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INDUSTRY PANEL 1

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Estevan Oriol
Photographer, Filmmaker, Producer

Estevan Oriol is an internationally celebrated photographer, director and urban lifestyle entrepreneur. Beginning his career as a hip-hop club bouncer, Estevan became tour manager for popular Los Angeles-area rap groups Cypress Hill and House of Pain. His passion for photography developed while traveling the world. With an influential nudge and old camera from his renowned photographer father, Eriberto Oriol, Estevan began documenting life on the road and established a name for himself amid the emerging hip-hop scene. His work has been showcased in select galleries and institutions including the Smithsonian Center for Latino Initiatives, Mesa Contemporary Art Center,  Petersen Automotive Museum, and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles’ Art in the Streets exhibit.  His best-selling books: L.A. Woman, L.A. Portraits, and This Is Los Angeles capture LA lifestyle; from gangsters to celebrities and everything in-between, all in his uniquely provocative raw style. His photography has been featured in Complex, GQ, Vibe, and Rolling Stone just to name a few. He has appeared on many popular television shows such as CNN’s Anthony Bourdain-Parts Unknown and CNN’s Street Food-Roy Choi. Most recently, Estevan executive produced the film “Lowriders”  and directed the Netflix  documentary “L.A. Originals”.

Jesus “Malverde” Gonzalez
Moderator
President & Co-founder, Sonus Agency/ Former SVP, Brands & Partnerships, Universal Music Group

 

With a 15-year trajectory, Jesus “Malverde” Gonzalez is widely recognized as a Latin music industry thought leader in the Strategic Partnerships and Culture Lifestyle Marketing space. A former Universal Recording artist himself, he has leveraged his firsthand insights and passion for music and entertainment in his journey from creative to senior global label executive. Now with the launch of his consultancy, Sonus Agency, he aims to help brands, agencies, artists and non-profits connect the dots between music, film, art, tech and philanthropy.

Marco A. Valadez
Executive Producer

Marco A. Valadez is the Executive Vice President and Partner at The ID Agency where he is responsible for business development, client relations, and group account management. He also works closely with Estevan Oriol, overseeing current projects for the director as an executive producer. 

Born to immigrants from Mexico City, Mexico, Marco Valadez is a first generation Mexican-American businessman. A graduate of California State University, Northridge, he has over 25 years of marketing and promotions agency experience with expertise in both the General and Hispanic marketplace.

Prior to officially joining the ID team, he was an integral part of the growth for multiple marketing agencies and a co-founder of SA Studios Global. He was part of the grassroots marketing program that launched Toyota Scion, and together with a team grew overall agency revenue to $12+ million per year. 

Valadez has worked with some of the most recognized brands in the world including Sony PlayStation, Harley-Davidson, Activision, M&M Mars, Kellogg’s, PepsiCo, Budweiser, XBOX, Mattel, GM and Nike. It is through his work with these reputable companies that he has gained expertise in strategic planning, research, consumer insights, brand management, and marketing and promotional execution.  

Most recently Valadez was an Executive Producer for the Netflix documentary LA Originals. 

Marco Valadez currently resides in Long Beach, CA with his wife and three children.

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Estevan Oriol
Photographer, Filmmaker, Producer
Jesus “Malverde” Gonzalez
Moderator
Marco A. Valadez
Executive Producer

INDUSTRY PANEL 2

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Danny Hastings
Moderator

Danny Hastings CEO, Director, Editor, Photographer, Actor, Writer
With over 20+ years experience in the arena of professional photography, with an impressive portfolio of A-List Celebrities, Album Art, Music Videos, Advertising Campaigns, Short Films, Feature Films and Live Events. A red-hot member of the creative and media industry, Hastings has captured the changing American landscape through his unique and insightful point of view.  He founded the festival in response to the 2015 Oscar’s lack of Latino representation in film.

Alex Ferrufino
Writer/Director

Born in Sylmar, California, Alex Ferrufino never seen the movie businesses being his career. He always had a love for movies but his background would say otherwise. After the loss of a very good friend due to gang violence, he made a choice to turn his life around. Being a native from Los Angeles, he decided to pursue a career in film maker.

