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EMERGING LATINE CREATORS SHOWCASE

June 23 @ 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm

A summer day with VLAFF! Join us this June 23rd for the short film program “In Between Wounds & Weavings,” followed by live music and Latin American food at The Cinematheque. Read more about the selected short films here.

Curated by María Blanco, Nicolás Serrano, Pablo Betancourt, Ricardo Hardy & Rodrigo Ferrat (bios below).

This Special Event is the culmination of the 2026 Emerging Latine Programmers mentorship program. Learn more about it here.

¡Nos vemos en el cine!

The Cinematheque

1131 Howe Street Vancouver
Vancouver, BC V6Z 2L7 Canada

Pablo Betancourt

Pablo Betancourt (he/him) is a multidisciplinary artist, filmmaker and communications practitioner from the culturally and ethnically rich Caribbean region of Colombia. A 2022 film school graduate currently based in Canada, his work spans film festivals, cultural programming, and artist-centered communications. Pablo is deeply interested in world cinema, memory, and the political and emotional power of storytelling, with a focus on queer, Indigenous, and underrepresented voices across Latin American and global contexts. Through curating, writing, and community engagement, he approaches cinema as both a cultural archive and a tool for dialogue, education, and collective reflection.

María Alejandra Blanco Gutiérrez

María Alejandra Blanco Gutiérrez (she/her) is a filmmaker and media artist from Medellín, Colombia. An optimistic storyteller, she loves films that blend humor and emotion, making you smile through joy and vulnerability. Grounded in her journalism background, María values stories from everyday life and diverse perspectives. She has worked on set as a production designer and script supervisor, edited multiple short films, and served as a media coordinator for a video production company. María approaches her work with curiosity, care, and a creative, outside-the-box mindset, bringing joy and laughter to those around her while appreciating life’s quiet beauty.

Rodrigo Ferrat

Rodrigo Ferrat is a Mexican filmmaker and critic based in Vancouver. As a critic at FICM and VIFF, he sought out the hidden gems in each programme. As an emerging programmer for VLAFF, he wants the other side: the challenges of filtering so that others can discover them. He is excited to give space to filmmakers who take necessary formal risks, stories that show ignored realities, ways of making films that remind us that this is art, not just content. As a Mexican programming Latin American cinema in Canada, his approach is straightforward: apply the same curatorial rigour as to any cinema, without exoticizing or underestimating it.

RCHRDY

Ricardo Hardy RCHRDY (pronounced ‘richārdy’) is an emerging interdisciplinary artist, curator and programmer (a good floor mopper too), committed to reminding themselves that the divine is always small. Their constellation has been revealed through non-traditional artistic training, which has allowed them to create their own connections between Life and art making, beyond the canonical standards of cultural institutions. Starting their career in performing Arts, they’ve explored all kinds of creative endeavors such as installation making, music, collage, poetry, etc. Every material, any idea, possesses aesthetic qualities; An intrinsic excuse to play. Born in Mexico currently based in the (stolen) territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations (Vancouver, Canada).

Nicolás Serrano de la Paz

Nicolás Serrano de la Paz is a multidisciplinary artist and emerging programmer from la Ciudad de México; living on the stolen ancestral territories of the Coast Salish peoples which are under ongoing occupation. They have published poetry in UBC’s undergraduate English journal (2024), Polyphonie pour la Palestine (Polyphony for Palestine) (2025) and was an exhibiting artist for IGNITE! (2025). They are also engaged in community organizing–with Bici Libre and the International Migrants Alliance–bridging film and organizing to bring filmmakers, community organizers, and community members together in material solidarity for Indigenous Sovereignty, Palestinian Liberation, and Migrant Justice.