Events

Andrés Rodríguez is a Guatemalan with 15 years of experience as a filmmaker. He has directed six short films, including Lorena and Darvin, both participated in several film festivals. Rodríguez is an associate producer for two other feature films and directed the Cinespacio Film Festival for five years. Currently, he is developing Roza, the Opera Prima feature. The film has been shown at the Cinergia Lab, Panama Film Lab, and Ibermedia Development workshop.

Carolina Mora was born and raised in San Jose, Costa Rica where, from an early age, she developed her love for cinema and photography. After completing her studies in psychology and dramatic arts, she signed up for film school at the Cinema School of Veritas University. She currently manages a video equipment rental and free-lances as a grip and camera assistant. Lili Zhen Álvarez is her first documentary short. At present, she is in the pre-production stages of her thesis in which she is a director of photography.

Hawi Castañeda Willca is a photographer, graphic designer, and social anthropologist at the Universidad de Costa Rica. He has participated in the Festival Acampadoc de Cine Documental in Panama, where he co-produced a short film, Pión pagao, pión ganado (2015), which was part of the official selection of the Festival Ícaro 2016. His photo essay Entre bananeras (2014), about women workers of the banana plantations in Limón, has been exhibited in different galleries and published in newspapers such as La Jornada and Semanario Universidad. Currently, he is the coordinator of the U-suré: Revista Estudiantil de Antropología.

Leyzer Chiquin, Maya Q’eqchi’ filmmaker, graduated as a film director and audiovisual producer, from Casa Comal Film School and Pan American University, respectively. He was awarded the Guatemalan National Film Fund in 2017 for the project La Niña del Arpa (The Girl and the Harp). He is the founder of La Casa de la Cinematografía Maya (The Maya House of Cinematography), where they produce documentaries and film with a community focus on Guatemala and Central America. Additionally, he is a founding member of Cuenca Studios, where he works on media projects for local and international organizations.

Maria Paula Kikut is a native of Cartago province of San Jose, Costa Rica. She developed her interest in the arts by dabbling with writing and sound. She is currently in her third year of the Cinema School of Veritas University and has also studied philology at the Universidad de Costa Rica. She has worked in the sound department on several short films and projects and is currently developing a web series with classmates.

Génesis Mancheren Abaj is a Kaqchikel multi-disciplinary artist and writer from Queens, NY, and B’oko’, Iximulew. She is the co-founder of Tierra Narrative, a Central American production house that creates spaces for transnational conversations and collaborations between the Central American diaspora and the homelands. She is an alumna of New York University and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, where she studied creative writing and documentary film, respectively. She is currently focusing on and studying acting at Stella Adler Studio of Acting.

The event is free and open to the public. A reception will follow. A photo ID is required to enter NYU buildings and 20 Cooper Square is a wheelchair accessible venue.