Filmmaker's Dream: Cristina Ibarra
Christina Ibarra was awarded $10,000 to develop her work and was given the opportunity to showcase her film on behalf of Banco Popular at the New York International Latino Film Festival (NYILFF) on July 24th - July 29th, 2007.
Based in New York City, Cristina Ibarra grew up on the U.S./Mexico border between El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. She is a Chicana filmmaker working in the realms of non-fiction, fiction and satire. She is wrapping up her first feature documentary this summer with Executive Producer John Valadez. The Last Conquistador follows an artist’s struggle to build the largest bronze statue of it’s kind ever created to a Spanish colonizer known both as the father of the Hispanic Southwest and also as a conquistador who committed genocide against Native Americans in the late sixteenth century. It will be broadcast on the acclaimed PBS series, P.O.V. in the summer of 2008.
Her award-winning directorial debut, Dirty Laundry: A Homemade Telenovela is a short fictional account of a young girl’s struggle to understand how her blossoming female desire fits into her traditional Mexican American upbringing. This short film aired on Public Television (PBS) nationwide in the series, ColorVision. LPB commissioned her one-interstitial, Grandma’s Hip Hop, about an Abuelita who imagines the sounds of her kitchen become a hip hop song. She has also produced and directed, in collaboration with fulana, a Latina video and performance collective, award-winning satire. Latino Plastic Cover, Lupe From the Block and Amnezac can be seen online at www.fulana.org. Her explorations of her hometown continue as she develops her first fiction feature film, Love & Monster Trucks. The narrative follows two high school friends cruising the intricate social landscape that shapes the U.S.-Mexico border in a film blending art, drama and fantasy.
Intern Filmmaker's Dream: Christian Ortiz
Christian won the opportunity to shadow a New York film maker during the weeks of June 18th, June 25th, July 2nd and July 9th in the shooting and editing of a 60 second mini film to be broadcast from July 24th to July 29th at the New York International Latino Film Festival.
Artist Statement:
I came screaming into this world October 12, 1990 at 11:45AM at King County Hospital, Brooklyn. I was 21 inches long and weighed 7 pounds and 3oz. I’m the middle child of three. I have an older brother that is 23 years old; my sister is a year and a half younger. In my early years I lived with my mother and grandmother for 3 years in Florida. Then my parents got back together and we moved to the Bronx. I go to Harry .S Truman High School in the Bronx. I picked this school for the culinary arts program. But on my last day of school, I found out that they put me in the media arts program instead. This made me upset at first because I had no interest in media, but after the first day of class I became hooked on media because I was taught that I could tell my story to the world. Since that first day, I decided I wanted to become a filmmaker and not a cook. I started to seek out opportunity to do media throughout the city and that’s how I found DCTV and applied to their PRO-TV media fellowship program. I’ve made three short videos in my first year in school: a PSA; drama; and, two documentaries about graffiti and how people use MySpace. The one thing I’ve learned from doing media this year is that I have a voice and it matters to my community and me. So, I want to continue to strive for the best and do what I love to do tell stories through the lens.
