Carlos Carrasco (Festival Director) Carlos Carrasco has appeared as an actor in films, on Broadway, Off and Off-off Broadway and at many U.S. regional theatres. Mr. Carrasco has co-starred in such feature films as Speed, Blood In…Blood Out, Parker, Turnover, Double Take, One Man’s Hero, The Burning Season and The Fisher King as well as appearing as a guest on many prime-time television series. Mr. Carrasco served for six years as Executive Director of HOLA, a Latino arts service organization headquartered in New York, and has served as a panelist for the New York State Council on the Arts as well as the California Arts Council. Carlos was the Executive Producer and Director of the annual creative awards show for Advertising Age and the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies (AHAA) honoring the best achievements in Hispanic Advertising in the United States. As a filmmaker, he has produced and directed several short films, including the documentary Art Galleries and Back Alleys and the dramatic shorts One and Disarm.
J
uan Escobedo (Producing Partner)
Juan is an award-winning actor, director and photographer who was born and raised in San Diego, California, USA. In 2007 Escobedo portrayed and directed a troubled war veteran in the short film “Soy Soldado de Irak.” The film generated numerous awards including the Swiss Cultural Program’s Best Film Award at the Cannes Film Festival (2008), and the Cinema of Conscience Award from the Sonoma Valley Film Festival (2008). It was nominated for the prestigious Imagen Award (2009), which honors positive portrayals of Latinos in film and television. His other directorial work includes “Ruby,” a film for Current TV. In 2018, Escobedo’s other film Marisol, a short film that deals with the horrors of domestic violence and child abuse won the Best Dramatic Short at the Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival and Best Actress Awards for both leading Actresses at the Women’s Independent Film Festival and the Playhouse West Film Festival. Marisol script was also inducted into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) Margaret Herrick Library permanent collection made available to researchers.
Annette Reid (Executive Producer)Annette is a Producer/Director/Writer/Actor. As an actor she starred in the dramatic short film Lossed, which she also wrote and produced with her producing partner Carlos Carrasco and JACK Productions. . Annette directed the short film Amor, Vale, starring Manny Rey (Fasha Films) and Carlos. It won best Foreign Dramatic Short at the International Family Film Festival (IFFF). Their short film ONE received many festival accolades, including an Audience Award at PIFFLA 2018. Annette, Carlos and Manny are currently in production on their latest film, Disarm, due out later this year.
Rochelle Newman (Marketing Strategist)
Born on a small island near Puerto Rico, called Manhattan, Newman-Carrasco has spent 30 years specializing in US Hispanic marketing. She has contributed to the development of culturally attuned strategies for some of the nation’s top marketers, including Procter & Gamble, and General Foods, to name a few. Currently based in LA, Ms. Newman-Carrasco oversees Hispanic marketing initiatives at Walton|Isaacson. Prior to Walton|Isaacson, Ms. Newman-Carrasco spent 15 years as co-founder and CEO of Enlace Communications, Inc. She launched the agency after her tenure as the President of FoVa-West, Grey Advertising’s Hispanic division.
Jose Luis Campos (Festival Coordinator in Panama)
Jose Luis Campos was born in Panama. While he was studying Marketing and Advertising, he started his professional career working at a Model Agency as a Casting and Event Coordinator. After that, from 2005 to 2007 he worked selling advertising slots and as a Content Producer for the TV show Moda Inc. Campos has 10 years of experience working for different production companies and advertising agencies, like Switch Marketing Estratégico (Costa Rica) where he does BTL and organizes events for brands such as Tosh and L’Bel. Campos worked for 5 years at the International Film Festival of Panama (IFF Panama) at the Production Department. Campos founded 23 del Doce Producciones, his own production company. Inside the film industry, he has also worked at several Panamanian feature films such as Más que Hermanos (2017) as Casting Assistant and Sin Pepitas en la Lengua (2018) as 3rd Assistant Director.
Gabriel Reyes is considered one of the pioneers of Hispanic marketing in the Entertainment Industry. He won the Digital Campaign of the Year Award from the Hispanic Public Relations
Association (HPRA) as well as a Prism Award from PRSA for Outstanding Multicultural Campaigns for ABC’s “Ugly Betty” and “George Lopez.” He also won several MarCom
Awards for creative excellence in communications. Reyes has been featured on CNNl’s Latino in America as well as one of the “50 Most Powerful Latinos in Hollywood” by The Hollywood Reporter as well as The “100 Most Influential Latinos” by Hispanic Business Magazine. Reyes is President and Founder of Reyes Entertainment, one of the premier marketing and public relations firms focused on the bilingual media markets. Reyes Entertainment has worked with many Hollywood studios, networks and Latino stars promoting major film releases, network and cable TV series, DVD launches, concert and special event publicity as well as corporate communications. Reyes Entertainment roster of past and present clients includes ABC-Disney TV Group, CBS Daytime, Nerium International, Charo, Coca-Cola, PBS Networks, Warner Bros. Pictures and WWE, among others. Reyes is also a Lecturer at The University of Texas at Austin, teaching Integrated Communications in Latino Entertainment.