mentorships

Supporting emerging Latin/e/x cultural workers, arts administrators and programmers through practice, dialogue, intergenerational exchange and community.

Mentorship Program for Emerging Latin/e/x Film Programmers
2024

VLAFF’s Emerging Film Programmers Mentorship provides early-career Latine curators with hands-on experience in festival programming, empowering them to shape which stories and voices are shared. Running from May 1–July 3, 2024 (mentorship phase) and during the 22nd VLAFF, September 5–15, 2024, the cohort participated in workshops, film selection, curatorial writing, and public presentations. They developed Land Acknowledgements and Intro Speeches, while applying their learning to curate a thoughtful, diverse program. Their 2024 New Directors Program, “Maybe Not Always Finding, But Never Not Looking,” included films from Chile, Uruguay, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru, and Brazil, reflecting the ongoing journey of self-discovery and the ways relationships evolve over time and space.

The program combined formal workshops, collaborative curation, and festival engagement. Through this mentorship, the cohort gained real-world experience while bringing fresh perspectives to Latin cinema. Audiences were invited to reflect on youth, self-discovery, and connection through the stories and aesthetics curated by the mentees, while the festival community benefited from their creativity and insights, helping make VLAFF a richer, more inclusive space for filmmakers and audiences alike.

Development coordinator position & Mentorship 2025/26

VLAFF’s Development Coordinator mentorship provides early-career arts administrators with hands-on experience in festival development, programming support, and public engagement. Running through 2026, the mentorship combines individualized guidance with collaborative projects, allowing the mentee to apply their skills in real-world contexts while contributing to meaningful festival initiatives. A highlight of this mentorship is the creation of El Rinconcito, a Reading Nook in the festival courtyard celebrating local Indigenous creators, giving audiences a tangible and engaging way to explore Indigenous-centered work.

 

Throughout the mentorship, the mentee develops curatorial, archival, and programming skills while co-curating the New Directors Program and exploring ways to integrate Indigenous perspectives across VLAFF. This mentorship strengthens festival capacity, fosters community engagement, and provides a model for thoughtful, accountable arts leadership.

2nd Mentorship Program for Emerging Latin/e/x Film Programmers
2026

The 2026 Emerging Film Programmers Mentorship offers early-career Latine curators a hands-on, immersive experience in festival programming, communications, and cultural engagement. Running from February through June 2026, the cohort participates in a workshop series covering Film Critique, Appreciation, Curatorial Perspectives, Land Acknowledgements, Communications, Zine-Making, and Queering Curation, guided by expert mentors from the festival and partner organizations. Mentees gain practical skills, and a robust ethical framework.

Cohort members actively apply their learning through the co-curation of the shorts program, and the cultural programming for ¡Así Suena! and ¡Así Sabe!. Weekly check-ins, collaborative sessions, and field trips ensure that mentees develop confidence, professionalism, and a thoughtful, accountable approach to programming. The mentorship culminates in the Emerging Programmers Event in June 2026, where the cohort presents the shorts program, hosts live Q&As, delivers Land Acknowledgements, and engages audiences in meaningful festival experiences.

Emerging Programmers

Pablo Betancourt

(he/él)

Rodrigo Ferrat

(he/él)

María Alejandra Blanco Gutiérrez

(she/ella)

RCHRDY Ricardo Hardy

(he/él)

Nicolás Serrano de la Paz

(they/any/elle)

  • Program Coordinators
  • Program Coordinators
  • Program Coordinators
  • Program Coordinators
  • Program Coordinators
  • Staff
  • Staff
Valentina Acevedo Montilla

Valentina Acevedo Montilla

(she/ella)

Managing Director |  Curator ¡Así Suena! Music Nights

Dani Rodríguez Chevalier

(she/ella)

Festival Coordinator | Shorts in Competition Co-Curator

Valentina Acevedo Montilla

Valentina Acevedo Montilla

(She/ella)

Managing Director / Curator ¡Así Suena! Music Nights

Christian Sida

Christian Sida

(he/él)

Programming Director

Dani Rodríguez

Dani Rodríguez

(she/ella)

Festival Coordinator | Volunteer Coordinator

Mentors

Christian Sida

Christian Sida

(he/él)

Programming Director

Anne-Mary Mullen

Anne-Mary Mullen

(She/ella)

Festival Consultant, Canada Looks South/New Directors

Masa’n Galindo

Masa’n Galindo

(she/ella)

Indigenous Programs Co-Curator

Akira Iahtail Headshot.

Akira Iahtail

(she/ella)

Indigenous Programs Co-Curator

Kathleen Mullen

Kathleen Mullen

(she/ella)

Queer Films Co-Curator

José Luis Cano

José Luis Cano

(he/él)

New Directors Co-Curator

Virginia Rico

(she/ella)

Film Historian | Film Critic | Exhibitor | Curator

Mirella Reichenbach Livoti

(she/ella)

New Directors Co-Curator | Development Coordinator

Dani Rodríguez

Dani Rodríguez

(she/ella)

Shorts in Competition Co-Curator

Valentina Acevedo Montilla Headshot.

