We´re each made up of stories and our backgrounds can be our strengths if we're kind enough to open up to other people´s points of view.
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I´m a storyteller
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I create and manage multidisciplinary, cultural, and educational projects
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I´m a film/video producer and director
Singing, dancing and drawing are definitely not my strengths but I am patient, consistent and creative. I love languages and deciphering culture through their use and practice, I'm by far more of a listener than a talker.
I enjoy the various forms of storytelling, whether it's through video such as a documentary, an educational children's TV series, or something as short and clever as a TikTok. However, the true magic of storytelling lies in the experiential practice that takes place when people are brought together, whether it's to make or watch a film or to engage in a workshop, a festival, a conference, or even a picnic. Encounters create experiences that cannot be replicated elsewhere.
Images behold power, therefore the use we make of them is one of my greatest concerns. Visual storytelling is a powerful medium that shapes the way people experience the world. This thought brings me a feeling of deep responsibility for the stories I create.
Here are some facts
I was born in Quito, Ecuador and I am fluent in Spanish, French, and English. My German, which is Austrian, is quite rusty nowadays. For the past 10 years, I have been the inbound coordinator for Portland State University's Speech-Language Pathologists summer program. I studied film and now hold a Master's degree in visual anthropology. I began my career in 2002 as an assistant director in the Ecuadorian film and advertising industry and later became an advertising director. This experience asked of me to change paths and in 2008 I shifted my focus and developed a cultural project with indigenous communities throughout Ecuador. Later on, I created Ecuador's first Deaf film festival. This brought me back to film in its documentary format. I was fortunate enough to be assigned a couple of educational TV series for children, which aired on national television. During the pandemic, I worked on an interactive web documentary about the arts and crafts of elderly people in the heart of Quito's historic district. Recently, I completed a TV series on the uses of public space and road safety for young adults. I occasionally edit videos for Proteknon and The Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action
A chronological description of my work with links to various projects
The last of my audiovisual projects (2022-23) is a youth series on road safety and the uses of public space. It was filmed in Santo Domingo de los Tsa'chilas and is called Juégate la calle. It is being broadcasted on a local channel, Zaracay TV, and can be seen on Social Media like Facebook, Instagram, tiktok and youtube.
I also directed and wrote the children's series El equipo invincible, produced by Zonacuario for the United for healthy children from Nestle. We created 3 seasons. A chapter was nominated to the Prix Jeunesse 2018 festival in Munich, Germany. Previously I directed the TV series Atrapasueños and El Diván. I produced and co-wrote the documentary El Secreto de la luz, a project that won the DocTv Latin America award for Ecuador. I have been a teacher at UDLA University in the BA of animation and film.
I created and ran Así Dicen Mis Abuelos. It is a project that collects, shares and disseminates the ancestral knowledge and oral tradition of Ecuador. The first and most important step of this project is the field work that through art aims to link the community in a process that works the memory, revitalizes the language and promotes intergenerational relationships. From this I edited a series of books and generated films in collaboration with the communities. In 2012 this project received an honorable mention for best children's publication from the Alas-BID program. The materials were returned to the communities through an intercultural festival. ADMA works hand in hand with Oralidad Modernidad, which seeks to document and revitalize the languages of Ecuador.
Festival Cine Sordo (2012), Deaf Film Festival was the first of its kind in Latin America. Intended to bring together the deaf and hearing communities. It was held in Quito, Guayaquil and Cuenca and included film screenings, an acting workshops, a subtitling workshop, talks and screenings for schools, as well as two days of lectures at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Quito.
Atrapasueños is a children's series produced for Educa TV that premiered on November 23, 2015. Children from different corners of Ecuador narrate dreams they´ve had and these become animations. Ecuador´s cultural diversity can be seen, heard and felt. Look for it on youtube.
El Diván is a series for young people and adults about interculturality as part of everyday life. It was broadcasted nationally through many Ecuadorian tv chains. It can also be seen online on youtube or in the links on this web page.
And finally a synopsis of El secreto de la luz a film I wrote and produced. A look at 20th century Ecuador narrated through the work of the Swedish explorer Rolf Blomberg: his books and films, his photographs and illustrations are the archival material that make up this documentary. Blomberg arrived in 1934 to study the Galapagos Islands and destiny brought him back as many times as necessary to make Quito his center of operations. He explored Ecuador like few others and created a complex and exciting work whose re-reading, today, offers us an unpublished portrait of this country.