BAMMS 2025: Latinx Filmmaking in the Bay Area
On Sunday, August 17th, we hosted the Latinx Filmmaking in the Bay Area event at the Ninth Street Independent Film Center screening room here in San Francisco as part of the 2025 Bay Area Media Maker Summit (BAMMS).
Presented by CiNEOLA and BAVC Media, the day started with a morning mixer over cafe and conchas provided by our sponsors, local Latinx-owned businesses Florecita Panadería and Excelsior Coffee.
Breakfast was followed by a conversation with a panel of local filmmakers moderated by CiNEOLA founder Daniel Díaz (BAVC Media’s director of marketing & audience strategy), discussing their unique perspectives and experiences making documentaries in the Bay Area as Latinx artists, and how they approach telling stories as part of an intersectional Latin American diaspora. Panelists shared recent work samples and also responded to some questions from the audience.
A recording of the panel is available to watch now on YouTube.
On the subject of Latinidad in their work and filmmaking journey, Colette Ghunim (director of Traces of Home, 2020 BAVC MediaMaker Fellowship) commented: “My work is very much focused on this idea of home and really figuring out that disconnect to home. And for me, growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, actually, there was a disconnect to my Latinidad and not feeling like I belonged in any place because of that, like being a third culture kid. Then also going deeper into our inner worlds of why we don’t feel at home within ourselves, and doing the trauma healing work that our community so desperately needs to feel that. So it’s both like the inner liberation, but then also the outer liberation work, being able to combine the two together.”
Panelists shared insights into the benefits of making films in the Bay Area. Director of Fruits of Labor (2019 BAVC MediaMaker Fellowship), Emily Cohen Ibañez, spoke about her journey after arriving in the Bay Area:
“The amount of resources here is incredible. You being in the space and being able to meet people is the best thing that you could be doing to get your films off the ground. I also want to speak about the importance of being able to like, make the big jumps into your filmmaking journey. A lot of times, of course, we still have to have our backup plans of doing our freelance work and all of that kind of thing, but the only reason that I’ve been able to work on my film full-time is because I was able to get enough grant money to be able to get it to be full-time at this stage. It is possible you can’t make this your full-time job. It just takes dedication, the networks, and making sure that you have the mentorship and the support to get to that level.
This is like the most amazing place to be because of how activist it is. Like how many, how many people here are like super down with all the causes in a way that I have never seen anywhere in the U.S. Everyone is a revolutionary. It’s amazing, being able to be your authentic self and show up through your filmmaking. Really embrace that, because that’s not common in a lot of other places where you’re going to be doing filmmaking work, and so it’s a very, very special place. I really have fallen in love with San Francisco, Oakland, and the Bay Area in general.”
Current BAVC MediaMaker Fellow and director of What Lies Over the Mountain, Luca Capponi, echoed Emily’s sentiment about the importance of being present to make the most of the Bay Area’s filmmaking community.
“You need passion to do what we do. I guess you need to really love being among people. I guess most of it. I mean, you can do also, like, some very artsy docs alone in your room, but mostly you need to be out there and bond, I guess, with communities and people. And then it’s very creative. During the editing part, it’s, everything in the pieces or they come all together and it’s very exciting. You need to be creative in finding money because here, there is like the land of opportunities, for me. There are different ways to get funded. And if you meet the right people at the right time and you’re mostly you’re going to get a connection in, like in a cocktail party or something like, you know, at a very random place, you here you are.”
Maya Cueva, director of On the Divide (2020 BAVC MediaMaker Fellowship), reflected on the process of making her debut feature film and the challenges she faced:
“I think On the Divide, even before all the defunding of the Corporation of Public Broadcasting and public media in general, took seven years to make. We went through the first Trump presidency. And partly it took so long because it was hard for us to get funding as female filmmakers for our first feature. People didn’t trust us. People didn’t want to hear about abortion. It was like, oh, people don’t want to hear about Latinx and Latinas. That connection to abortion. It was very messed up. And it took us a long time to finally be taken seriously. But along the way, support like from BAVC—and Tribeca at the time was able to support us as well—like those few yeses made it so that we were really able to make this film a reality.”
BAVC Media is currently looking for documentary filmmakers from across the country who are committed to creative, ethical, and collaborative nonfiction practices for the 2026 BAVC MediaMaker Fellowship. Deadline to apply is Monday, September 29, 2025, at 11:59pm PT. Learn more about the fellowship and the criteria to apply.
About CiNEOLA
CiNEOLA is a platform for Latin American stories, connecting audiences with diverse representations of Latinoamérica on film through screenings, online distribution and original content. Home of the annual COLOMBIA ON FILM documentary film series at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco.
Watch their archive of Latin American documentary short films and subscribe for updates on upcoming events at www.cineo.la
About BAMMS
The Bay Area Media Maker Summit (BAMMS) is a collaborative initiative to cultivate a healthy and inclusive Bay Area filmmaking community.Learn more at www.bammsummit.org
Learn more about the panelists below:
Colette Ghunim
Colette’s soul purpose is to use the power of film and storytelling for those oppressed around the world to be seen, to be heard, and to heal. Her first documentary, The People’s Girls (2016), won Best Short Documentary at the Arab Film Festival. She is currently directing Traces of Home, her first feature-length film documenting her inner quest to find home through unearthing her parents’ forced migrations from Mexico and Palestine. Her work has been highlighted on international outlets such as Huffington Post, Al Jazeera, Univision, and TEDx
Emily Cohen Ibañez
Emily’s films pair lyricism with social activism, advocating for environmental and labor justice. Her award-winning feature, Fruits of Labor, about a teenage farmworker, premiered at SXSW 2021 and aired on PBS POV. She is currently completing her short documentary RIVER, about competitive river rafters in the Colombian Amazon, and writing her first screenplay, From Honey to Ashes, supported by SFFILM’s Rainin Grant. Her third feature documentary in progress, Orquidea, is about orchid protectors in Colombia.
Luca Capponi
Luca is an Italian-Ecuadorian filmmaker from a small village in the Bergamo province, Italy. Growing up in a bicultural environment, he developed an early curiosity about identity, migration, and the experiences of marginalized communities. He is a graduate of the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (CSC), Italy’s National School of Cinema. Luca is now based in Berkeley and is currently working on Like Heaven Without God, a documentary that follows the lives of unhoused individuals living in an RV community.
Maya Cueva
Maya is a Latina award-winning director and producer from Berkeley, CA. She was a Netflix Nonfiction Director and Producer fellow and was also listed on DOC NYC’s 40 Under 40 Filmmakers, co-presented by HBO Documentary Films. Her work has been featured on The New Yorker, NPR’s All Things Considered, Latino USA, The Atlantic, Teen Vogue, and National Geographic. Her feature documentary, On the Divide, premiered in competition at Tribeca Film Festival in 2021. Maya is currently working on her second documentary feature film Rebel Without a Pause.