Valentina Acevedo Montilla

(she/ella)

¡Así Suena! Music Nights

Ana Tonso

Ana Tonso

(she/ella)

Shorts in Competition Co-Curator

Ana Tonso

Ana Tonso

(she/ella)

Shorts in Competition Co-Curator

Meet the jury

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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. 

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.

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.

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.

Valentina Acevedo Montilla

Valentina Acevedo Montilla

(she/ella)

Managing Director / Curator ¡Así Suena! Music Nights

Valentina (she/ella) is a Mexican-Venezuelan cultural curator/gestora cultural based on the stolen and ancestral lands and waters of the xwməϴkwəýəm, Skwxwú7mesh, and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh Nations since 2013. She comes from a family of musicians, incredible cooks, and community builders; she also holds a BA in Art History and Anthropology from UBC, with a focus in museum studies. Valentina has a deep love for art, community engaged arts practices and bringing people together through art, culture and food. She has been involved with VLAFF since its 13th edition; first as a movie-goer, a volunteer, a Youth Juror, and now as its Managing Director since 2020. You can also find Valentina managing The Cultch’s Youth Program and IGNITE!, a beautifully multidisciplinary festival celebrating emerging artists in so-called East Vancouver.

Dani Rodríguez

Dani Rodríguez Chevalier

(she/ella)

Festival Coordinator | Volunteer Coordinator

Born in one of the cities of eternal Spring (Cuernava, Mexico) and raised in el Distrito Federal, Dani is passionate about film, food, poetry & hybrid forms, art making in community, translation and independent radio. She is co-founder of multidisciplinary artist collectives *mim* and El Mashup. Also known as DJ D-Rod, Dani is co-host of the CiTR101.9fm show Vivaporú, el ungüento para el alma. Since 2022, she has been one half of the Shorts in Competition Programmers at the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival. She loves the short form and appreciates being surprised ~ by story, characters, texture! She lives on the unceded shared territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) nations with her two dachshunds, Xoco & Rol. 

Christian Sida.

Christian Sida

(he/él)

Programming Director

Christian has been involved with VLAFF since 2006, first as a member of the Board of Directors, then as the Volunteer Coordinator, Theatre Manager, Box Office Manager, and Shorts Programmer. He was the Programming Director from 2008-2010 and the Executive Director from 2011-2021. In 2022, he became VLAFF’s Programming Director. Christian has been a jury member at film festivals in Rio de Janeiro, Havana, Cartagena, Valladolid, Guadalajara, Biarritz, and Huelva, among others. Christian was also a jury member for the Colombian National Documentary Prize. In addition to participating in panels and workshops, Christian is also the founder and director of the Festival del Nuevo Cine Mexicano de Durango in Mexico. During 2018 and part of 2019, Christian was the Head of the Film Commission of the state of Durango, Mexico. In 2015 he received an official recognition from the Consulate General of Colombia in Vancouver, for his work promoting Colombian cinema. He is the director & co-creator of the 2021 feature Santuario: El viaje perrote de Paty Aguirre. Christian is now finishing his second feature film Historia Miníma de Durango

Anne-Mary Mullen

Anne-Mary Mullen

(she/ella)

Festival Consultant, Canada Looks South/New Directors

Anne-Mary Mullen is a film programmer, writer, and Box Office specialist. She currently works with the Sustainable Production Forum, a global hybrid conference focused on sustainability in the film industry. Previously, Anne-Mary was the Senior Programmer & General Manager of VLAFF. As a programmer, she specializes in Latin-Canadian cinema and has participated in festivals in Argentina, Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, and Spain. She holds a Master’s Degree in Literature from San Francisco State University and was a director of the Robson Reading Series at UBC. She is the co-writer of the 2021 feature documentary Santuario: A Punk Portrait of Paty Aguirre.

Masa’n Galindo

Masa’n Galindo

(she/ella)

Indigenous Programs Co-Curator

Masaꞌn is Oꞌdam from Durango, México. Filmmaker, writer, translator and cultural manager with experience in education, research, public sector and civil society initiatives. Content creator for Oꞌdam audiences in social media and founder of the Circuito de Cine gio Arte Sierra Oꞌdam that takes place every year in Oꞌdam territories. Member of YI Hagamos Lumbre collective and the CEDECINE Film Exhibition Community. She received the Jury Prize from the Cátedra Bergman de Cine y Teatro and DocsMX for the short film Luisa gu mejikan (2021), alongside Zulema Sánchez. She was part of the producing team for Bucan tu rhachhidu’ (2023), directed by Luna Marán, premiered at FICUNAM 2023. She’s working on her debut film Gu juk gio gu YooxiꞋ (🌲&🌹).

Akira Iahtail Headshot.

