I'm a bilingual filmmaker born and raised in El Paso, TX and currently based in Austin.
AWARDS /NOMINATIONS
2022 Gotham Award Nominee for Best Doc Feature for WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND
2022 SXSW Lone Star & New Voices Fandor Award for WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND
DOC NYC's 40 under 40 for 2021
25 New Faces of Independent Film for 2020
2020 Filmflow Award presented for WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND during IFP Week
Best Texas Short at 2018 SXSW Film Festival for AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE
Best Feature Film at 2014 Los Angeles International Women's Festival for DETAINED IN THE DESERT
2012 Latino Film Fund seed grant for DETAINED IN THE DESERT
Best Short Film & Texas Award at the Oscar qualifying 2012 USA Film Festival for CHILD OF THE DESERT
Award of Merit in the 2012 Accolade Competition for CHILD OF THE DESERT
National Hispanic Foundation of the Arts Scholarship
Edie and Lew Wasserman Fellowship
Hollywood Foreign Press Award
Steven Bochco Fellowship
Motion Picture Association Award
UCLA Graduate Opportunity Scholarship
Bill Gates Millennium Scholar
FELLOWSHIPS
2020 Women at Sundance | Adobe Fellowship
2020 Logan Nonficiton Fellowship for Lo que dejamos atras
2019 True False/Catapult Rough Cut Retreat
2018-2019 Sundance Documentary Development Fellowship for Lo que dejamos atras
2017 Firelight Media Impact Producer Fellowship
2016-2017 Sundance Institute Diversity Action Committee
2014 Sundance Latino Screenwriting Project
2013 Film Independent Project Involve Directing Fellow
2013 Transatlantic Film Talent Lab in Reykjavik, Iceland
FILM FESTIVAL JURIES
Juror for Texas Shorts at the 2023 SXSW Film Festival
Juror for the 2019 Transform Film Festival (Short Documentary Competition)
Curator for the 2018 Cine Las Americas Hecho en Tejas Program
Juror for the 2017 Cine Las Americas Film Festival (Short Documentary Competition)
Juror for the 2016 San Diego Latino Film Festival (Feature Documentary Competition)
Juror for the 2015 Brico Award at the Milwaukee Film Festival
EDUCATION
MFA in Directing from UCLA
BA in Latin American Studies and Minor in French from Southwestern University