His enthusiasm and drive to accomplish the dreams he set forth pushed him into the craft of directing. Through a camera, he fell in love with the art of storytelling. He feels that he has an obligation to tell stories that speak for his culture and rough upbringing. He wants to give young people like him a voice.

David Mansanalez
Writer / Producer

David Mansanalez was born and raised in Northern Californian. As a young adult, David joined the U.S. Army. After a rough 18-month tour in Afghanistan, he attended film school where he focused on writing scripts to express his thoughts and cope with his severe PTSD. Mansanalez writes to bring an authentic reality to the screen and aspires to give his people a voice and change the narrative of what the American culture perceives Latino content to be.

Dr. Ernesto Javier Martínez
Head of Content for RYOT, a subsidiary of Verizon Media

Dr. Ernesto Javier Martínez is an interdisciplinary literary critic, an award-winning writer, and a tenured associate professor in the Department of Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies at the University of Oregon. His work—both academic and artistic—explores how racially and sexually marginalized communities in the United States use literature, art, and film to produce knowledge about their lives. He is the author of On Making Sense: Queer Race Narratives of Intelligibility (Stanford UP, 2012), as well as the co-editor of Gay Latino Studies: A Critical Reader (Duke UP, 2011) and The Truly Diverse Faculty: New Dialogues in American Higher Education (Palgrave, 2014). His short film, La Serenata (2019), directed by Adelina Anthony, has screened at more than 20 film festivals worldwide, has earned 9 best short film awards, and has been licensed by HBO.

Adelina Anthony
Actor, Writer, Producer

 

Originally from Tejas, Adelina Anthony is a critically acclaimed Two Spirit Xicana Lesbiana actor-writer-director-producer. In 2012, along with Marisa Becerra, she co-founded AdeRisa Productions. Adelina’s first short film as a writer-director, Forgiving Heart, world-premiered at OUTFEST Fusion in 2013. Her first feature film, Bruising for Besos (2016) world-premiered with Frameline. She has twice won a Latino Public Broadcasting Public Media Film Grant for Amigas with Benefits (2017) and Ode to Pablo (2018). As a screenwriter, she also penned the award-winning works: You’re Dead to Me (2013), Get the Life (2016) and the upcoming The Daily War (2020). More: www.adelinaanthony.com

Isaac Garza
Writer / Producer

Along with performing as a resident improsiver at an Austin comedy club, the Texas-born Garza writes and directs short films ranging in genre, from dark comedy to tense drama, that all carry heart.

Eman Esfandi
Writer / Producer

Eman Esfandi is a Los Angeles based actor, filmmaker, and musician from the border town of Laredo, Texas. His mother immigrated to America from Ecuador and his father from Iran. He was raised in a household with two distinct cultures, and in a town that is homogeneously Hispanic. These different perspectives have heavily influenced the way he approaches the characters he portrays, the films he makes, and the music he creates. He hopes that through his acting, filmmaking, and music he can explore and discover deeper truths about his own life’s experiences, so as to connect with and find the truth that is universal in other people’s lives.

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Danny Hastings
Moderator
Alex Ferrufino
Writer/Director
David Mansanalez
Writer / Producer
Dr. Ernesto Javier Martínez
Head of Content for RYOT, a subsidiary of Verizon Media
Adelina Anthony
Actor, Writer, Producer
Isaac Garza
Writer / Producer
Eman Esfandi
Writer / Producer

INDUSTRY PANEL 3

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Lisa Cortés
Producer / Director
Lisa Cortés is an Academy Award® nominated and Emmy-winning Producer and Director. She is renowned for creating challenging, visionary stories and has been distinguished by her commitment to empowering inclusive voices.