Akira Iahtail

(she/ella)

Indigenous Programs Co-Curator

Akira Iahtail is from amiskwaciwâskahikan, also known as Edmonton, Alberta, and is a member of Attawapiskat First Nation. She is a student at Simon Fraser University, majoring in Indigenous Studies. She began her programminging career in 2021 with the Skoden Indigenous Film Festival, and has been co-curating the Turtle Island and Beyond program at the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival for four years. She currently curates Our Stories to Tell, a monthly series at The Cinematheque.

Kathleen Mullen

Kathleen Mullen

(she/ella)

Queer Films Co-Curator

Kathleen Mullen is a professional film programmer and festival director with a passion for curating inclusive and impactful film experiences both nationally and internationally. Currently, Kathleen is the lead programmer for Frameline: San Francisco LGBTQ+ Film Festival, and a programmer for the Victoria Film Festival, Vancouver Queer Film Festival, Skoden Indigenous Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival, and VLAFF. She also works with the Sustainable Production Forum, an initiative advocating for sustainability in the film industry. For over 8 years, Kathleen was the Festival Director of the Seattle Queer Film Festival. She has an MFA in Film Production from York University and has directed several films including the documentary Breathtaking.

José Luis Cano

José Luis Cano

(he/él)

New Directors Co-Curator

José Luis Cano is a director and producer from Durango. He participated in various documentary cinema formation programs such as Docs Lab, Norte Docs, Impact Lab and the IMCINE National Network of Audiovisual Poles. Since 2019 he is one of the programmers of the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival. “Carnalismo”, his first documentary feature film, has been screened in multiple film festivals such as Ambulante and FIC Monterrey. He is currently working on independent and non centralized feature films as a producer and also as a music video director.

Robert Ríos Headshot.

Robert Alejandro Ríos

(he/él)

Queer Films Co-Curator

Robert Ríos is a 27-year-old Ecuadorian, a professional filmmaker and passionate entrepreneur.

In 2021, he graduated as a filmmaker from INCINE, where he directed several films. He was part of the VLAFF Youth Jury that same year. He co-curated Queer Pix at the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival in 2022, 2023, and now 2025.

Robert has led civil initiatives seeking social change.He started his business in 2023, KineMotion: Digital Marketing and Communication Agency. Leading the agency has allowed him to work with different sectors; from startups to SMEs to the US Embassy in Ecuador.

After intense years of experience, Robert continues to believe that “art heals souls” and that social struggles go hand in hand with an active, awake, demanding, and proactive civil society.

Mirella Reichenbach Livoti

(she/ella)

New Directors Co-Curator

Mirella Livoti (she/ela) is an emerging scholar and educator. Originally from Brazil, she is grateful to have been living and (un)learning as an uninvited guest in so-called Vancouver for the past six years. She recently finished her master’s degree in Hispanic Studies from UBC with a focus on contemporary Latin American literature, and is now the Development Coordinator at VLAFF. Her work is driven by a sense of boundless curiosity and her mind is constantly looking for words in Spanglish and Portuñol.

Dani Rodríguez

Dani Rodríguez Chevalier

(she/ella)

Shorts in Competition Co-Curator

Born in one of the cities of eternal Spring (Cuernava, Mexico) and raised in el Distrito Federal, Dani is passionate about film, food, poetry & hybrid forms, art making in community, translation and independent radio. She is co-founder of multidisciplinary artist collectives *mim* and El Mashup. Also known as DJ D-Rod, Dani is co-host of the CiTR101.9fm show Vivaporú, el ungüento para el alma. Since 2022, she has been one half of the Shorts in Competition Programmers at the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival. She loves the short form and appreciates being surprised ~ by story, characters, texture! She lives on the unceded shared territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) nations with her two dachshunds, Xoco & Rol. 

Valentina Acevedo Montilla Headshot.

Valentina Acevedo Montilla

(she/ella)

¡Así Suena! Music Nights

Valentina is a Mexican-Venezuelan cultural curator (gestora cultural) born in Caracas, Venezuela and raised in el Distrito Federal. She comes from a family of musicians, incredible cooks, and community builders, and holds a BA in Art History and Anthropology from UBC with a focus on museum studies. Valentina is the creator and curator of ¡Así Suena! Music Nights at VLAFF, a series launched in 2021 out of a deep love for music and a longing to build joyful, dance-filled spaces for community connection. Her curatorial vision brings together Latine artists across genres, generations, and geographies to celebrate the soundtracks of our lives.

Ana Tonso

Ana Tonso

(she/ella)

Shorts in Competition Co-Curator

Born into a family deeply involved in political and human rights activism, Ana is an artist and cinematography graduate raised in Buenos Aires during the 90s amid an extreme social and economic crisis. This upbringing forged her interests and passion for archival, documentary projects, and film works centred on social matters. She has directed two short films on political activism and worked as a staff member at various international film festivals for over eight years involving cultural diversity, documentary and human rights themes. Currently, she is a member of the Shorts in Competition programming team and Youth Jury Coordinator at the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival.