Christian Sida

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

Canada Looks South, New Directors

Anne-Mary is a film programmer, writer, and arts administrator. She currently works with the Sustainable Entertainment Society organizing the Sustainable Production Forum and Clean Energy Series. For eight years, Anne-Mary was the Senior Programmer & General Manager of VLAFF. She specializes in Latin-Canadian cinema and has participated in festivals in Argentina, Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, and Spain. She has worked at festivals all over North America including the San Francisco International Film Festival, Frameline: LGBTQ+ Film Festival, Tribeca, Sundance, Make Believe: Seattle, and the Durango Festival of New Mexican Cinema. She holds a Master’s Degree in Literature from San Francisco State University and was one of the directors of the Robson Reading Series at UBC. She is the co-writer of the 2021 feature documentary Santuario: A Punk Portrait of Paty Aguirre and is currently working on a picture book about her beloved dog, Zarco.

Masa’n Galindo

Films from Turtle Island & Beyond

Masa’n Galindo, O’dam from Durango, México. Anthropologist, filmmaker, translator and cultural manager, alumni at the Campamento Audiovisual Itinerante (CAI). In 2021, she founded the Circuito de Cine gio Arte Sierra O’dam (CCASO). This project has produced 18 short films, showcased theater performances, movies, and conducted film and animation workshops in seven different communities in O’dam territories. That same year, she received the Jury Prize from the Cátedra Bergman de Cine y Teatro at UNAM and DocsMX for the short film Luisa gu mejikan, alongside Zulema Sánchez. She was part of the editing and script team for Bucan tu rhachhidu’ (2023), a short film by the Yi Hagamos Lumbre collective, premiered at FICUNAM 2023.

Akira Iahtail

Films from Turtle Island & Beyond

Akira Iahtail is Plains Cree on her mother’s side and Swampy Cree on her father’s side, a member of Attawapiskat First Nation located in Treaty 9 territory. Born and raised in Amiskwaciwâskahikan, also known as Edmonton, Alberta, she is currently a student at Simon Fraser University, majoring in Indigenous Studies and minoring in Cinema Studies. She has been involved with the Skoden Indigenous Film Festival since 2021, working in guest services, programming, as the student intern, and most recently as a member of the jury in 2024. She has programmed with the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival since 2022. Currently, she programs a monthly Indigenous film series, Our Stories to Tell, at The Cinematheque.

Robert Ríos

Robert Ríos (he/él), Queer Pix – Assistant Curator

Robert Ríos is a 24-year-old writer and filmmaker born in Ecuador, graduated in Film and Acting at INCINE. He has focused on writing and directing scripts for short fiction films that investigate the interpersonal, loving, complex and intimate relationships between two characters who yearn for love. As a bisexual Latino, he understands that a country without cinema is a country without a mirror, so he is committed to doing everything in his power to contribute to the visibility of our culture. He believes that art heals souls, takes us out of solitude and brings us together to be understood.

José Luis Cano

José Luis Cano (he/él), New Directors

José Luis Cano is a graduate of the Dolores del Río Cinematography and Acting Center in Durango with a specialty in Filmmaking. He participated in the IMCINE National Network of Audiovisual Poles for documentary cinema and has taken online training courses on scriptwriting and independent cinema. Since 2019 he is one of the programmers of the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival and since 2020 he is also a programmer of the Muestra Itinerante de Cine MX. His short films as director and producer have been part of multiple festivals and he usually collaborates on independent Mexican feature films.

Daniela Rodríguez Chevalier

Daniela Rodríguez Chevalier (she/ella), Shorts in Competition

Dani (she/ella) is passionate about analogue & lo-fi practices, poetry & hybrid forms, art making in community, and independent radio. Also known as DJ D-Rod, she is the co-host (together with DJ Bruja) of the CiTR 101.9 FM show: Vivaporú, the Ointment for the Soul. She is a pre-screener programmer at the Vancouver Short Film Festival, and a facilitator in public programming having collaborated with Cineworks Independent Filmmakers Society and EPFC North. She considers that freedom to experiment, accessibility, creative exploration and play should always be taken seriously. Dani lives and works on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ nations.

Ana Tonso

Ana Tonso (she/ella), Shorts in Competition

Born to a family of political and human rights activism, Ana (she/her) is a photographer and cinematographer raised in Buenos Aires in the 90´s amid an extreme social and economical crisis that granted her awareness and the opportunity to experience the diversity of realities around her, forming her vision and interests. She is passionate about documentary photography, film and the immense possibilities of speaking our truths through art which led her to work with several film festivals for the past seven years. Found-footage, analogue and experimental works always catch her attention as she believes some truths are rather felt than seen.
She is currently part of the Shorts Competition programming team and the Youth Jury coordinator at the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival’s 20th anniversary edition.

Juan Pablo Franky

Juan Pablo Franky, Film Consultant

Film programmer, film journalist and film teacher. In Argentina, he worked as press officer for FECIVE and directed and programmed the Buenos Aires headquarters of the Worldwide Shortfilmfestival. He has been a jury at different international film festivals. He is currently a programmer for MIDB -Muestra Internacional Documental de Bogotá- and general delegate for the Al Este Colombia Film Festival.

Valentina Acevedo Montilla

Valentina Acevedo Montilla (she/ella), Curator Music Program

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 expression and food. She is VLAFF’s new Managing Director, having collaborated at the festival first as a volunteer, a member of the Board of Directors and the Youth Jury. You can also find Valentina managing The Cultch’s Youth Program and IGNITE!, the oldest festival made by and for emerging artists in Canada.

Paola Chavira Leyva

Paola Chavira Leyva (she/ella),
Junior programmer

Paola Chavira is film director, producer, photographer and editor. She holds a Media Degree and diploma in cinematography by Centro de Cinematografia y Actuación Dolores de Río. Paola has been awarded with best short film prize for El Camino de la Izquierda at Festival del Nuevo Cine Mexicano de Durango (2018), Honorable Mention for her film Ovidio’s Metamorphose at Festival de Cine Mexicano de Durango (2021) and Honorable mention for her script ¿Qué está pasando? at Festival Internacional de Cine de Durango (2022).  She debuted as a cinematographer with the film Santuario, A punk portrait of Paty Aguirre, directed by Christian Sida and works currently as coordinator at Polos Audiovisuales in Durango by the Mexican Film Institute.