The film Precious (2009), which she executive produced, received the Sundance Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize for best drama. Marking the acting debut of Gabourey Sidibe, the film was nominated for six Academy Awards® and won two. 2019’s Emmy-winning, The Apollo, an HBO documentary, explores African American cultural and political history through the story of the legendary Apollo Theater. Her directorial debut, The Remix: Hip Hop X Fashion (2019), traces the impact of street fashion and African American creativity on global cultural trends and was recently released on Netflix. Cortés current project,  All In: The Fight For Democracy; which she co-directed with Liz Garbus and produced with Stacey Abrams, Dan Cogan and Garbus was released by Amazon Studios.

Her early career as a music executive was launched at the iconic Def Jam label and Rush Artist Management; she also was VP of Artist & Repertoire at Mercury Records and founded the Loose Cannon label.

Her film productions have received over 70 international awards and nominations.

She is a graduate of Yale University.

Jolene Rodriguez
Broken English Productions President
Jolene Rodriguez serves as president of Broken English Productions, a production company which focuses on Latinx movie and TV projects.

Broken English Productions is a subsidiary of film financier Grandave Capital.

Recently Rodriguez serves as an executive producer for Broken English Productions’ Omar Chaparro’s 7TH & UNION, in post-production, she is producing Gina Rodriguez’ LIKE IT USED TO BE, and the recently announced THE MONSTER WITHIN, both in pre-production.

Prior to Broken English Productions, Rodriguez independently Executive Produced the 2019 high profile Cannes Marché feature, KEYHOLE GARDEN starring Zoe Saldana, currently in post-production and was a Development and Production Executive at Sony’s Screen Gems.

During her more than 10-year tenure at Screen Gems, Rodriguez has been able to leverage her position there to build an impressive list of industry contacts, A-list talent, producers and film financiers and played a critical role in setting up an Untitled Gabrielle Union rom-com, and Untitled Gigi Guerrero Latinx horror.
In addition, she is on the Advisory Board of the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF). Her valued talent has garnered her most recent accolade of being recognized as one of the Powerful and Influential Latinos in Entertainment for 2019 by the Imagen Foundation which encourages the positive portrayals of Latinos in all forms of the entertainment media and to reward the excellence of those entities or individuals whose productions elevate the image and status of all Latinos.

Benjamin Odell
President of 3Pas Studios
Benjamin Odell is president of 3Pas Studios which he founded with actor and filmmaker
Eugenio Derbez. At 3Pas, Ben produced hit films “Overboard” and “How to Be a Latin Lover.”
He is also an Executive Producer on Amazon show “LOL: Last One Laughing,” its #1 show in
Mexico and the second most viewed international show.
Odell was previously Head of Production for Pantelion Films, Lionsgate’s Hispanic division.
Odell developed and produced dozens of films aimed at the Hispanic market in the US, Mexico
and Latin America. Odell’s company produces TV both in English and Spanish and has set up
shows at HBOMax, Hulu, ABC, NBC, Amazon, Apple, Pantaya, E!, and Starz
In his 20’s Odell lived in Colombia where he worked as a journalist, TV creator, showrunner, and
screenwriter. He holds an MFA from Columbia University where he was recently given the
Andrew Sarris Award for distinguished alumni.
Alex Wallace
Head of Media & Content at Verizon Media
Alexandra Wallace is the Head of Media & Content at Verizon Media. Previously, she was Senior Vice President of NBC News and executive in charge of Today and Meet the Press. She was also previously the Executive Producer of Nightly News and Rock Center. Wallace began her career as an intern in the CBS News London bureau. She has worked with Google, Mic, and The Wall Street Journal. She has been honored with 11 Emmy Awards, 2 Dupont Awards, a Gracie Award and a Peabody Award, as well as a John Jay Award for distinguished professional achievement from the Columbia College Alumni Association, for which she is a member of the Board of Directors. Wallace is a member of The Council on Foreign Relations as well as a CUP board member and lives in New York City with her husband and two children.
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Lisa Cortés
Producer / Director
Jolene Rodriguez
Broken English Productions President
Benjamin Odell
President of 3Pas Studios
Alex Wallace
Head of Media & Content at Verizon Media