Advisory Table
Mariela Besuievsky is a partner of Tornasol Films, as well as a producer and executive producer of more than 118 films. Her first film as a producer was Pablo Dotta’s El dirigible, the first Uruguayan movie to participate in the Festival de Cannes (Semaine de la Critique 1994). In 2011 she received the Eurimages Co-production Development Award from the European Film Academy. Her film credits include: El secreto de sus ojos (The Secret in their Eyes, 2009), directed by Juan José Campanella, winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film; Álex de la Iglesia’s Balada triste de trompeta (The Last Circus, Silver Lion at Venice, 2010); Los crímenes de Oxford (The Oxford Crimes, 2008); and Felix Viscaret's miniseries Four Seasons in Havana (2016) starring Jorge Perugorría.
Carlos A. Gutiérrez is the Co-founder and Executive Director of Cinema Tropical, a New York-based non-profit that promotes, distributes, and programs Latin American cinema. As a film/video programmer, cultural promoter, and arts consultant, he has presented several film/video series at institutions from NYC to San Francisco to Mexico City, as well as a juror, panelist, and expert nominator on numerous national and international film festival selection committees. Carlos holds a MA in Cinema Studies from New York University and a BA in Communications from Universidad Iberoamericana (Mexico City)
Sonja Henrici is Co-director at Scottish Documentary Institute (SDI), which she joined in 2004. Prior to this, she worked in the administration of Edinburgh International Film Festival, and as freelance programmer and writer. She has a BA Hons (Media Studies) and MA (English Literature) from University of Sussex. She is exec producer of annual talent initiatives such as Bridging the Gap and Interdoc (2008-12). She is co-founder and co-director of SDI Productions Ltd. She has produced and exec-produced more than 30 short documentary films, which have regularly screened in over 50 countries, including Sundance, IDFA, Tribeca, SxSW. She's produced four features (I Am Breathing, Future My Love, Pablo's Winter), and her latest one, Seven Songs for a Long Life has its North American premiere at SxSW 2016.
Susana Torruella Leval has been an art writer and curator of Puerto Rican, Latino and Latin American contemporary art in New York City since 1970. She was Director of El Museo del Barrio, from 1994 –2002, after serving there as Chief Curator, and named Director Emerita by its Board. Ms. Torruella Leval was Chair of the Cultural Institutions Group (CIG) in New York, and Vice President and President Elect of the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD.) She has recently joined the editorial board of the International Center for Art of the Americas (ICAA) at The Houston Museum of Fine Arts, and has been named to the board of the IMLS (Institute of Museum and Library Services) by President Obama. Mayor de Blasio has recently named her Chair of the Mayor’s Cultural Affairs Advisory Committee.
Scotch Ellis Loring has been in arts and entertainment as an actor, singer, writer and producer, and director for decades. As a writer, Scotch’s first produced screenplay, WIG, was featured in festivals across North America and is currently making the rounds internationally. A talented singer/songwriter, he released his first album Standard Scotch in 2009 and completed the follow up Original Scotch in 2011. As an actor he has appeared in Finding Mr. Wright, Hard Pill, Fight Club, K-911, and Firehouse Dog – where in addition to starring, Scotch wrote and performed the closing theme song Lost Till I Found You. Scotch's latest venture which he wrote produced, directed and starred in is the award winning web series Faux Show also featuring Kim Coles and Tiffany Haddish.
Catherine Murphy is a San Francisco-based filmmaker who has spent much of the last 10 years working in Latin America. She is founder & director of The Literacy Project, a multi-media documentary project on adult literacy in the Americas. As an independent producer, Murphy's work has largely focused on social documentaries. She has field produced films like Saul Landau's Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up?, and Eugene Corr's From Ghost Town to Havana. She also served an archival researcher for Susanne Rostock's recent biography of Harry Belafonte, Sing Your Song. Murphy served as senior staff producer at the TeleSur TV Washington bureau in 2006 and has produced content for PBS, TeleSur, Avila TV, Pacifica Radio National, WBAI and KPFA. In 2012, she directed the documentary short, Maestra, about the National Campaign for Literacy that swept through in Cuba in 1961.
Diana Taylor is professor of Performance Studies and Spanish at New York University. She is also Founding Director of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, an organization working at the intersection of scholarship, artistic expression, and politics to explore performance as a vehicle for the creation of new meaning and the transmission of cultural values, memory, and identity. As a major contributor to the area of Performance Studies in the Americas, Professor Taylor's work focuses on Latin American and U.S. theater and performance, performance and politics, feminist theater and performance in the Americas, hemispheric studies, and trauma studies. Her books include The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the Americas, Theatre of Crisis: Drama and Politics in Latin America, and her latest book Performance, all published by Duke University Press.
Caterina Toscano is a producer and curator of cultural events with more than 20 years of international professional experience. During her career, she has promoted culture and heritage in several private and public institutions in Europe, Mexico, and the United States; specializing in cultural diplomacy as an efficient tool for international relations. Before her arrival to New York, Caterina was based in Barcelona, where she led and produced diverse activities and programs in the Mexican Consulate. She has also coordinated, produced and curated exhibitions for galleries, foundations and museums in Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon, Paris, and Mexico City. Currently, Caterina is the Executive Director of the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York, where she collaborates with leading New York organizations and institutions to showcase the uniqueness of Mexico’s culture through art exhibitions, performances, panel discussions, film screenings and other activities. Caterina holds a bachelor's degree in Media Studies and Communication as well as a master's degree in Philosophy, focusing on Contemporary Art.
Maria Hinojosa is an award-winning news anchor and reporter who covers America’s untold stories and highlights today’s critical issues. In 2010, Hinojosa created the Futuro Media Group, an independent nonprofit organization producing multimedia journalism that explores and gives a critical voice to the diversity of the American experience. As the anchor and Executive Producer of the Peabody Award winning show Latino USA which is distributed by NPR, and anchor and Executive Producer of the PBS show America By The Numbers with Maria Hinojosa, both produced by Futuro Media, she has informed millions about the changing cultural and political landscape in America and abroad