As we’re approaching the end of 2026, PHLAFF is taking time to reflect on some of the incredible creatives that we’ve had the pleasure of collaborating with. Take a moment to learn more about the artists from our three Los Fellows cohorts!
Our Los Fellows have been doing impeccable work in their fields while still honoring the communities they represent. Learn more about each of our Los Fellows below:
Alejandro Ceballos Jimenez — Beyond the Light
I am a cinematographer and documentary director, and I want to tell my experience firsthand, and through the eyes of my friends, of being in a coma for 54 days in a row, a time when I fought for my life through horror, pain, and powerful hallucinations. That will be told through animations. It was also a time filled with beautiful moments of connection with my community of friends, who came together to support me. I hope to tell the story through my own testimony and that of those who witnessed my recovery process, in order to show other people that dreams can be achieved.
Iliana Pagán Teitelbaum — Twin Tongues
We all have a mother tongue. In an English-dominant world, can a pair of Latinx twins learn English without losing their Spanish? Twin Tongues/Lenguas gemelas is a nonfiction film directed by ILIANA PAGÁN-TEITELBAUM that explores the relationship between migration, languages, and power through a Puerto Rican-Peruvian family when their twins enter first grade. Shot in Philadelphia, Puerto Rico, and Peru, this film celebrates multilingualism as it wrestles with the choices that speakers make in relation to their languages today.
Erik Alfredo Martínez — Land of Time / Tierra del Tiempo
“Land Of Time” is an animated audiovisual installation that portrays the passage of time through the contemplation of four particular movie theaters from different moments in the history of the Dominican Republic. By re-interpreting the movie-going experience into the observation of cinemas as places, they might be able to tell the story of how the city, its culture and its landscape change over time.
Alisha Miranda — Latinx Industry Night: Inside Philly’s Only Latino Bartender Pop-up Series
Latinx Industry Night was a Philadelphia-based hospitality and cultural event series created by Alisha Miranda, a Puerto Rican journalist, to spotlight Hispanic and Latinx bartenders, hospitality professionals, and beverage brands through experiential storytelling, nightlife programming, and community-driven events. The series created visibility and economic impact for underrepresented hospitality businesses and talent. Participants included PunchDrink.com’s Best New Bartender of 2024, World Class U.S. Top 100 Bartenders, a woman-owned Guatemalan rum, Puerto Rican-run James Beard Awards-nominated restaurant, and U.S. Bartenders’ Guild members.
Series highlights include:
6 events over 3 years, including a D.C. Latin American wine-tasting mixer
$34.7K+ estimated bar/restaurant revenue
800+ estimated attendees
20+ brands and sponsors
Read the full case study recap at: https://www.alishainthe.biz/blog/support-latinx-industry-night
Explore the archives at: https://www.alishainthe.biz/latinx-industry-night-events and via social media #latinxindustrynight
Watch recap videos from community members: https://www.alishainthe.biz/latinx-industry-night-videos
Cecilia Romo — Gloria
On her wedding day, a hesitant and stoic Gloria must choose between tradition and authenticity. She is faced with the option to adhere to her beloved Latinx culture or chart a new path to follow her truth.
Gloria is a poignant and visually striking Sapphic drama in the form of a narrative short film that explores the powerful conflict between familial duty, cultural expectations, and the pursuit of personal truth. Set against the rich backdrop of Latinx tradition, the film follows Gloria, a Mexican-American woman caught between the life she is expected to lead and the forbidden love she shares with Emilia, a proud queer white woman. On the day of her wedding to Rodrigo, a man her family believes is her ideal match, Gloria must confront a life-altering decision: follow the path of tradition or embrace her true self. Alternating between the present moment of Gloria’s wedding day and flashbacks to a rehearsal dinner where she and Emilia share a secret love affair, Gloria traces the emotional journey of a woman torn between loyalty to her culture and the yearning for authenticity. As Emilia demands that Gloria choose between her and Rodrigo, Gloria is forced to confront the painful truth that she can no longer live in the shadows. The film builds to a poignant climax in which Gloria’s decision will not only shape her own future but also challenge the expectations that have defined her cultural identity. Capturing the raw tension of vulnerability, desire, and courage, Gloria is inspired by Joan Sebastian’s iconic ballad “Secreto de Amor” and intertwines themes of hidden love, self-discovery, and liberation to create a powerful narrative that resonates with those navigating the intersections of culture, identity, and love. Through evocative cinematography, compelling performances, restrictive costuming, and a rich interplay of Spanish and English, Gloria tells a universal story about the courage to live one’s truth in a world that demands conformity.
