POV to Host IG Live with Acclaimed Puerto Rican Filmmakers
Join us this on Monday, July 26 at 7:00pm ET for a live event on POV's Instagram featuring Landfall (streaming on pov.org) director Cecilia Aldarondo and Angel Manuel Soto, an acclaimed Puerto Rican filmmaker who is set to direct Blue Beetle, the first Latino superhero film for DC Films and Warner Bros. This short chat will dive deeper into the themes of Landfall, post Hurricane Maria Puerto Rico, highlighting the strength of Puerto Rico and its people.
Cecilia Aldarondo is a documentary director-producer from the Puerto Rican diaspora who works at the intersection of poetics and politics. Her feature documentaries MEMORIES OF A PENITENT HEART (2016) and LANDFALL (2020) premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and were co-produced by the award-winning PBS series POV. LANDFALL's many awards include the 2020 DOC NYC Film Festival Viewfinders Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary, as well as Cinema Eye and Film Independent Spirit Award nominations. Among Aldarondo's fellowships and honors are the Guggenheim, a two-time MacDowell Colony Fellowship, the 2021 New America Fellowship, and Women at Sundance 2017. In 2019 she was named to DOC NYC's 40 Under 40 list and is one of 2015’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film. She teaches at Williams College.
A native of Puerto Rico, Angel Manuel Soto discovered soccer and boxing at an early age, which inspired his first film EL PUGIL, a homage to the kids he had grown up with and the power of sports in economically repressed communities. Angel pursued his interest in art, studying architecture and eventually documentary filmmaking and writing. He began his career in entertainment as a TV producer and later focused on Art Direction at a local advertising agency. He made his feature directorial debut with LA GRANJA (The Farm) which sheds a thought-provoking light on the tough realities facing the people of Puerto Rico. He went on to create several groundbreaking narrative VR pieces such as DINNER PARTY and BASHIR’S DREAM which have premiered to critical success at festivals. Recently, Angel directed the Award Winning Sundance 2020 darling CHARM CITY KINGS, which is now streaming on HBO Max. Currently he is set to direct the D.C. feature BLUE BEETLE for Warner Bros. and a new installment of TRANSFORMERS for Paramount.
Major funding for POV is provided by PBS, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Wyncote Foundation, Reva & David Logan Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Perspective Fund and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional funding comes from Nancy Blachman and David desJardins, Bertha Foundation, The Hollywood Foreign Press Association's Charitable Trust, Park Foundation, Sage Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Chris and Nancy Plaut, Abby Pucker, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee and public television viewers. POV is presented by a consortium of public television stations, including KQED San Francisco, WGBH Boston and THIRTEEN in association with WNET.ORG.
