Utah Filmmaker Showcase

Utah Filmmaker Showcase: Nuestra Voz: Local Latine Stories

October 28, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Location: Utah Film Center
Free

The Artist Foundry presents a curated evening of local short films that showcase the breadth of creativity and culture by Latine filmmakers touching upon themes of grief, identity, and cultural resilience.

Films featured:

Mucho Mucho, Siempre Siempre directed by Samuel Torres
Mucho Mucho, Siempre Siempre is a poignant drama that delves into the ethereal bond between siblings, transcending the boundaries of life and death.

SOMEHOW. directed by Stephano Doors
An intimate and unsettling observation of a relationship trapped in a cycle of conflict, despair, and denial.

There You Are directed by Alfonso Belloso
Lila is moving away and spends one last night with her best friend Ruth, reflecting on their meaningful friendship through memories.

Backbeats directed by Julian Acosta
When a mysterious visitor arrives at a young Latino artist’s apartment, a tense encounter slowly peels back layers of resentment, identity, and loss, culminating in an unexpected act of music that changes them both.

El Puesto: Un ritual de memoria compartida (A ritual of shared memory) directed by Stephanie Garcia
A short documentary emerging from a long-term participatory performance/installation by Punto de Inflexión, led by Stephanie García and Peter Hay. Set in a market stand in northern Utah, the film reflects on four months of encounters with the vibrant Latine diaspora community, celebrating the relationships, cultural memory, humor, resilience, and joy that emerged through gathering.

A Q&A with filmmakers moderated by Alex Vejar to follow the film.

Read more about our moderator and filmmakers below.

Alex Vejar

Moderator Bio:

Alex Vejar is a cinephile, journalist, and musician from Los Angeles. His passion for storytelling began with songwriting and led him to a career in sports writing that eventually brought him to Utah in 2018. He started his film programming journey with the Utah Queer Film Festival in 2022. He currently runs the Fear No Film Festival and is an Associate Programmer of Comedy for the Salute Your Shorts Film Festival. He’s also worked on the programming committee of the Utah Film Center’s Artist Foundry, and screened for several other festivals, including Sundance.

Alfonso Belloso

Alfonso Belloso is a filmmaker and Teaching Artist at Spy Hop who has a deep love of community and hopes to inspire his community and the next generation of creators.

Julian Acosta

Julian Acosta is a Mexican American filmmaker and artist whose work explores identity, belonging, and the spaces between culture, faith, and family. Raised in Bakersfield, California, his films blend poetic realism with visceral visual storytelling, seeking emotional truth through intimate, character-driven narratives.

His work includes collaborations with Porsche, Samsung, Hyundai, The Beach Boys, M.I.A., and The Shins, as well as directing episodes of the period drama Coolie and a segment of The Seven Faces of Jane, produced by Roman Coppola and stars Gillian Jacobs.

Expanding into fine art, his recent exhibitions examine fatherhood, generational trauma, and cultural identity, with work acquired by the Springville Museum of Art. He is currently developing the feature film Aberdeen and the television series Alaska.

Samuel Torres

Samuel Torres is a filmmaker and actor known for Love in the Limelight, The Chosen, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, and Faith of Angels.

Stephanie Garcia

Stephanie García is a Mexican interdisciplinary artist whose practice operates through collaborative, embodied, transdisciplinary systems of inquiry where movement functions as relational infrastructure connecting bodies, space, perception, memory, and collective experience.

She is the co-founder and co-director of the Punto de Inflexión Project and PROArtes México. Her films have been showcased in screenings across Cyprus, Spain, Ireland, and the USA. Since 2016, her work has included curating and founding video dance festivals in Mexico, Peru, and the USA.

Stephano Doors

Stephano Doors is a Utah-based filmmaker, actor, and student at Utah Valley University. He has a degree in Behavioral Science which informs his desire to share grounded performances as both a director and an actor. He won the Best Actor Under 18 Award at the 2017 Utah Film Festival.

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