JURIES, VANCOUVER LATIN AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL 2014.
NEW DIRECTORS COMPETITION
Manuela Martelli made her acting debut in Chile at the age of 18 in the film B-Happy (2003). This
role earned her the Coral Award for Best Actress at the Havana Film Festival in Cuba. Since then
she has worked on productions in Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Italy, Germany and Spain. The film
Machuca (2004), directed by Andrés Wood, in which Manuela stars in a principal role, was one of
the most popular films in the history of Chilean cinema; for her role as Silvana, she won the
Chilean Altazor Arts Award for Best Actress. Last year at the Huelva Iberoamerican Film Festival
in Spain, the jury awarded her with the Columbus Gold for Best Actress for her work in the film Il
Futuro (2013), directed by Alicia Scherson, where she co-stars with Rutger Hauer. Widely sought
after for her luminous presence on screen, Manuela has just finished filming Two Shots, the new
film by renowned Argentine director Martín Rejtman.
Nicolás Pereda was born in Mexico City and has lived in Toronto for many years. Recently he
relocated to Vancouver to teach filmmaking at Simon Fraser University. A prolific and
groundbreaking filmmaker with over ten works completed in less than eight years, he has been
recognized with more than twenty retrospectives of his work, the first at the age of 27. His films
have been exhibited in many prestigious festivals including Locarno, Venice, San Sebastián,
Toronto and Buenos Aires. He has made films and videos for several interdisciplinary plays,
operas and dance pieces that have been performed in Mexico and Europe. His first feature film
¿Dónde están sus historias? (2007) won the French Critics’ Discovery Award at the Rencontres
Cinemas d’Amérique Latine in Toulouse. Since then he has gone on to win over 12 international
awards including the FIPRESCI prize at the Havana Film Festival.
Telmo Esnal was born in Zarautz, Basque Country in Spain in 1966. Following a long career as
an assistant director, he co-directed with Asier Altuna the shorts Txotx (1997) and 40 ezetz
(1999) and the feature Aupa Extebeste! (2005), which screened in the Zabaltegi-New Directors
section of the San Sebastián Film Festival, where it won the Youth Award. He also wrote the
shorts Taxi! (2007) and Amona putz! (2010), both of which have won international prizes. His
highly acclaimed film Urteberri On, Amona! (Happy New Year, Grandma!) screened in a large
number of film festivals around the world. His most recent short, Hamaiketakoa (2012), was
awarded the top short film prize at the Seminci: Valladolid Film Festival.
Adrian Mack has been writing about arts and culture for over 10 years and is currently the
movies section editor at the Georgia Straight. Adrian is also frequently seen around Vancouver
sitting behind a 1962 Gretsch round badge three-piece drum kit with champagne sparkle finish,
usually in the company of Rich Hope and his Blue Rich Rangers. This is something Adrian does
to take his mind off the steep decline of Hollywood cinema, among other depressing matters.
AL JAZEERA DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
Dr. Alejandra Bronfman (PhD Princeton University, 2000) is an Associate Professor in the
Department of History at UBC. Prior to this, she was Assistant Professor at the University of
Florida and Yale University. At UBC, she teaches courses in Caribbean and Cuban history, as
well as Media History and Race in the Americas. Her current book project, A Voice in a Box,
records the unwritten histories of radio and related sonic technologies in the Caribbean. She is
the author of Measures of Equality: Race, Social Science and Citizenship in the Caribbean
(2004), On the Move: The Caribbean Since 1989 (2007), and co-editor of Media, Sound and
Culture in Latin America and the Caribbean (2012).
Colin Browne is a writer, filmmaker, film historian and, until recently, a professor in the film
program at Simon Fraser University. He was a co-founder of the Praxis Centre for Screenwriters
and the Art of Documentary workshops, and is currently involved in preservation and restoration
initiatives with the Audio-Visual Heritage Association of British Columbia (AVBC). His
documentary films include Linton Garner: I Never Said Goodbye, Father and Son and White
Lake, which was nominated for a Genie award. His most recent book, The Properties, was
nominated for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. He serves on the boards of Creative BC and the
Vancouver International Film Festival and is working on a project that explores the legacy of the
Surrealist engagement with Northwest coast and Alaskan ceremonial art.
Kathleen Mullen is currently the Festival Director for the Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival and
is an international programmer for Hot Docs in Toronto. For over three years, Kathleen was the
Artistic Director of Planet in Focus Environmental Film Festival. She programmed the Short Cuts
Canada section at TIFF and shorts for the Provincetown International Film Festival. Other
programming highlights include the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Inside Out Toronto LGBT Film
Festival, San Francisco International Film Festival and Vancouver International Film Festival.
Kathleen has made a number of films including the shorts you wash my skin with sunshine and
Sleep Lines. Her award-winning documentary film Breathtaking screened internationally.
SHORT FILM COMPETITION
Shana Myara is an award-winning writer whose short story "Remainders" is currently shortlisted
for the 2014 Journey Prize, and whose fiction is featured in Oberon Press's Coming Attractions
13. Her fiction has won several awards, including subTerrain‘s LUSH Triumphant Fiction Prize
and PRISM international‘s Fiction Award, and twice been shortlisted for the CBC Literary Awards.
In addition, Shana is the Director of Festival Programming for the Vancouver Queer Film Festival,
and is the writer/producer of the short film Newcomers Swim, Every Friday, which is screening
around the globe.
Sandra Rodríguez was born in Montreal and has worked in multiple capacities on short and
medium-length documentary films that tackle diverse subjects: the fight for water in Bolivia,
landmines in Cambodia, Belgian immigration, flirting techniques and Peruvian archaeological
discoveries. Sur nos traces (We Were There) is her debut documentary feature. In her parallel
life, she is also a scholar and researcher on social media and social change, and holds a PhD in
sociology. She is a fellow of the Quebec Research Fund on Society and Culture (FQRSC), and a
member of the Research Group on Institutions and Social Movements (GRIMS) and of the Youth
and Society Observatory.
Moisés Sepúlveda was born in Santiago de Chile in 1984. He graduated in film directing and
screenwriting from Chile’s ARCIS University. He has written and directed music videos, shorts
and TV series. His debut feature film, Las analfabetas (Illiterate), won the Best First Film award at
the Huelva Iberoamerican Film Festival and was the opening film at the Mar del Plata Film
Festival in 2013. He is currently working on his second film, Sed, la historia detrás del fraude. For
the last 10 years, he has simultaneously developed a career as a professional magician,
participating in several national and international events.
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