DIRECTOR / PRODUCER

Sabrina Avilés is an award-winning independent filmmaker, whose work has taken her throughout Latin America, Canada and Europe. During her 25+ year career, she has worked on many PBS programs, among them the six-hour Peabody award-winning series, Latino Americans. Currently, she is in production for her first feature-length documentary on the city of Chelsea, MA and its response to the pandemic.

Sabrina has received grants from ITVS’ Diversity Development Fund, the LEF Foundation, Mass Humanities, Latino Public Broadcasting, and the New England Foundation for the Arts. She was a 2019 LEF Foundation Flaherty Fellow, is a member of the Documentary Producers Alliance and currently serves on the boards of Filmmakers Collaborative and Massachusetts Production Coalition. In addition to her film production career, in 2016 Sabrina became the Executive Director of the Boston Latino International Film Festival. In 2022, Sabrina founded CineFest Latino Boston film festival.

Born in Washington Heights, Sabrina’s family originates from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. She earned a B.S. in Broadcasting/Film from Boston University and currently lives in Boston, MA.

PRODUCER

Jenny Alexander is an independent filmmaker and senior producer at Northern Light Productions. Her work at Northern Light Productions includes directing and producing documentaries for broadcast on PBS and the Discovery Channel, museums and the National Park Service, as well as interactive media exhibits for museum settings. She recently concluded an immersive exhibit featuring an animated film projected on a 40’ curved wall for the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21. 

Jenny’s award-winning independent films, The Vigil and Detained focused on the impact of U.S. immigration policies on families and have screened at festivals in Tel Aviv, Poland, Germany and China as well as within the US. Prior to film, Jenny worked as a community organizer with immigrant youth and as a union organizer for the United Farm Workers and with the Puerto Rican Worker’s Union (Sindicato Puertorriqueño de Trabajadores). She is currently in production on an independent documentary about the immigrant-majority city of Chelsea, Massachusetts and the community’s response to the COVID pandemic.

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER / EDITOR

James Rutenbeck is a two-time Alfred I. duPont Columbia Journalism Award filmmaker. His films have screened at Cinema du Reel, Museum of Modern Art, National Gallery, Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival and Robert Flaherty Film Seminar. A Reckoning in Boston, about racial and economic disparities in Boston, aired on Independent Lens in 2021 and won Best Feature at the Morehouse College Human Rights Film Festival. James has received support from Sundance Documentary Fund, LEF Moving Image Fund, Southern Humanities Media Fund and Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Editing credits include the recent NYT OpDoc My Disability Road Map. James was a 2019/20 Fellow at the Film Study Center at Harvard University.

ARCHIVAL PRODUCER

Heather Merrill has worked in documentary production for more than 10 years. Her associate producer and research credits include work on numerous independent films, programs for Discovery, Showtime and the WORLD Channel, as well as work for the PBS series American Experience, American Masters and NOVA. Her favorite topics have included women wrestlers, the roots of the modern Israeli-Palestinian conflict and disaster studies.

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Stephen McCarthy is a director of photography whose thirty-five year career spans the width and breadth of non-fiction filmmaking. His work appears regularly in prime time documentary series including 40 episodes of PBS’s “American Experience", ten seasons of “Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.,” American Masters, Frontline, Nova and P.O.V. as well as HBO, Netflix and Apple TV. Recent streaming credits include “This Is A Robbery,” “Trial Four,” “Misha and the Wolves,” and “Black Holes: The Edge of All We Know” - all for Netflix.

ASSOCIATE PRODUCER

Chantal Encalada is an emerging producer, writer, and director. She is currently a Production Associate for Gidalya Pictures, an award-winning documentary production company based in New York City. She was previously the Administrative Coordinator for the Documentary Producers Alliance as well as the Programming Assistant for the Boston Latino International Film Festival. Chantal was also the Assistant Director for the Boston Public Schools’ Respect Week PSA Video, which won a Silver Telly Award and a Communicator Award for Distinction. She has a background in theater performance and theater education, but found a passion for film during her time at Emerson College. She has since been a versatile collaborator and has helped multiple independent short films come to life. Chantal is a proud Latina born to Ecuadorian immigrants, and hopes to continue advocating for social justice through her art.

ASSISTANT EDITOR, ADDITIONAL CINEMATOGRAPHY

Emilio Subía (b. 1997) is an Ecuadorian filmmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. At 11 years old he got a mini DV camera as a birthday present and has been making films since then. He attended Universidad San Francisco de Quito and Boston University for film production. At 18 years old he shot the documentary feature “Ciudad a la espalda” which was awarded the post production award at the Viña Del Mar International Film Festival. Soon after Emilio moved to the United States and started working as a freelance editor in documentaries, advertising, and music videos. His work has received two Telly Awards, a Webby Award, an Imagen Award, and a Vimeo Staff Pick. In 2020 he was awarded the Emerging Creators scholarship by the National Association of Latino Independent Producers. The short film “Ñaños” (2022), his directorial debut, premiered at Tribeca Festival and obtained a Special Mention by the Jury of FICQuito. “Ñaños” is currently on its festival run. Emilio is currently in pre-production for his first documentary feature “Mi Tierra Me Llama” and developing his first fiction feature “Cucarachas”. His long term goal is to make films that explore conflicts of identity, growing-up, and family dynamics, all within the realm of fiction and non-fiction.

COMPOSER AND VIOLINIST

Ernesto studied at the Liceu in Barcelona and at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. He composed the music of Goya award winner documentary “The Children of Nepal”.
He has worked as Orchestral Director in Prague, Coruña, Caracas, Barcelona, ​​Seville, as well as an arranger and conductor with Stephen Warbeck, Sergio Moure, Juan Bardem. He currently works on sound design and composition projects for video games and technology and music therapy projects. He is based in Barcelona, Spain.

IMPACT PRODUCER

Marga Varea is the founder of Twin Seas Media, a Boston-based impact distribution boutique agency working with documentary films and documentary film festivals. With over twenty years of experience in film and television, Marga has a deep understanding of the industry. Marga has worked with dozens of documentary films and film festivals over the years in a variety of positions from screenwriter and script consultant to line and consulting producer. For the past decade, she has designed and led dozens of successful impact and distribution campaigns and consulted for a variety of film festivals internationally.