature length documentary Autumn's Eyes, which made its world premier at the SXSW Film Festival. Mendoza most recently finished writing her debut novel entitled The Ones Who Don't Stay which will be published by Penguin Books in the Spring of 2013.

Bernardo Ruiz was born in Mexico, but grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He studied documentary photography with Joel Sternfeld at Sarah Lawrence College. For the past decade has worked as a journeyman director/producer for a variety of media outlets, including PBS, National Geographic, Planet Green and MTV, among others. In 2007, he founded Quiet Pictures in order to make independent documentaries. His debut film through Quiet was a commission, American Experience: Roberto Clemente (PBS, 2008) winner of the Alma Award for Outstanding Made for Television Documentary. Reportero is Ruiz's first documentary feature. 

Argentine-born, New York-based writer, director and producer Julia Solomonoff holds an MFA in Film from Columbia University (where she currently teaches Film Directing). Hermanas, her debut feature film, premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2005. Her most recent feature film is El último verano de la boyita / The Last Summer of La Boyita. She also has written and directed five short films—which have earned her prestigious awards from the DGA and FIPRESCI. In addition to her own work, she has collaborated with such well-regarded directors as Luis Puenzo, Carlos Sorín, and Martin Rejtman, and worked as First Assistant Director on Walter Salles’ The Motorcycle Diaries. Also the producer of numerous documentaries in Latin America, such as Alejandro Landes' Cocalero, Julia co-produced Brazilian director Julia Murat’s debut film Found Memories.