Alexis C. Garcia — Raíces Curativas
Puerto Rican traditional healers, both on the island and throughout the diaspora, are vital pillars of community care, preserving ancestral knowledge while addressing gaps often left by Western healthcare systems. Filmmaker Alexis Garcia and folklorist and filmmaker Selina Morales are developing a digital series that celebrates and documents these traditions through intimate storytelling, exploring healers’ practices, tools, sacred gardens, and approaches to herbal and spiritual medicine. Paired with interactive online conversations connecting healers directly with audiences, the project endeavors to create a living archive that blends storytelling, education, and community engagement, honoring the wisdom of traditional healers and preserving their invaluable knowledge for future generations.
María José Maldonado — AIDS Couldn't Take Our Memories Of You
Through home movies and Bianca’s final TV appearance, a filmmaker remembers her aunt Bianca “Exotica” Maldonado, a trans starlet in ‘90s New York City who passed from AIDS in 1996, and her family’s unshakeable grief after her death.
Eric César Morales — Imaginary Lines Project
Fragments of border crossing stories, collected from immigrant communities are woven together into an endless journey. Masses of monarch butterflies flutter across a Southeastern U.S. landscape as their migratory sanctuary is threatened by destruction.
This work uses the motif of the butterfly’s migration between the United States and Mexico. Initial film tests of Monarch butterflies took place at the National Butterfly Center in Mission, TX––a stop on the annual migration of millions of Monarch butterflies between the U.S. and Mexico. In 2017, The National Butterfly Center was designated for demolition by the Trump administration to make way for the US-Mexico border wall.
Animated imagery of the monarch butterfly migration will be shown along with accounts from immigrants, recalling their individual journeys across the border. These first-hand border-crossing accounts were assembled from a series of community writing workshops beginning in Baltimore and Philadelphia in 2020, with continued workshops taking place in partnership with the Philadelphia Folklore Project in 2022-2024.
Héctor Tapia — Nitido
Nítido is a project created to honor and amplify Dominican voices in Philadelphia, a community rich in resilience, culture, and stories that deserve to be remembered. At its heart, the project is about visibility: using photography, storytelling, and public gatherings to show the beauty, strength, and complexity of Dominican life in the city. It’s also a way for me to grow as an artist, experimenting with new forms of storytelling that combine images, words, and community engagement. Every portrait, every story, is a chance to listen more deeply and to create work that feels true and lasting.
But Nítido is not only about my lens, it’s about opening spaces for the community to speak for itself. Through pop-up exhibits, workshops, and storytelling sessions, the project invites Dominicans in Philadelphia to connect with each other and share their own voices. By partnering with local organizations and cultural institutions, Nítido builds momentum and impact beyond a single book or exhibit.
At the same time, this work reaches outward, bridging cultures and fostering understanding across Philadelphia. By challenging stereotypes and offering human-centered narratives, Nítido asks audiences to see Dominicans not as statistics or headlines, but as neighbors, builders, and dreamers. The legacy of Nítido will live in a photo essay book that preserves these stories for future generations, a resource for schools, libraries, and families. It’s meant to stand as proof that art can be more than expression: it can be a tool for memory, empowerment, and belonging. This is the mission of Nítido: to document, to uplift, and to connect.
What is the Los Fellows Program?
The Philadelphia Latino Arts & Film Festival Los Fellows Program was designed to support Latine/x/a/o creatives/filmmakers’ artistic development. This program is part of PHLAFF's commitment to supporting practitioners, enhancing the generative impact of the festival, and contributing to the advancement of Latine/x/a/o arts, culture, and diasporic reflections in Philadelphia and beyond. Los Fellows projects will be presented as part of our festival offerings and year-round programming. This project is a collaboration with PhillyCAM.
This fellowship program supported Fellows by offering an honorarium award of $10,000 each over their term, as well as capacity building, technical support, and mentoring to support the development of their work. Proposed projects had to include a public activation/community engagement component. These projects aligned with specific impact-focused outcomes that further the artistic development of the creative/filmmaker's body of practice while also upholding and advancing the mission of the Philadelphia Latino Arts & Film Festival.
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