Advisory Committee

She first garnered critical acclaim with her autobiographical, Off-Broadway stage play, "Brownsville Bred” for which she won the 2011 HOLA award for excellence in playwriting, and was named "Trendsetter" at the Multi-Cultural Media Forum. The play chronicles Elaine's true Nuyorican (New York-Puerto Rican) coming-of-age amidst the deteriorating backdrop of 1980's Brownsville Brooklyn. “Brownsville Bred” was subsequently published as a YA novel and a quarter-finalist in Publisher's Weekly BookLife Prize (2020). The novel is now a part of Creative Writing and American Latino Cultural studies in public schools. Her books are also a part of the Latinx House (2020) library featured at major film festivals around the world.

As the owner and operator of Del Valle Casting, Elaine has become the go-to person for up-and-coming diverse talent and rising stars for many high-profile brands, studios, and agencies. Elaine was featured in the PBS documentary "Beating The Odds", alongside luminaries such as Michelle Obama. Ebby Magazine called her a "Tour De Force."

Giovanni Fabietti is an internationally-recognized cinematographer whose credits include producing commercial video content for brands such as Western Union, Phillip Morris, Coca Cola, Kellogg’s, and Kodak. He has also photographed numerous documentary shorts and features in Italy and Central America as well as the 2008 feature film "Looking for Palladin". In addition, Giovanni has worked with McCann-Erickson, ABC News, and Cineworks Laboratory. He is also a former owner of audiovisual production house Cinepro, serving AD agencies in South Florida and Latin America for over thirty years. Giovanni has taught cinematography at the New York Film Academy South Beach and Escuela de Comunicación Mónica Herrera in Central America.

Jatala is a filmmaker and educator with twenty-five years of experience in the field. In addition to working as a faculty member at various colleges in South Florida over the last eighteen years, Pezhman has produced, directed, edited or directed the photography of numerous short films, documentaries and feature films, including Ti Laurent (2014) and Scooter (2018). Pezhman Jatala earned his MFA from the Florida State University Film School, worked on various feature films while working in Los Angeles, and worked as a producer and editor in network television. Pezhman launched the Film Production Technology Program at Broward College in August of 2015, and is excited have built the program around the application of the most current techniques and technology of filmmaking.

Freddy Rodriguez is an EMMY®, TELLY® and Promax/BDA award winning filmmaker with numerous short films, music videos, commercials, promos, corporate films, documentary shorts, and branded videos among his credits. He’s been writing, shooting, directing and editing creative video content for over twenty years.

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​Freddy began his career producing movie trailers and promos for Lifetime, Bravo, MTV Latino and the Hallmark Channel at Broadcast Video Incorporated (BVI), then did a stint at NBC/Universal as a Senior Promotions Producer, where he collected fifteen EMMY® nominations, seven EMMY® wins, and six PROMAX/BDA Awards. In 2011 he launched 66 Films, where he’s produced video content for Norwegian Cruise Lines, Maaco, The Miami Dolphins, Visit Florida, Disney and Lexus to name a few.