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Narrative Short Film Incubator for Women of Color

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The second cohort of the NALIP Latino Lens™: Narrative Short Film Incubator for Women of Color, a program supported by the Netflix Fund for Creative Equity will be showcasing their short films for the first time in a private screening, preceded by a .

The Q&A with the directors will begin at 8:00 pm, followed by the screenings, in the Screen Room at the London West Hollywood on Thursday, March 30th.

Doors open at 7:30 pm. Seats are limited. First come, first serve.

Click on a poster to learn about the film.

Detox

directed by Frida Perez

Mirage

directed by Jhanvi Motla

Pedacito De Carne

directed by Akilah Walker

produced and written by Diana Gonzalez Morrett

Sunflower Girl

directed by Holly Kaplan

Wait For Night

directed by Nicole Otero

Frida Perez is a Dominican-American filmmaker based in Los Angeles. She was named a Sundance Ignite Fellow for her short film White Noise (2019) which went on to screen at the National Film Festival for Talented Youth, San Diego Latino Film Festival, Phoenix Film Festival and more. Frida's second short film Bottle Bomb (2022) featured a cast of first-time child actors premiered at the Chicago Latino Film Festival. Frida is a writer and producer on an upcoming untitled Apple television series produced by Point Grey Pictures. She was born and raised in New York City and graduated from Brown University with a degree in semiotics and political science.

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Alone for a day, Victoria ruminates over her greatest fear and obsession: food. 

Jhanvi Motla is a Los Angeles based filmmaker from Mumbai. She is a graduate of the American Film Institute Conservatory. She has written, directed and produced shorts that have premiered at Cleveland International Film Festival, LA Asian Pacific, and many more. Motla has produced music videos, commercials and branded content with many clients including Jaden and Willow Smith, New Balance, and Levi’s. Motla is an alumnus of Film Independent’s Project Involve where she produced “Black Boy Joy” which won the NAACP Image Award for Best Live Action Short and now lives on HBO Max. In Fall 2021, she Produced her first feature film entitled “All The Colors of The Dark” in association with Beacon Pictures starring Noah Wyle and Miranda Otto. Her feature script “Divya" was a semifinalist for the 1497 Features Lab as well as the Women In Film x Blcklst Feature Residency ’21. In Summer ’22 Jhanvi was selected as a fellow for the NALIP Women of Color Incubator, sponsored by Netflix, where she made her second short film “Mirage”. Currently, she works as Associate Producer at Make Make Entertainment (Is This Black Enough For You?, Halftime, 13th).

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Recently widowed and new to her housekeeping job at a highway motel in California, Nitya Mehra is faced with despair and confusion when an unpredictable guest arrives.

Akilah Walker & Diana Gonzalez Morrett

director; producer & writer

Creative collaborators since 2015, acting, devising theater, writing, and recently producing our short film, Ivar Tunnel: Shook Ones, written and directed by Akilah and produced by Diana. For that film, we raised 25K (in 2 weeks), secured fiscal sponsorship from Film Independent, gathered a 90% BIPOC cast and crew, and filmed during COVID. The film has since won “Best US Short Film” by the San Francisco Indie Short Film Festival, “Best First Time Director (Female)” by the Independent Short Awards, “Best Cinematography” by the Black Women Film Network Short Film Competition, and was officially selected to the following festivals: Brooklyn Film Festival 2022, Toronto Black Film Festival 2022, & Black Women Film Network Short Film Competition 2022. In 2020, the pair co-founded Good Mother Films.

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Sandra finds herself in a new role as a caregiver for her mother living with Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD). Burnt out by the nonsense that is social service, the relentless pile-on of caregiving demands, and the heartbreak of slowly losing parts of her mother, Sandra risks it all and takes a night off.

Holly Koplan is a second-generation Chinese-American filmmaker, born and raised in New York City. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Film & Media Arts at American University and earned the Ron Sutton Award for Visual Literacy. While studying abroad, she shot her first short, The Lesson (Lekce), on 16mm which led to her becoming an apprentice to the late Ben Barenholtz on his feature film, Alina. Currently, Kaplan is working as a D.A. on HBO Max’s Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin under directors Lisa Soper and Alex Pillai. Inspired and driven by ties to her Cantonese heritage, Holly is invested in bringing narratives about the Asian diaspora and diversity to the forefront. 

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When a 13-year-old Chinese-American girl has the opportunity to go skateboarding with her crush, it comes at the cost of neglecting her familial duties.

Nicole Otero began as a self-taught filmmaker. Learning through experience, she worked extensively on set and in post. In 2020, Otero’s directorial narrative debut, SLIP, was acquired was acquired & distributed by Kino Lorber/Dedza, as part of a collection highlighting emerging directors. SLIP is currently streaming on Criterion Channel.  Born in a mixed, Mexican-American family, her work explores memory, loss and identity. With emphasis on cinema’s sonic possibilities, she is interested in haptic, embodied cinema. Otero has also edited several films for major museum exhibitions, including MoMA, the New Museum, the Hammer, and more. She edited THE AFRICAN DESPERATE, a narrative feature, which premiered at International Film Festival Rotterdam and New Directors/New Films 2022 at Lincoln Center.

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A speculative image tries in vain to capture the effect of an increasingly harsh climate on a landscape. Two siblings return to their late father’s house for the last time, but they encounter an already unfamiliar environment in the place that holds their past. An old neighbor emerges, an enduring witness to the land, and tries to describe what’s happened to their way of life. WAIT FOR NIGHT is a triptych of loss in America’s Southwest familial duties.